Bibibop Asian Grill, also known as Bibibop, is an American

fast casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is a ...

restaurant chain specializing in customizable Korean rice bowls. As of 2025, it has 74 locations, mostly in the state of Ohio. Its name derives from

bibimbap Bibimbap * ( ; ), sometimes Romanization of Korean, romanised as bi bim bap or bi bim bop, is a Korean rice dish. The term ''bibim'' means "mixing" and ''Bap (rice dish), bap'' is cooked rice. It is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped wi ...

, a Korean rice dish made with seasoned vegetables,

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

paste, and sometimes

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

and

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

. Bibibop has been described as "an Asian take on

Chipotle A chipotle ( , ), or chilpotle, is a smoke-dried ripe jalapeño chili pepper used for seasoning. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Tex-Mex and Southwestern United States dishes. It comes in differen ...

." It was founded in 2013 in

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

entrepreneur Charley Shin, the founder of Charleys Cheesesteaks.

History

Shin, who had worked with his mother at her restaurants and was also inspired by his mother's cooking, thought of the concept after praying. A week after, real estate developer Herb Glimcher offered Shin a deal on two real estate properties. Afterwards, an executive at Shin's company suggested creating an Asian fast-food concept. With a group of people, including his sister Chung Choe and her daughter, they toured Asian-inspired restaurants in the

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

area and decided to create a restaurant chain inspired by Korean cuisine. The first location opened in

Grandview Heights, Ohio Grandview Heights is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 8,085 at the 2020 census. History The city was originally part of Marble Cliff, one of the first suburbs of Columbus, which settled as a community in 18 ...

in 2013. The stores are entirely corporate owned. By January 2017, the company had nine locations around Columbus, two locations around Cincinnati, and one location in Dayton. Bibibop acquired the leases for all 15 ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen locations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Washington, DC, metro area after parent company Chipotle Mexican Grill decided to terminate their Asian fast casual food experiment during the first quarter of 2017 allowing Bibibop to expand outside of Ohio for the first time. Some of the former ShopHouse locations did not performed very well and were eventually closed. The chain opened its 50th location in Delaware, Ohio, in April 2023. As late as 2018, the company offered tortilla wraps as a base. By 2021, the company received a 100% gluten-free certification by the Gluten Intolerance Group. Veggie_bowl

In 2017, the chain was named one of the five Hot Concepts for that year by ''

Nation's Restaurant News ''Nation's Restaurant News'' (''NRN'') is an American trade publication, founded in 1967. NRN covers the foodservice industry, including restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Me ...

''. The chain has been described as part of the rise in restaurant chains and brands that serve Korean cuisine in the United States, including other concepts such as

Bibigo CJ Foodville is a South Korean western-style food and food service company based in Seoul that does catering service. CJ Foodville is a subsidiary of CJ Group. History Taking Korean food abroad, CJ Foodville has launched bakeries and restaurants ...

and Seoul Taco.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bibibop Asian Grill 2013 establishments in Ohio Korean restaurants in the United States Asian-American culture in Ohio Fast casual restaurants Restaurant chains in the United States Fast-food franchises Companies based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area