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| - I do not know what is going on... or perhaps I do.
This place has been going down in quality for some reason. I mean, it is far from bad and more consistent than places with a more Canadian flavour bias like Ka Chi, specially if you consider their new K-Town location.
Still, I am not sure if my PBS taste has gotten more picky/refined/better/worse? but I find the soup at SAS to be not as good as it used to be.
Perhaps is the fact that Yelpers were obsessed about this venue but pretty much no one else? Perhaps SAS may be cutting back on expenses? Because aside running into the odd Yelper here, SAS seems to always be practically devoid of customers when I am there. Generally it will be my party and another table, maybe two at most. At first I did not mind, it is awesome to have a run of the place but I also don't want them to go out of business.
As some of you may know, my friend Reggie and I were on a Pork Bone Soup Quest and found a really good place in K-Town to satiate our PBS and ban chan obsession, unfortunately after finding out that place, we both find SAS a bit lackluster.
I have noticed the broth to be a bit weaker and I feel bad about it since I really like Seor Ak San -- not to mention convenient for me to get to.
I always request my PBS to be "extra, extra spicy" and even with all that spice the broth always managed to come through strong.
However the last two instances I was there the soup tasted somewhat watery and the main flavour that stood out came from the chili, not so much from the broth.
Furthermore I find that seaweed is a ban chan not all places like to offer often, possibly due to cost (most Korean restaurants do not fly in cirrus-high margins after all) and although I have no issue with places rotating their ban chan offerings, when you start focusing on the cheaper options, then we have a problem. Few people like oiled bean sprouts! Don't offer them as much.
Also, FYI, we can tell how old Kimchi is by colour and consistency and sometimes it does not look good to give poor looking veggies. I am well aware it is still quite edible but most people do not come for extra fermented Kimchi.
However, all being said and done, SAS is still one of the better, if not the best place for PBS in Chinatown, but the Yelper darling it once was? I am not so sure anymore.
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