Rockstar Korean BBQ opens in former Valley Stream diner
Korean barbecued meats are grilled tableside along with banchan side dishes at Rockstar Korean BBQ in Valley Stream. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
Sitting in the darkly lit, clubby room listening to K-pop music and drinking soju, you'd have no idea that the new Rockstar Korean BBQ used to be a diner. Unless you're from Valley Stream or have driven down Sunrise Highway in Nassau, where you might have seen the previous tenant along the Long Island Rail Road tracks.
The high-visibility spot was built in 1951 and had been the Concord Diner for decades until it closed in 2014, not long after the death of one of its owners, Athanasios Cheliotis. There's been a new sign on the building over the past several months for Rockstar Korean BBQ. Owner Peter Li, a Queens resident who also owns Cajun Crab in Jacksonville, Florida, said he came across the space and was attracted to the idea of opening a Korean BBQ spot in a less-competitive market.
Rockstar Korean BBQ in Valley Stream. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
He spent nearly two years renovating the space from top to bottom, and hired a chef who had worked at the Michelin-starred COTE Korean Steakhouse in Manhattan. The restaurant finally opened in May.
The main dining room was retrofitted with Korean barbecue grills on every table. The menu is several pages long, and in addition to the Korean barbecue meats, there's an array of noodles, silken tofu soups and bibimbap stone bowls, including one with beef tartare.
Shortly after ordering, the table fills up with an array of interesting banchan side dishes as well as dipping sauces, lettuce wraps and a fresh carroty ginger salad. Things move very fast here — then comes a wooden tray of raw meats and a staffer rubs a cube of fat over the heated grill. (Usually KBBQ spots just use butter, so this is extra savory.) Once the meat is grilling, more side dishes appear, including a brothy soybean based soup with cubes of firm tofu, and an excellent steamed egg gyeranjjim, which has the fluffy consistency of custard when you spoon it out of the stone bowl.
Korean corn cheese in a skillet at Rockstar Korean BBQ in Valley Stream. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
Rockstar Korean BBQ is pretty much the only place on Long Island where you can find corn cheese ($12.95), a Korean bar snack that's even more indulgent than it sounds. It's a sizzling skillet of buttery hot corn that's loaded up with cheese blanket of melted mozzarella. The new Bonchon in Centereach serves a version of this in a paper cup, but it doesn't have the same primal quality to it. The kitchen also makes a mean bowl of topokki ($13.95), the glutinous rice cakes that here can be ordered with a sweet soy glaze.
Sweet, spicy, funky, savory — you'll get it right with any of the many barbecue selections. If you're with a smaller group, consider starting with the USDA prime fresh beef and pork platter ($79.95 for two to three people), which gives a sampling of boneless galbi beef, rolled brisket and fat cubes of pork belly. The meat portion is smaller than expected for that price, but with all these flavorful side dishes, it is still a blowout meal.
Rockstar Korean BBQ, 99 Fourth St., Valley Stream, 516-224-3222. Open noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
