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Updated: October 2026

The best Korean food in Ras Al Khaimah comes from one kitchen: KPOP Chicken in Mina Al Arab. That is a headcount, not a ranking. On 7 October 2026 a Google Maps search for a Korean restaurant in Ras Al Khaimah returned KPOP Chicken alone. The two other names still in directories are permanently closed, and the emirate has no Korean BBQ at all. The nearest dedicated one is our Deira branch, 91.5 km away.

TL;DR
– Best overall in Ras Al Khaimah: KPOP Chicken, Mina Al Arab — the emirate’s only Korean kitchen, Google 4.6, fried chicken with sauce choices
– Nearest dedicated Korean BBQ: Mukbang Shows Deira, 91.5 km, about 1 h 7 min — unlimited halal grill from AED 69 before 6 PM, only as part of a Dubai trip
– Nearest other Korean kitchen: Rice Station, Ajman, 65 km, 49 min — a 20-seat kimbap cafe, no grill

Is there a Korean restaurant in Ras Al Khaimah?

Yes, exactly one. KPOP Chicken trades from Shop 5 and 6, Building 12, in the Mina Al Arab waterfront district of Al Rifa’a, and it is the only business in the emirate that Google classifies as a Korean restaurant. Zomato’s Korean category for Ras al-Khaimah lists it alone, and Zomato’s own “frequent searches” line shows that people typing “korean restaurant ras al khaimah” end up on its page.

That is the whole list, and it is worth saying plainly because old listings will tell you otherwise. Tripadvisor’s Korean page for the emirate still shows Okura Seoul Galbi inside the Acacia hotel, and Cafe Namoo, a Korean dessert cafe beside the Ettihad shopping complex on Sheikh Muhammad Bin Salem Road in Dahan. RestaurantGuru marks both permanently closed, and neither has a live presence anywhere we checked. A yellow-pages site publishes a page titled “Korean restaurants in Ras Al Khaimah” with sixteen entries, and not one of the sixteen is in Ras Al Khaimah.

Ras Al Khaimah is not a small place. Its city had 191,753 residents in 2025, it hosts the American University of Ras Al Khaimah and RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, and its resort strip on Al Marjan Island, Al Hamra and Mina Al Arab draws the tourism that Visit Ras Al Khaimah, the emirate’s official tourism site promotes.

The student demand that produced Korean cafes in Sharjah and Ajman exists here too. So far it has produced one restaurant, and the reviews say it is a good one. For the same pattern in the other emirates, see our honest guide to Korean food in Fujairah and the Ajman guide.

What is the best Korean food in Ras Al Khaimah?

KPOP Chicken, by default and on merit. Here is how the three realistic options rank, including the two that are not in Ras Al Khaimah at all.

1. KPOP Chicken — Mina Al Arab

KPOP Chicken is a casual Korean fried chicken and street-food restaurant, not a BBQ house, and there is no table grill. Google lists it at 4.6, Zomato at 4.4 from 55 ratings, Tripadvisor at 4.7 from 18 reviews, and RestaurantGuru’s aggregated score sits at 4.8 from 374 reviews. For a single shop in a residential waterfront district, that is a consistent record across four platforms.

The order that reviewers keep describing is the Korean fried chicken with a choice of sauces. One Tripadvisor review describes the family order as a 10-piece fried chicken with three sauces, fries and salad. Honey chicken, bulgogi, a Korean chicken with ramen, tteokbokki, jjigae, tuna and kimchi kimbap, and a beef noodle dish all come up in reviews and listings, and one reviewer calls the peach iced tea a must-order. Zomato’s “known for” tags are portions, prices, menu, staff and food. Reviewers describe the place as run by a Korean couple; treat that as a reviewer’s observation, not something we have verified.

The one thing we cannot give you is a price list. KPOP Chicken publishes no itemised menu anywhere we could verify: Zomato’s menu is ten photographed pages, and there is no first-party menu online. Zomato quotes about AED 150 for two, RestaurantGuru quotes AED 50–100 per person, and both are visitor-reported figures rather than menu prices. Treat them as a budget, not a quote.

Hours are 11 AM to 11 PM Sunday to Thursday and 11 AM to midnight on Friday and Saturday per RestaurantGuru, and both Google and Zomato showed it open 11 AM to 11 PM on the Wednesday we checked. It opens for lunch, which the Sharjah bunsik cafes do not. Zomato lists dinner, lunch, home delivery, outdoor seating and wifi, with cash and cards accepted. Halal certification is not independently verified, so confirm directly. Call +971-7-244-5500.

2. Mukbang Shows Deira — the nearest dedicated Korean BBQ

Our Deira branch on Al Ittihad Road, next to the Deira bus station, is the nearest dedicated unlimited Korean BBQ to Ras Al Khaimah. Google Maps puts KPOP Chicken to Mukbang Deira at 91.5 km and 1 hour 7 minutes via Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, E311, and Al Naeem Mall in the city centre to Deira at 102 km and 1 hour 15 minutes. Every unlimited tier includes seven kinds of halal BBQ, meat and seafood, eight banchan that are refilled, soup of the day and steamed rice. The kitchen is beef and chicken only, with no pork and no alcohol.

We are second on this list because we are in another emirate, and because for a fried-chicken craving KPOP Chicken is the sensible answer, not a 90 km drive. The drive makes sense if you are going to Dubai anyway, or if a group specifically wants to cook marinated beef and chicken at the table with a banchan line-up and a seafood boil. More on that trade-off below, and the full menu is on the Mukbang Shows Deira branch page.

3. Rice Station — Ajman, the nearest other Korean kitchen

Rice Station in Al Hamidiya 1, Ajman, is the closest Korean kitchen outside the emirate: 65 km and 49 minutes from Mina Al Arab via E311. It opened in 2022, was founded by an Emirati entrepreneur, Tahani, who has said publicly that she wanted her hometown to have Korean and Japanese food without driving to Dubai, and the dish that comes up most in local coverage is its kimbap, cheese kimbap in particular. It is the only dedicated Korean restaurant in Ajman as far as we can verify.

Two honest caveats. Seating is reported at around twenty, so it is not a group venue, and there is no grill. It is filed under several cuisines on the delivery apps rather than as a pure Korean specialist, no prices are published anywhere verifiable, and halal status is not independently verified. Confirm both directly on +971-54-443-1097. It ranks third rather than second because it is a cafe, not a BBQ, and the whole reason to leave Ras Al Khaimah for Korean food is the grill the emirate does not have.

Is there Korean BBQ in Ras Al Khaimah?

No. Not a dedicated house, and not a buffet with a grill station either. KPOP Chicken cooks in the kitchen and has no table grill, the two closed venues are gone, and no hotel on Al Marjan Island, Al Hamra or Mina Al Arab runs a Korean grill that we could find. BBC Good Food Middle East’s pick of Ras Al Khaimah restaurants is a list of Turkish, Lebanese, Italian, Indian and pan-Asian hotel kitchens, with no Korean entry.

The difference between a Korean BBQ house and a grill station matters more than it sounds. A Korean BBQ house is built around the table: marinated bulgogi and galbi cuts, chicken in gochujang or soy, a banchan line-up of kimchi, pickled radish, bean sprouts and seasoned spinach, and the diner holding the tongs. The nearest place with a Korean grill station at all is Happy Grassland in Sharjah, a Chinese-style hotpot buffet that runs a Korean BBQ station, which is why the honest wording is “nearest dedicated Korean BBQ” and not “nearest Korean BBQ”. The nearest dedicated one is Deira.

So the honest answer to “korean bbq ras al khaimah” is: there is none, and the real thing starts 90 km down the E311. If you only want Korean food, stay in Ras Al Khaimah and eat at KPOP Chicken.

How much does Korean food cost in Ras Al Khaimah?

About AED 50–100 a head at the one local venue, on the only numbers that exist. The table separates what is published from what is reported, because for every northern-emirate venue the distinction is the whole story.

Two notes on the table. Mukbang’s prices exclude 5% VAT, need two people minimum, and carry an AED 60 charge for food left on the table; the AED 69 Gangnam price is a 1 PM to 6 PM happy-hour price and it is AED 79 after that. KPOP Chicken’s figures are visitor estimates, so a family of four ordering a 10-piece chicken, tteokbokki and kimbap could land either side of them. For what the same money buys in Dubai, see what Korean BBQ costs in Dubai.

Is Korean food in Ras Al Khaimah halal?

Mostly a question for KPOP Chicken, and the answer is to ask. Korean food has no pork by default in its best-known dishes. Fried chicken, bulgogi, tteokbokki, kimbap and bibimbap are chicken, beef, rice cake, rice and vegetables, so the question comes down to the chicken’s slaughter certificate, the sauces, and whether any stew uses a pork stock. KPOP Chicken publishes no halal certificate that we could find, so confirm on the phone before you go, especially for the jjigae. Ras Al Khaimah is a licensed emirate, unlike Sharjah, so do not assume anything either way about drinks; the listings say nothing.

Mukbang Shows is the one venue on this page with a certain answer: every branch is 100% halal, the grill carries beef, chicken and seafood only, there is no pork anywhere on the menu, and no alcohol is served. Rice Station, Jae’s Bunsik and Happy Grassland all get the same line as KPOP Chicken: confirm directly. The kimbap and the broths are the two things to ask about anywhere, because a sausage or a stock can sit inside a dish that otherwise looks safe.

Why does an emirate of 190,000 people have one Korean kitchen?

Because Ras Al Khaimah’s restaurant money is in the hotels, and the hotels cook for tourists. The dining that Ras Al Khaimah, the UAE’s northernmost emirate, is known for sits in resorts: Al Marjan Island’s four man-made islands, where the Wynn Al Marjan Island resort is scheduled to open in 2027, the Al Hamra strip, and Mina Al Arab. Those kitchens are Turkish, Lebanese, Italian and Indian because that is what resort guests book. Korean food in the UAE grows where students and young residents are: Muwaileh and Aljada in Sharjah, Al Hamidiya in Ajman, International City in Dubai.

RAK has the students, with two universities, but not the density. Two Korean businesses have already tried and closed: a galbi restaurant inside a hotel and a dessert cafe in Dahan. KPOP Chicken outlasted them by doing the one Korean dish that travels anywhere, fried chicken, in a residential waterfront district rather than on a tourist strip.

That is the same shape as Fujairah, where two Korean cafes serve a city with no Korean BBQ, and Al Ain, where one mall unit serves the UAE’s fourth-largest city. One kitchen is not a scene, but it is a kitchen, and four review platforms agree it is a good one.

Ras Al Khaimah has no metro and no rail service, and the Dubai Metro does not reach any northern emirate. Everything on this page is a drive. Intercity buses run between Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai, and that is as specific as we will be about them.

Should you drive from Ras Al Khaimah to Mukbang Shows?

Only for the grill, and only as part of a Dubai day. Here is the honest arithmetic. From Mina Al Arab the fastest route to Deira was 91.5 km and 1 hour 7 minutes via E311 on the day we checked, with 88.6 km via E311 and E11 taking 1 hour 10 minutes, and 102 km via Emirates Road, E611, taking 1 hour 14 minutes. From Al Naeem Mall in Al Nakheel it is 102 km and 1 hour 15 minutes via E311. Google was routing around road closures near the Emirates roundabout that day, so allow an hour and a quarter rather than counting on 67 minutes.

What you get at the end of it: four unlimited tiers. Gangnam, “The Original”, is AED 69 between 1 PM and 6 PM and AED 79 after 6 PM. Daegu adds Korean fried chicken at AED 89 all day. Jeju adds the signature seafood boil at AED 99 all day. Bukchon Hanok, “The Full Show”, puts the seafood boil and the fried chicken together at AED 129. Every tier carries the same seven kinds of halal BBQ, the same eight refilled banchan, soup of the day and steamed rice; two people minimum, AED 60 leftover charge, prices before 5% VAT. Deira opens at 1 PM Monday to Thursday and at noon Friday to Sunday, and closes at 1 AM.

When it is worth it: a group that wants to cook at the table, a Dubai shopping or airport day that ends with dinner, or anyone who wants a seafood boil, which none of the northern-emirate venues on this page sells. When it is not: a solo fried-chicken lunch, a quick family dinner, or a weeknight when the AED 69 window has closed before you clear the E311. KPOP Chicken wins all three of those, and we say so.

Korean stop-offs between Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai

If you are driving the E311 anyway, one Ajman venue and two Sharjah venues sit near the route. Rice Station in Ajman, covered above, is the nearest and the most Korean of the three: 65 km, 49 minutes, kimbap-led, twenty seats, no grill.

Jae’s Bunsik, in the Tiraz 6 building of the Aljada retail complex in Sharjah, is a Korean bunsik cafe with a serious coffee list, co-founded by Emirati Arwa Alblooshi and South Korean SungJae Moon. The menu runs tteokbokki, chicken katsu kimbap, OG ramyun, kimchi fried rice, kimchi fried chicken, Korean fried chicken and truffle chappagetti. It has been reported as open Tuesday to Sunday from 3 PM to 11 PM during its soft-opening phase, so it does not cover lunch, and no prices are published. Confirm hours and halal status before you detour.

Happy Grassland Shining Restaurant, on Buhaira Corniche Street in Al Majaz 3, Sharjah, is the one unlimited format with a Korean element before Dubai: a Chinese-style hotpot buffet with a Korean BBQ grill station, Google 4.4 from about 1,195 reviews, with PropertyFinder estimating around AED 120 for two. It is a hotpot house, not a Korean kitchen, with no banchan line-up and no Korean stews that we could verify, and halal status and what the grill carries are not verified. For the rest of Sharjah’s options, see Korean BBQ options for Sharjah.

Practical tips for the best Korean food in Ras Al Khaimah

Check the venue is still open before you drive, even for KPOP Chicken. The emirate has already lost two Korean businesses that directories still list, and a single-kitchen scene has no fallback. A call to +971-7-244-5500 costs nothing.

Go at lunch if you want a table without a wait. KPOP Chicken opens at 11 AM every day, which the Sharjah cafes do not, and it has outdoor seating for the cooler months. For the Deira grill, the AED 69 Gangnam price runs from 1 PM to 6 PM, so a lunch-hour departure from Ras Al Khaimah lands inside the window and an after-work one does not.

Budget on the reported figures, not on a menu. None of the venues on this page outside Dubai publishes a price list, so RestaurantGuru’s AED 50–100 a head and Zomato’s AED 150 for two are what you have for KPOP Chicken. Ask the price when you order the 10-piece.

Ask about halal, and ask what is in the kimbap. Tuna and kimchi kimbap are the versions KPOP Chicken has promoted and both are straightforward; kimbap elsewhere often carries ham or sausage, which makes it the one Korean dish most worth a question.

Do not plan the grill around a metro. There is none in Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman or Sharjah, and the Deira branch is reached by car from the north; it sits next to the Deira bus station if you come by intercity bus. Skip the drive entirely if you are one person, because the grill needs two.

FAQ

Is there a Korean restaurant in Ras Al Khaimah?
Yes, one: KPOP Chicken in Mina Al Arab, Al Rifa’a. On 7 October 2026 a Google Maps search for a Korean restaurant in Ras Al Khaimah went straight to its page, which only happens when there is a single match.

Is there Korean BBQ in Ras Al Khaimah?
No. KPOP Chicken has no table grill and no hotel in the emirate runs one. The nearest dedicated unlimited Korean BBQ is Mukbang Shows Deira, 91.5 km from Mina Al Arab and 102 km from the city centre.

How far is Ras Al Khaimah from Mukbang Shows Deira?
91.5 km and about 1 hour 7 minutes from Mina Al Arab via E311, or 102 km and 1 hour 15 minutes from Al Naeem Mall in the city centre, on Google Maps directions checked in October 2026.

Are Okura Seoul Galbi and Cafe Namoo still open?
No. RestaurantGuru marks both permanently closed. They still appear on Tripadvisor’s Korean list for the emirate, which is why they turn up in searches.

How much does KPOP Chicken cost?
No itemised prices are published. RestaurantGuru quotes AED 50–100 per person and Zomato about AED 150 for two; both are visitor estimates, not menu prices.

Is KPOP Chicken halal?
Its listings do not publish a halal certificate, so confirm directly. Mukbang Shows is 100% halal at every branch, beef and chicken only, with no alcohol.

Can I get Korean food delivered in Ras Al Khaimah?
Zomato lists KPOP Chicken with home delivery, and delivery platforms have operated in the emirate since 2021. Check the app for current coverage in your area.

Which Mukbang tier should a first-timer from Ras Al Khaimah pick?
Gangnam: AED 69 between 1 PM and 6 PM, AED 79 after, for seven kinds of halal BBQ, eight banchan, soup and rice. Go to Jeju at AED 99 only if the table wants the seafood boil.

The best Korean food in Ras Al Khaimah is one shop doing fried chicken well, and the honest advice is to eat there. Korean food, 한식, is a one-kitchen category in this emirate, and the grill is a Dubai trip.