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| - We ended up here on a Friday night close to 10pm, partly because there aren't many restaurants in the Valley open this late and partly, because we tried it before and found it "okay". This time, I wanted to order the campong; but the waitress made it clear, in both word and facial expression, that it would take a long time to make and it was obvious she didn't want me ordering it for that reason. That was fine. I had instead a dish, which basically took most of what is presented as cold appetizers in multiple dishes brought to the table, except mixed together, served very hot on a bed of rice and included an egg and a little meat. While I do enjoy the cold appetizer dishes, I have to admit, they taste better very hot. My partner had a soup, which could be best described as pot stickers in broth. The amount of food was copious and we were quite happy with what we got (which was not the case the first time we came here). The fact that neither of us are Koreaphiles and know Korean food doesn't exactly help in choosing items. For one thing, almost every dish on the "entree" page is soup. While I readily admit that Vietnamese Pho, for example, could easily fill you up, because everything and anything is thrown into the soup, I come from a background where soup is something served as an accompaniment to a meal, not a meal in itself. So, mentally, a soup for dinner wouldn't cut it with me. The 'non-soup' entrees are limited and are on the menu's back page; so don't despair if you can't seem to find items that aren't soup!
The restaurant is small and intimate. There are a few booths made to look like stereotypical Korean "huts". I feel like I'm in a cage sitting in one of them; my partner likes the privacy and cozy feeling they provide. A TV plays in the background, which might be fine, if you understand Korean. However, the scenes from a report about some hospital and skin diseases (along with a blurred image of a man doing his business at a urinal) is not really something I want to be seeing while I eat.
There have been complaints on Yelp, that they're not very attentive when it comes to filling the appetizer dishes. I can only say, that these appetizers arrived after we were sitting a very long time and (coincidentally?) very close before the main meals came out. Whether this is done on purpose to limit how much of the appetizers you'll eat before your dinner shows up so they don't have to refill it, I don't know. But the coincidence seems pretty strange; especially considering other complaints about this very topic.
To sum up, while I would enjoy a bi-yearly trip here (six months ... two years ... you choose the meaning!), Korean food simply isn't something that wows me enough to make the effort to make a special trip out here ... especially from the west valley, some 45 minutes away. The food is hearty; can be very spicy (though I didn't think overly so ... maybe I'm just very used to spicy food); and, let's face it, "basic". I've yet to have ANY Korean food that I'd describe as "finessed" or "subtly spiced". That may just be me. Sushi will always get top billing with me (but not other Japanese food!); followed by Vietnamese and then Szechuan. Korean food just seems to be something that I find "collides violently" with my taste buds and assaults the senses. As proletarian as my taste in food can be, I just don't find enough variety in taste to make the cuisine something I can get excited over. Add to that a small restaurant, which is very hot in summer (when we last went), crowded, not cheap and has slow service and my enthusiasm drops even more.
I don't dispute fans, who've written that this is the next best place to Inchon or Seoul in the Valley. Like I said, I'm no aficionado of this cuisine, so I wouldn't know. I can only say, my taste buds told me, that this food and the service in this restaurant is more "Pyongyang" than it is anything down south.
Acceptable; but no "wow"
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