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Kim Chee 2, a closer look
Kim chee 2 Kaimuki on Yelp!
Aloha!
6/20/11 - What's everyone lookin' at?
Just another weekly ritual, is all. Every Friday night at 7:45pm on Waikiki Beach, directly fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village, the hotel sponsors a fireworks show, and sure enough, every Friday night, crowds begin gathering everywhere. They line up as far as Kapiolani Park and Diamond Head in one direction and out to Magic Island and Kakaako on the other. It's a great time to grab the kids, have a hibachi dinner, and wait for the show while enjoying the great Hawaiian outdoors!
The crew at the Hilton just finished setting-up a giant party on their great lawn, which fronts the fireworks action and where special functions are often held for large groups, sometimes with a private pyro-technic show set-up specially for them!
As for the grindz of the day... every local boy is well-acquainted with any one of over 10 different Kim Chee restaurants spread throughout the state, mostly here on Oahu. Some are simple drive-in-style spots, much like a plate lunch house where you order at a counter and eat on self-serve tables. The two members of this family generally considered the best are Kim Chee 1 and Kim Chee 2, both of which are actually not self-serve, but genuine sit-down restaurants, albeit on a very casual level. Last time at Kim Chee 1 in Kaneohe, the meal was so good I gave it many nods over its younger brother here in Kaimuki (Kim Chee 2), but the competition is so close, I think I may have to reverse a few of those previous conclusions! I dunno - one day one is better, another day the other is better! Right now, to tell you the truth, I'm more confused than anything else, but in the end, I think it's a great problem to have!
Here's the entrance of Kim Chee 2, located at the Atrium Shopping Center in Kaimuki, alongside such eateries as Happy Day, Kaimuki Grill, and the original Big City Diner:
Inside, it's a very casual hang-out. Woulda been even more casual if the whole place hadn't burned-down in a fire oh, 10-15 years or so ago! Remember that? Korean vases and paintings are everywhere, while high-backed, retro-style booths line three sides of the long'ish restaurant. Sorry, I pointed away from these particular sides, since there's always so many customers. This is the service side, where "General" sits and presides over his domain. His father used to sit there before, but I guess it was time to hand over the reigns! He's a real cool guy, but at 6-foot-something, an obviously innate Korean feistiness and fire, and a local bruddah attitude with the pidgin to prove it, I wouldn't wanna get on his bad side!
One of the most economical of choices here is the Lunch Special. At $8.90 and listed at the top of the menu, it's definitely a steal!
Coming with two pieces of bbq chicken, one or two pieces of meat juhn, one gyoza, a set of three different banchan, and a separate bowl of rice, it's hard to beat for the price! As always, the bbq chicken here was fantastic, with a smoky-grilled taste combined with the perfect shoyu/sugar combination. The meat juhn was not bad, with a thick slice of marinated meat and a poofy egg coating. The single piece of mandoo included a wrapper that is crispy outside and chewy in its inner, thickest parts, while the filling of pork, cabbage, mung beans, and other lesser ingredients made for a tasty deep-fried morsel. It won't gonna get you far in one of the more authentic, full-fledged Korean restaurants on the island, but for what it is, it's still very good! What are you saying, Aku? Do you mean Kim Chee 2 is not an authentic, full-fledged Korean restaurant?
Let's not be under any delusions here. Kim Chee 2 is no authentic Korean restaurant! In fact, none of the Kim Chee restaurants are very authentic! They are more a mix of Korean and American, influenced highly by the local plate lunch culture and the flavors we all grew up with here in the islands. That being said, I'd still recommend this place in a heartbeat! In fact, it was near the top of the list when I was referring a kind visitor from the Mainland, who is arriving soon with a crew of 30, mostly students. They wanted local/ethnic, cheap, tasty, with a large dining room, ample parking, and an easy logistics situation over-all - sounds like Kim Chee 2 right there!
With the exception of such great spots as Ireh and Yuchun, most better Korean restaurants incorporate up to 8 or even 10 complimentary banchan dishes with every meal. Kim Chee 2 usually provides two before the entree and three more alongside the meal. Here's one of the two before-hand:
The dish consists of strips of dried daikon (white turnip), reconstituted in a spicy/shoyu'ee sauce. Super-crispy and tasty, this is mom's favorite banchan here!
The other early banchan dish is a straight kim chee, which is much less red and much less spicy than a typical kim chee. Its cabbage is marinated in salt more than anything else, but its crunchy, fresh-tossed leaves have merit in and of themselves:
Here's the trio of side veggies that usually comes on the same plate as your entree, and includes salted cabbage, bean sprouts, and wakame:
Sometimes, however, as in the case of larger combinations, they won't even fit on the same plate! Such is the case with their Combo #1, a mix of bulgogi, bbq chicken, kalbi, and mandoo:
A bit more expensive but still very much worth it at $12.90, this is probably the one plate here that best represents the strengths of this particular location! I mean, it's no secret that bbq meats are what casual or fast-food Korean-style restaurants are all about, and every piece of bbq meat on this plate is a winner! Like the bulgogi at Kim Chee 1, this version of the same was relatively thick-cut while being soft and tender enough for me to suspect ribeye as their choice of meat, though I can't be sure with all these tenderizers and other softening techniques used these days. Whatever the case, it was absolutely delicious, the perfectly balanced marinade also contributing to one of the best cuts of bbq beef around!
Though earlier stating that this was no authentic Korean restaurant, their presentation of kalbi is still done in the authentic way, meaning instead of thin cross cuts over several ribs, a wider section of a single rib is cut, its thick meat portion butterflied open over and over, never severing, until forming a long strip. Here's the kalbi bone still attached to the strip:
Much thicker and tougher than their bulgogi, as kalbi normally is, it was nevertheless just as flavorful and delicious! For meat lovers, the combo #1 is my #1 recommendation!
While the lunch special plate shown earlier is posted prominently on the upper-left of the menu, a dinner special plate ($13.90) is shown on the upper-right, consisting of kalbi, meat juhn, shrimp tempura, and mandoo. I don't much recommend this one, as their shrimp tempura is, quite simply put, pretty bad, with a thick, doughy batter that doesn't really fit the definition of a real tempura. Stick with the bbq meat-filled Combo #1, instead!
Unlike at Kim Chee 1, where you can pick any 2, 3, or 4 separate items yourself on one plate, Kim Chee 2 only has a handful of set combinations, with no deviating allowed whatsoever! Had we been able, I would have ordered my chicken katsu with one or more of the other choices available, such as spicy pork, butterfish, kalbi, or spicy squid.
You can probably see the uneven frying. Instead of a light, golden-brown all over, certain parts are obviously burnt while some parts are still white and undercooked. Although the taste is generally good, it's definitely not the greatest job of cooking here. Meanwhile, on the first shot, you can also see a flash of green, which comes from green onion. Green onion? Inside a chicken katsu? Well, it turns out that many Korean restaurants marinate their chicken in the typical shoyu/sugar/etc. first, then crust them over with panko. Sometimes, yes; sometimes, no. Aaah - stick with a combo #1!
After all these years, Kim Chee 2 still is, and will probably always be, a local favorite. There's no denying the portions, strong flavors, great prices, and casual nature of the place in general. Don't be offended when they pass-out your receipts half-way through the meal - I'm sure they don't mean anything by it, and even the nicest of staff do the same, for some reason. And in another possible quirk, judging from the last couple of times, they seem to have done something about the chlorine water. The blatant taste of chlorine has gone, but now, there's some other strange taste in the water that I can't quite put my finger on, and even seems to manifest itself in the complimentary seaweed soup! Don't know what it is in the pipes here! Other than that, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourselves here! It's a safe bet every time!
Got a few announcements I'll be making very soon regarding the site, or dare I say, site's? Big changes are coming, and I don't know whether that'll be good or bad for you all. Depends, I guess. Nevertheless, I'm excited about it for sure!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
