Review is ONLY for the annual Korean Food Bazaar. I was meeting a fellow yelper/friend approximately around two. Now that I have gone through this experience I would have not gone this late, but being a newbie to the Bazaar, and since it was advertised to be going on until 6 or 7, this seemed like a perfectly fine time to meet. Wrong.
I got there before my friend, and spent 20-25 minutes driving around looking to park. Terrible. Frustrated I eventually ran into the parking garage on Bellefonte St. I quickly pulled in. Just a quick tidbit on that. I was parked there under 2 hours and it was $5.00. Better than a traffic ticket but a little expensive. If I wasn't so annoyed I would have kept looking.
So I get to the church. Again, first timer. I am lost. There seems to be no sense of order. I don't know where to go, or in that case what to do. I knew I was hungry. I knew I wanted to eat, but where is the food??? I saw what appeared to be an unorganized line and jumped in there somewhere to wait for your choice of Dak Ggochi-BBQ chicken on a skewer $3.00, or Korean BBQ Beef, served with rice and marinated cucumbers, $9.00. I chose the latter as I wanted something more filling. After waiting in a rather long line I handed my money over they tossed my beef, rice, and two slivers of cucumber in a takeout bowl. I quickly secured a spot under a tent and dug in while I awaited my friend's arrival.
The rice was white, more like the sticky kind. Ok, average really. The beef was cold. I don't mean cool, it was cold. It tasted ok, though I wasn't expecting it to the way it looked, but the flavor was decent. The cucumber was probably my favorite part. But it was such a small, small part. I asked a couple people around me where they got their soup. Finally I was getting some directions. I was told to head inside. Well I didn't even know there was food in there! Once my friend arrived we headed in.
So more chaos inside. They had the menu inside, which would have been very helpful when I first arrived since it mapped out where on the grounds or inside to find their different offerings. Unfortunately for us they were out of just about everything. We waited in line for soup, by the time we made it to the front the only dish left was the Hoe Naengmyeon, which almost seemed like a combo of the Mul Naengmyeon since it included half a hardboiled egg. So the dish is chilled spicy buckwheat noodles with skate fish, cucumber, and Korean radish.
Maybe it's a cultural thing I am not aware of but, what is up with skate fish? Is it supposed to be full of bones and cartilage? Most of my pieces looked like spines! I was stabbing one piece with my chop stick and it was so tough it wouldn't budge. I tried biting into a piece and it was tough as leather. You can't chew this! Also the bones were everywhere. Pretty gross. This dish was $8.00. On a positive note the noodles and other components were good, but that fish just flat out gross.
I spent a decent amount of money attending this event. At least I know for the future to get here early, get a menu, and bother as many people as I can with questions about the cuisine. Clearly no surprise that was the only meal left. More like 2.5 stars, but for the church bumped up to three.