A bulgogi burger is a burger whose beef patty carries bulgogi seasoning inside the meat, not a plain patty with a Korean sauce spooned over it. That single difference is what separates ours from a recipe you make at home. Our Bulgogi Burger is $6.49 in store and 520 calories.
The short answer
Search for bulgogi burger in the United States and almost everything you get back is a recipe. Grill a beef patty, whisk soy sauce and sugar into a glaze, brush it on, add kimchi mayo. That is a good sandwich. It is not what a Korean chain means by a bulgogi burger.
On our menu board the seasoning is in the patty before it ever meets heat. The sauce comes after, and it is doing a second job rather than the only job. If you take the sauce off a home style bulgogi burger you are left with a beef patty. If you take the sauce off ours, the patty still tastes like bulgogi.
A seasoned patty, not a sauced patty
Here is the build, exactly as it comes across the counter. A bulgogi seasoned beef patty, lettuce, onion, mayonnaise, house bulgogi sauce, on a toasted sesame bun. Read that list again and notice the order. The seasoning is an attribute of the patty. The sauce is a separate line item.
Why it matters is a texture question as much as a flavor one. Sauce sits on a surface, so the first bite is sweet and the third bite is beef. Seasoning that goes into the grind travels all the way through, which is why a bulgogi burger eaten down to the last corner tastes the same at the end as it did at the start. It is also why the patty browns differently. Sugar in the mix means the crust darkens faster and smells like a grill at a Korean barbecue table rather than like a flat top.
LOTTERIA has been building the burger this way for a long time. The Bulgogi Burger joined the menu in Korea in 1992, according to the brand history LOTTERIA publishes for its Malaysian market, which puts it on the board there for more than three decades before it reached Fullerton.
What bulgogi actually tastes like
Bulgogi is the sweet and savory soy direction of Korean barbecue, and that is the frame to hold when you order. Not spicy. Not smoky in the Texas sense. Sweet first, then salty, with a warm sesame note underneath that most Americans read as toasted and comforting before they can name it.
The comparison people reach for on their own is the barbecue table.
“The Bulgogi Burger here is an absolute must-try! It has the perfect sweet and savory flavor that reminds me of authentic Korean BBQ.”
T. Y., Google, Jun 2026
That is the whole pitch in one sentence, and we did not write it. Bulgogi shows up in 277 of the 711 written reviews left for this restaurant in the 12 months to September 7, 2026, which makes it the second most discussed thing on our menu.
The other thing worth saying plainly is that sweet has a ceiling. A bulgogi burger that tastes like candy has been over sauced. The version we serve is calibrated so the beef stays the loudest thing in the sandwich, and guests who like bulgogi tend to notice the restraint.
“I had the bulgogi burger meal with a double patty. I was surprised how great it tasted. … Service was friendly and fast.”
Yeru K., Google, Apr 2026
Bulgogi Burger or Double Bulgogi Burger
Two versions sit on the board, and the second one is not simply the first one twice. The Double adds American cheese, which changes the sandwich more than the extra patty does. Cheese pulls the sweetness down and pushes the whole thing toward something a US burger eater recognizes immediately, which makes the Double a reasonable first order for anyone who is unsure about the category.
| Item | In store price | Calories | Combo | What is on it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulgogi Burger | $6.49 | 520 | $12.27 | Bulgogi seasoned beef patty, lettuce, onion, mayonnaise, house bulgogi sauce, toasted sesame bun |
| Double Bulgogi Burger | $7.99 | 850 | $13.77 | Two bulgogi patties, two slices of American cheese, dill pickles, sliced onion, iceberg lettuce, mayonnaise, sesame bun |
2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary. Additional nutrition information available upon request. Every price on this page is our in-store price, and a combo adds French Fries and a soft drink.
One practical note on the Double. The pickles and the sliced onion in that build are doing acid work against two sweet patties and two slices of cheese. If you order the single and then decide it needed more contrast, the Double is the version you actually wanted.
Where it sits next to the burgers you already know
Orange County has no shortage of excellent burgers, and we are not interested in telling you one style beats another. They are answering different questions.
A classic American fast food burger is built on salt and fat, with the sweetness kept to a trace in the ketchup and the bun. A smash burger sends nearly all of its flavor through crust, which is why it tastes browned and beefy and why it is best eaten within about two minutes of leaving the grill. A chargrilled patty adds smoke and char bitterness as the counterweight to the fat.
A bulgogi burger puts the counterweight somewhere else entirely. The sugar in the seasoning is not a background note, it is a lead voice, and the balance comes from soy salt and raw onion rather than from char. That is why people who try it describe it as familiar and unfamiliar in the same breath. The format is a hamburger. The flavor architecture is Korean barbecue.
If you want to run the comparison in one sitting, order a Bulgogi Burger and a Shrimp Burger together and split both. Those two items are the pair that shows the range of a Korean fast food menu faster than anything else on the board.
Calories, the combo and what it costs
The Bulgogi Burger is 520 calories on its own and $6.49. As a combo with French Fries and a soft drink it is $12.27, and the combo lands between 830 and 1,110 calories depending on which drink you pick. The Double Bulgogi Burger is 850 calories and $7.99, or $13.77 as a combo at 1,160 to 1,440 calories.
For context inside our own menu, the Bulgogi Burger is the lower calorie of the two signature burgers. The Shrimp Burger is 590. If calorie count is what you are optimizing for, the single Bulgogi Burger is the lightest full size burger we make.
You can see the full board with current pricing on the burger menu, read the item detail on the Bulgogi Burger and Double Bulgogi Burger pages, or go straight to pickup and delivery. We are open 10am to 10pm every day at 150 W Orangethorpe Ave in Fullerton, with a drive-thru.
Questions
Is a bulgogi burger made from beef?
Yes. A bulgogi burger uses a beef patty, and at LOTTERIA the bulgogi seasoning is worked into the patty rather than added afterward as a sauce alone. Our Bulgogi Burger is a bulgogi seasoned beef patty with lettuce, onion, mayonnaise and house bulgogi sauce on a toasted sesame bun.
Is bulgogi sweet?
Bulgogi is sweet and savory rather than spicy. The sweetness comes first, the soy salt follows, and a toasted sesame note sits underneath. In burger form that means a patty closer to Korean barbecue than to a smoky chargrilled burger. Guests often describe it as familiar and new at the same time.
How many calories are in a bulgogi burger?
The LOTTERIA Bulgogi Burger is 520 calories on its own. The Double Bulgogi Burger is 850 calories. As combos with French Fries and a soft drink they run 830 to 1,110 and 1,160 to 1,440 calories. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary.
What is the difference between the Bulgogi Burger and the Double Bulgogi Burger?
The Double has two bulgogi patties instead of one, adds two slices of American cheese, and swaps in dill pickles. The cheese and pickles cut the sweetness, so the Double reads more like a familiar US burger. It is $7.99 against $6.49 for the single.
Is the bulgogi burger spicy?
No. The Bulgogi Burger is built on sweet and savory soy flavor with no chili heat. If you want spice on a LOTTERIA menu, the gochujang sauce on the Bibim Rice Burger and the gangjung sauce on the K-Chicken Sandwich are where the heat lives instead.
Sources
- LOTTERIA Malaysia, About LOTTERIA brand history (Bulgogi Burger launched 1992), accessed September 12, 2026