What is Sizzle Korean BBQ?
Plenty of Korean barbecue in metro Phoenix runs on volume: all-you-can-eat, cook it yourself, flip the brisket and hope. Sizzle Korean BBQ went the other way when it opened on Scottsdale Road in 2019. It is a la carte, the cuts are premium, and the people grilling them are the servers.
The restaurant is the work of Hyunwook Lee, founder and executive chef of HL Concepts, who set out, in Phoenix New Times’ words, to raise the bar for Korean barbecue in the Valley, trucking in top-shelf meats from a Korean butcher in Los Angeles. The menu reads like a butcher’s case: boneless short rib, rib eye, marinated short rib, beef tongue, pork shoulder and pork belly, each served with banchan, salad and steamed egg, plus combos for two to four, rice dishes, stews and soups.
The grill sits in the middle of each table under a long ceiling vent, and servers place, flip, cut and serve. New Times named Sizzle the Valley’s Best Korean Barbecue in 2023 and again in 2024, and the group also runs Sizzle restaurants at Desert Ridge and Arrowhead Towne Center.
The Old Town building has a second claim to fame. Upstairs, in Suite 201, is Lee’s ShinBay Omakase Room, one of the most exclusive sushi counters in Arizona. One building, two very different ways to spend a night on Scottsdale Road.
How to eat at Sizzle
Order combos, not singles. The combos bring four or five cuts plus a side, salad and steamed egg, and they are built for two to four people. They are the better value and the better tour of the menu. Add a kimchi or soybean stew to share.
Let the server cook. You can grill your own, but New Times’ critic said what regulars know: the tableside cooks will do a better job. They know how long each cut wants and when the marinated short rib is ready to come off.
Eat in the right order. Unmarinated beef first, while the grill is clean, then pork belly, then the marinated cuts, whose sugars caramelize and char. Use the banchan, the small plates of pickled vegetables and toppings, between bites.
Book ahead. Weekend dinners fill and groups need a reservation. Afterward, the bars of Old Town are a short walk north; for a quieter drink, Brat Haus and Goldwater Brewing are a block away on the same stretch of Scottsdale Road.
A chef’s group on Scottsdale Road
Korean barbecue was not new to the Valley in 2019. Upscale Korean barbecue was. New Times later wrote that Lee carved out a niche for premium Korean barbecue previously unheard of in Phoenix, and his proposition, fewer cuts, better meat, more service, was a bet that Old Town diners who would pay for a steak would pay for a properly marbled short rib. New Times called the result “a bit bougie” and conceded nobody in town was doing it better.
The Scottsdale Road building became the showcase for HL Concepts. Two years after Sizzle opened downstairs, the group opened the ShinBay Omakase Room upstairs, carrying a name long revered among Arizona sushi devotees. In 2026 ShinBay was named a recommended restaurant in the inaugural Michelin Guide Southwest. The group also runs Jinjia, a Korean-Chinese restaurant, and HL Concepts says Lee has opened six locations across its brands.
That puts Sizzle in good company on the stretch of Scottsdale Road south of Indian School, which has added serious kitchens through the 2020s: Uchi a block north, STK on the old RA Sushi corner, and The Mission around the corner on Brown Avenue.
Honest assessment: Sizzle costs more than the all-you-can-eat places and is meant to. If you want quantity, go elsewhere. If you want the best Korean barbecue in Scottsdale, cooked for you, this is it.