The place is clearly more of an event salon than a restaurant, simply based on the way it's setup. And, from their Facebook page, it looks like Korean weddings are pretty much their specialty. I'd contacted them a couple of weeks ago and they'd let me know that it was "reservations only, minimum of two adults for a fixed price menu at 410 pesos". A trio of us met up for lunch yesterday.
I arrived about ten minutes early, and despite the obvious availability of tables, the waiter who let me in the door told me I'd have to wait until the others in my party were present before he would seat me. That's just inhospitable in a setting like this. When one of my companions arrived, I asked again if we could sit, and he sort of sighed and agreed to let us sit and wait for the other person at the table. Give it a rest.
I'm not sure why... no that's not true, it's because every other fixed price place we've been to in the two Koreatowns has been... I thought it was Korean barbecue. But it's not, it's a mix of quite good ban chan and other small plates, and four "main dishes" - fish, shellfish, chicken, and beef. Plus three soups. They all come out pretty much as you have space on the table.
Excellent kimchi, both cabbage and cucumber versions, some of the better ones we've had on these ventures. Also a decent rolled omelette and japchae, stir-fried "glass noodles" made from sweet potato starch. The soups are pretty basic - all good, but nothing outstanding.
The spicy shellfish, mostly calamari rings, has a mild kick, but great balance. Some decent mini-steaks, crusted in traditional sweet and spicy and sesame bulgogi style, and tender as can be. And, the spicy chicken - pretty much identical to the shellfish dish, but with a lot more onion in it.
Overall? The space, a bit cavernous and again, probably more suited to a big event than a casual restaurant. I imagine much of it is also simply that there were few other people there - when we arrived, there was the one table you can see in the top picture, later on two different couples and one other table of half a dozen arrived, but no more than that over the course of the couple of hours we were there. If the place had been fuller, it would have given some energy to the room, which most of the time was quiet as an empty church. Service, other than the being seated nonsense, was friendly and efficient. The food was uniformly good. No wows, but no disappointments either. It's all you can eat, and we'd ordered extra plates of the two kimchis and some fried zucchini.
And, with the volatility of the Argentine peso, the price, upon receiving our bill, had jumped from the quoted 410 pesos to 480 pesos apiece (in less than two weeks). That's been happening all around town, and I hadn't asked to reconfirm the price when I made the reservation. Add in a large bottle of water to split, and a small bottle of soju, the same, and a couple of coffees (actually, no charge for those, and the first place we've been offered coffee in a Korean restaurant other than Kyopo), plus tip, and we settled out for 650 pesos apiece, around $22. Not my favorite of Korean spots, but one I'd happily eat at again. read more