Korean Style Pizza from Costco
Sep. 17th, 2026 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerA few days ago we hit Costco for a shopping run and saw a new product: Bibigo Korean BBQ-Style Pizza.
Bibigo is a brand that makes a variety of Korean foods. They've had shelf space (freezer space, actually) at Costco for years. They're carried at other stores, too. We've tried a few of their dishes before.
Generally speaking their quality has been good but the tastes are very Americanized so not our thing. I gained an appreciation for Korean cuisine when I traveled to Korea many times years ago. When I think Korean food I want Korean Korean food, not vaguely Korean-looking food made safe for Midwesterners with unadventurous palates.
We cooked the first of two pizzas in the box last night. The pizzas have generous amounts of toppings. They weigh in at nearly 22oz. each, which is a lot for frozen pizza this size. I didn't get a picture of the whole pizza, cooked... because by the time I remembered "Hey, take a photo!" we'd already sliced the pizza and put pieces on our plates. 🤣 So here you get the view of just 1/6/th of the pie.
So, how was it? Three things:
My immediate impression was satisfaction with the dense toppings coverage. Most frozen pizzas come with scant toppings. Often I add extra cheese and meats or veg. With this pizza there wasn't even room to add extra if I'd wanted. And because of the generous toppings the pizza was appropriately filling.
The pizza cooked up well following the instructions on the box. The crust achieved a pleasant crispy texture without getting burnt, and the cheese melted smoothly all the way across. Usually with frozen pizzas the cheese gets overly browned on the edges before melting properly in the center.
As kind of expected, the taste wasn't quite our thing. I mean, I don't like carrots very much, so I pulled half of them off my slices. I don't hold that against it. The problem was the unexpected sweetness of the barbecue sauce. It is not a Korean-style BBQ sauce. Yes, you could find something like this at some restaurants in a big city like Seoul... but it would be from food sellers peddling a Korean take on American cuisine. Like when they serve hot dogs on milk bread buns with a mustard-and-mayo combination sauce. 🤮 It's way too sugary and nowhere near enough savory. Also, whatever pepper they used to give it heat had a weird burn that didn't hit up front but piled up on the back end. Most Korean food is not spicy... especially Korean BBQ beef, which IME Koreans consider ruined if a heavy sauce masks the flavor of the meat. And when Korean food is spicy, it's a) either a traditionally spicy dish or is clearly labeled as spicy, and b) carries an even burn.
On the whole this pizza wasn't bad. It just struck us as not particularly Korean and had unexpected bits to its flavor profile. Oh, and the pieces of beef on it were flavorless. I guess that's why the sauce was so strong. We'll cook and eat the other pizza that came in the box but I expect we won't buy this again.
Bibigo is a brand that makes a variety of Korean foods. They've had shelf space (freezer space, actually) at Costco for years. They're carried at other stores, too. We've tried a few of their dishes before.
Generally speaking their quality has been good but the tastes are very Americanized so not our thing. I gained an appreciation for Korean cuisine when I traveled to Korea many times years ago. When I think Korean food I want Korean Korean food, not vaguely Korean-looking food made safe for Midwesterners with unadventurous palates.
We cooked the first of two pizzas in the box last night. The pizzas have generous amounts of toppings. They weigh in at nearly 22oz. each, which is a lot for frozen pizza this size. I didn't get a picture of the whole pizza, cooked... because by the time I remembered "Hey, take a photo!" we'd already sliced the pizza and put pieces on our plates. 🤣 So here you get the view of just 1/6/th of the pie.
So, how was it? Three things:
My immediate impression was satisfaction with the dense toppings coverage. Most frozen pizzas come with scant toppings. Often I add extra cheese and meats or veg. With this pizza there wasn't even room to add extra if I'd wanted. And because of the generous toppings the pizza was appropriately filling.
The pizza cooked up well following the instructions on the box. The crust achieved a pleasant crispy texture without getting burnt, and the cheese melted smoothly all the way across. Usually with frozen pizzas the cheese gets overly browned on the edges before melting properly in the center.
As kind of expected, the taste wasn't quite our thing. I mean, I don't like carrots very much, so I pulled half of them off my slices. I don't hold that against it. The problem was the unexpected sweetness of the barbecue sauce. It is not a Korean-style BBQ sauce. Yes, you could find something like this at some restaurants in a big city like Seoul... but it would be from food sellers peddling a Korean take on American cuisine. Like when they serve hot dogs on milk bread buns with a mustard-and-mayo combination sauce. 🤮 It's way too sugary and nowhere near enough savory. Also, whatever pepper they used to give it heat had a weird burn that didn't hit up front but piled up on the back end. Most Korean food is not spicy... especially Korean BBQ beef, which IME Koreans consider ruined if a heavy sauce masks the flavor of the meat. And when Korean food is spicy, it's a) either a traditionally spicy dish or is clearly labeled as spicy, and b) carries an even burn.
On the whole this pizza wasn't bad. It just struck us as not particularly Korean and had unexpected bits to its flavor profile. Oh, and the pieces of beef on it were flavorless. I guess that's why the sauce was so strong. We'll cook and eat the other pizza that came in the box but I expect we won't buy this again.
