Like a lot of the other reviewers have said here, there's some good things and some bad things about this restaurant. The good is that the prices are reasonable when you consider that the quality of ingredients here are a bit better than you'll find at most other Korean restaurants. There's even a $20 all you can eat winter special, which is much cheaper than what you'd expect from any Korean BBQ or Chinese Hot Pot deal. The food overall is fairly good, nothing really disappointing -- but nothing particularly stands out either. I'm not sure of how healthy the food is since some of it does taste like it's full of unhealthy sauces and fried items do seem to be cooked in a lot more oil than is necessary. But on the other hand, this does seem to result in some pretty tasty food.
Here are some notes from dishes I tried:
Banchan: A pretty standard assortment, which overall is a bit lighter in flavor and contains fresher vegetables than many other Korean restaurants. No particular items stood out as special, but it was a great way to start the meal. We were also provided with an additional full set of dishes after we finished the first ones, at no additional charge.
Bulkogii dolsot bibimbap: Beef was very tender and the sauce had a nice mix of soy sauce and sugar. Pepper was barely perceivable and there was probably a little garlic and a little bit of sesame oil. Tasty, but maybe not quite as balanced in flavors as I was hoping. The rice was prepared very well with a fluffy texture and mixed with a touch of butter. The accompanying vegetables were also nice and crispy.
Haemul panjun: This "pancake" was aromatic with a nice flavor of seared egg and onion. The outside was very crisp, but seemed to be very oily overall. The flavor also seemed to really come from the searing and was a bit bland otherwise.
Daegu jiri: Very strong amount of pepper in the broth and slightly spicy. The taste of cod was clear in the broth but it still had a fairly simple, mellow flavor. There were generously sized chunks of cod in the soup (with bone) but the fish itself wasn't really marinated or pan fried with flavorings like garlic, ginger, sesame oil, etc. so it was overall really bland and completely dependent on the broth for flavor.
Oh sam chul pan: A bit spicy but not overly so. The pork was very tender as was the squid. The cabbage inside was also very sweet and matched the meat perfectly.
Overall, there's not much to complain about the food. Nothing was done poorly and the flavor combinations were satisfactory to everyone's tastes. I complain slightly that the ingredients are fairly good, but not enough is really done technique-wise to make full use of them. Then again, with these prices -- they do outperform expectations.
The main reason for the point deductions has to do entirely with the service. With the oh sam chul pan, the dish was set to cook by the waitress, without any indication of when the food was considered cooked (some members of the party tried to eat it when it was too raw, and later on it became overcooked -- but we were never given an indication of when to lower or stop the heat). In fact, outside of being brought the food -- there was the absolute bare minimum service and they even forgot a dish. There was no opportunity to ask for an extra bowl as the waitress rarely stopped by, even after she did -- there were no water refills though the cups had been empty for a while. Then it took a while to pay afterwards.
I'll probably be back because the prices are good and there are a good assortment of dishes offered. But, this could easily be a 5-star Yelp review if the service matched the quality of the food. read more