A new Korean BBQ palace brings Vegas clubstaurant vibes to Union Square

In Eat Here Now, we serve up the newest, the buzziest, or simply the rediscovered in SF food. If you can pick only one place to eat at this week — go here.

Descending the black-and-white marbled staircase to the new underground AB Steak by chef Akira Back is like falling down a rabbit hole that transports you from Union Square to the Vegas Strip.

Inside the luxurious space, remixed ’80s hits thump over the speakers. At the center of the long room, a circular wine case stretches from floor to ceiling. If it weren’t for the smoky smell of grilled meat in the air, you might think you were in a nightclub.

It’s no accident the new 6,500-square-foot Korean barbecue palace, which opened on October 8, channels the glitz and glamour of Sin City. Back, a former professional snowboarder, started his 28-restaurant global empire with Yellowtail, an upscale sushi spot inside the Bellagio Hotel where I dined in my 20s. I remember being seated so close to the hotel’s famous fountains that I could feel the spray hit my face as water rocketed upwards to the sounds of Andrea Bocelli more clearly than I recall the spicy tuna rolls. 

At AB Steak, Back and his team strike a San Francisco-appropriate balance between good vibes and quality food. “There will be people who aren’t attracted to our style,” general manager Shane Martinez said. “But the quality of the food is phenomenal.”

Yes, you should come for the beef. But there are starters worth investigating, too, like the AB Pizza ($29), an eponymous dish served at Back’s restaurants in cities as far-flung as London and Jakarta. A crispy tortilla is topped with paper-thin slices of raw wagyu beef, olives, and shallots plus a drizzle of ponzu and fragrant white truffle oil. It’s briny, bright, and pleasantly unctuous. There’s also saewoo jang ($32), prawns that swim in a soy-based marinade punched up with garlic, jalapeño, and lemon. Plastic gloves are provided for prying off the delicate heads and shells. 

As is the case with similar glamorous Korean barbecue restaurants, including Cote and Baekjeong, servers will sear, flip, and cut each piece of meat in front of you, even changing out the grill grate and seasoning it first with a nugget of beef fat. Choose between Australian wagyu ribeye laced with countless ribbons of fat ($84) or slices of short rib ($54) sizzled to a perfect medium rare. From there, it’s a build-your-own perfect bite: a leaf of bib lettuce and perilla to wrap around each piece of beef, along with toppings including a spicy kimchi, crispy garlic chip, flaky sea salt, and wasabi.

At some of the restaurant’s other locations, the dining room turns into a dance floor when dinner service ends. Martinez isn’t sure that’s the right direction for San Francisco, but he’s also not ruling our notoriously early-to-bed city out. “If SF turns the corner, then yeah, we’d consider keeping the bar open longer and bringing in a DJ,” he said. “We’re open to providing entertainment and a night out.”

AB Steak by Chef Akira Back