Now, the claim is that this was one of the first Korean restaurants to open its doors to…read morenon-Koreans, back a couple of decades ago (they were also located a couple of blocks away on Morón street). It also had a reputation for an array of different grilled meats, that you could select from, as well as a whole menu of classic Korean dishes that you could add to the table. Reviews from its previous location, even just a year or two ago, had the look of a pretty spectacular dining experience.
The "new" space is an old "casa chorizo" - what locals call a very deep house, with all the rooms running off to one side of a long courtyard. It's an odd setup, as it requires that you go out into the courtyard to go from one room to the next. They've closed in the back end of the courtyard as the dining area. The place is big. But there are few people dining there on the night we choose., just three young porteños and a young Korean couple.
Now, at a glance, it seems to be a decent spread for two people, but it's really just not. Certainly not by comparison to any of the other Korean bbq places we've been to, and we've been to quite a few! Most of the table is taken up by a searingly hot grill that there's no way to avoid being close to. It is nice that it's a charcoal grill, many of the places here use gas, and the charcoal smoke adds a nice flavor to the meat, of course.
But the ban chan selection is limited - a little kimchi (not very spicy, but quite sour), two different potato salads, some cold poached fish, some beansprouts, and some pickled mild chilies. Compare that to some of the better places we've been... like Kyung Mi Jong or Yugane.
The meat selection isn't bad looking, though you no longer get to choose - you just get what they give you. And, it turns out that most of it is gristly and fatty and not particularly high quality. A small steak, 2 strips of pork belly, some marinated pork shoulder, and thin strips of shortrib meat.
And other than that, there's a bowl of lettuce to wrap the meat in, another of salad, two pieces of fried chicken wings accompanied by fried sweet potato, some rice balls, some watery soup, a single scallion pancake to share, and, the best thing on the table, a bi-bim-bap, sitting at one end of the grill to be mixed to your own tastes - with rice, egg, scallions, and some sauce. Overall, pretty slim pickings for a Korean bbq spot, and it's all pretty mediocre, and pricey at 590 pesos (then again, it's been about six months since we've hit a Korean bbq spot, so they all might be up around that these days) plus beverage - of which there is bottle water, Coke, or Quilmes beer. All in all, a pass. Too many other good spots around.
