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Seoul Garden, a closer look
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Don't just take my word for it! See these other fine views of Seoul Garden Yakiniku House!
 See long-time excellent blogger Kat at a Passion for Food! |
 Get the Yelper's take! |
 Here's some technical info and an open review or two at Metromix! |
3/16/10 - You've just handed your menus over to the waitress and have barely had time to gaze into your partners' eyes and enjoy a moment to connect and re-cap the days' events, but at restaurants like Seoul Garden on Kapiolani Blvd., quality time is gonna have to wait! Before you know it, your hopefully friendly host is back, this time with an entire ovals' worth of small, white, stackable plates, each filled with sample-sized portions of pickled, marinated, seasoned, fermented, or otherwise interestingly adorned items, some hot 'n spicy, some salty, some sweet, some slimy, and some... well, let's just say there's a bit too much action on your table-top for your attentions to be drawn anywhere else at the moment, even if it is, uh... was, upon eachother!
No less than 11 separate plates were dispersed across our table as quickly as a waitress in rollerskates, and I wasn't about to take the time to snap shots of each one separately - only because I know how these Korean yakiniku places are - once they start coming, there's no stopping till the fat lady sings Aloha Oi. I knew there would soon be yet other complimentary dishes dropped on our table, even besides our actual orders, and not because we were anything special, but because that's just how things work at your better, more authentic Korean restaurants!
Before our table-top filled even further, I was left scrambling to take a few shots of the various banchan before our kind waitress returned. From top-left, then clockwise - bean sprouts, cucumber kimchee, cabbage salad, won bok kimchee, seasoned baby fish, and potatoes stewed in shoyu/sugar:
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But before the whirlwind picks-up more steam today from a hot bowl of Korean miso soup or sizzling kalbi, let's first back-track slightly and find out how to get here in the first place:
Seoul Garden and Korea House are two fine and very similiar Korean yakiniku restaurants located a mere stone's throw away from eachother, amidst the collection of buy-me-drinkie bars and adult stores on Kapiolani Blvd., right across from 24 Hour Fitness. The small, single-row parking lot fronting Seoul Garden is one it also shares with Femme Nu, but since it was full by the time we arrived at just after 9pm, we then pulled into the lot right after (Diamond Head) the restaurant. After seeing a bunch of mama-san's peeking their heads out of massage parlors and bars of their owning, however, I wasn't exactly comfortable leaving my car there! Besides, a guy ran up to us, wanting to charge for parking - forget it! Instead, we back-tracked and parked along the 24 Hour Fitness side of Kapiolani, where the long, unmarked side-walk is free at night.
Once inside, the place was still bustling with diners, each booth noisily grilling and chatting on table-top grills built into each table. As always, though, I waited till many of them left before taking a shot, and even then, I didn't wanna stand-up and bother too many remaining folks with a complete stranger taking their pics! Both this and the group shot of diners on-top, I took while seated right from our table, on the down-low!
Along with our banchan, a steaming bowl of Korean miso soup was placed on our table. What's the difference between Japanese and Korean miso? Lots. Or at least in my experience. Both are good, but Japanese bowls are more for miso purists, as they usually come with a strong miso/dashi taste and only a minimum of other ingredients in only small portions, such as tofu, daikon, wakame, green onion, or clams. Korean versions come with a spice element and are loaded with many more hard ingredients, such as zucchini, onion, carrot, potato, long stalks of green onion, and more, as well as the Japanese-style ingredients also mentioned, only in larger portions. The pure miso taste tends to get lost a bit with the addition of so many other ingredients, so you can determine yourself on which side suits you better!
At Korean restaurants like this, there is usually a set yakiniku choice for two, mostly coming at around $40-$45. Seoul Gardens' price was $44 and change, and came with four types of beef - tongue, brisket, inner rib, and kalbi:
Here's a closer look at the separate types of meat, beginning with the top-left - beef tongue:
Then there's brisket:
Kalbi, or outer rib:
Oops, no close-up on raw inner rib sections, but they are the thick, irregularly-cut rectangles that take the longest to cook. Both rib cuts are known for a high degree of fat as well as that close-to-the-bone taste, which is always highly esteemed.
Though all cuts are already seasoned or marinated, there's usually a dip of some shoyu-based sauce as well as a sesame oil/salt typically used for the slices of beef after grilling, just for that added taste punch. Here, however, there was no shoyu, only sesame/salt. No worries, as there was plenty of taste in the beef itself, and I used the sesame dip very sparingly, anyway.
One of the great ways to eat yakiniku is to order sanchu, or lettuce wraps. Whole leaves of green or red leaf lettuce are provided, along with a strong Korean miso paste:
Miso paste is not usually provided unless ordering wraps - I dunno, something about that pungent/salty, very deep flavor of miso combining with crisp, cool lettuce and hot, sizzling beef - it all just works so well together!
Of all the cuts provided, you can probably guess that tongue is the most unique. Its taste is one of those lamb-type foods, where there's that certain level of wildness involved, a certain essence of animal, if you will, although usually not quite as extreme. I mean, I've had some seriously gamey lamb, but never a seriously gamey tongue. Sometimes, you really have to concentrate to notice any flavors different from straight beef meat! The biggest give-away, however, is found in its texture, which is firmer and more solid, as opposed to tear-apart grainy. Me, I'd actually prefer a few more rib cuts instead of any tongue at all, but I know lots of folks who swear by beef tongue, including Kumi.
Here's some tongue grilling in the foreground, along with brisket on the top and right:
Looks good, ey? Oh, and by the way, these grills are very well taken care of, as our meats slid across the surface metal like Kim Yu-Na on her way to the Gold, and they didn't have to be replaced at all mid-way through our meal.
It may seem like a whole lotta meat, but in all actuality, if you were to combine and press everything all together, I'm pretty sure it'd be less than a normal-sized steak dinner. And all the veggies provided outside of that balances your meal in a much healthier way. Just trying to give myself excuses, is all!
Any way you look at it, a yakiniku meal at Seoul Garden is an impressive spread, and a fun way to enjoy a meal, for sure! Be sure not to overcook your meats, as each slice cooks in a matter of seconds. Outside of that, it doesn't take a Chef to figure this one out, and the benefits of sizzling beef straight from the grill, cooked to your liking, is worth the extra work, yes? Though mom says if you wanna cook yourself, then stay home, I think this is one instance where exceptions can be made. And not only can you get yakiniku grilling here, but you can also get a hotpot experience, which is a bowl of seasoned broth in which various meats and veggies are cooked. Not only is the bubbling liquid used to cook items, but the soup itself becomes richer and richer after inheriting the taste of repeated dunkings of flavorful meats and veggies. A shabu-shabu, basically. The group shown at the top of the page actually had one side of their table sporting a yakiniku grill and the other with a live hotpot going.
Yeah, we've taken a small break from Mexican today, but we'll get right back on-track with a couple more Mexican spots of interest in the next couple of Closer Looks. After that? We'll see...
Have a great and wonderful week!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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Comments:
3/18/10 - Tracy T: Aku, That Korean Yakiniku looks so ono it bring back memories of when I was a litte kid. My parents used to take us Yakiniku House Osaka and I think it was later called Karens Yakiniku the food was so ono I think it was all about that special sauce. Do you remember this place?
3/19/10 - Aku: Oh my gosh, what a blast from the past!!! Yakiniku House Osaka??? That's hilarious!!! That was so long ago, I don't even remember anything about it but the name. Sir, you've given your age away to everyone! Me, I don't care - I'm blatantly old.
3/19/10 - Tracy T: When you get this old I don't care anymore, who finds out how old I am!!!! ha ha.
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