Dinner for 2 with copious amounts of Obe beer: £75.00

Korean BBQ is to me – and I know many will disagree – the best BBQ that there ever was.  In fact since it is nigh impossible to get even remotely authentic Southern BBQ in New York City (where I am from) I would have to say that Korean is the closest my hometown has to a local BBQ culture.  I love it and I am amazed that its just not more common here in London.  So anytime I have the chance to trick someone into going out for Korean food with me (this time it was a date) I jump at the chance.

Koba is pretty small so if you’re expecting anything resembling one of the Manhattan/Queens style hangar sized BBQ palaces you’ll be dissapointed.  I’d think the biggest party you could possibly get away with is 8 people comfortably around a table.  Also if you want to sit and stare deeply into someone’s eyes its a bit of a stretch as the tables have to be big enough to accommodate a grill and an extraction hood.  Both myself and my date each smacked our heads into the extraction hood over the table during the meal.

The one major disappointment I have with all Korean restaurants here in London so far is that you have to order and pay for your namool – little dishes of most often pickled things.  In NYC at any Korean restaurant they are complimentary and are often a real highlight as you get a chance to try all sorts of things you might be scared to order off of a menu.  For example I never knew that I loved dry shredded squid until I was served a small dish of it once.

Assorted Kimchi/Pickles

We started with a selection of kimchi which were absolutely fine though quite a bit less spicy than usual.  I think this is a case of dumbing things down for a Western palette.  But they were still spicy enough to get your appetite going.

mmmmm.....Ddukbokki

Next we had Pajun – a pancake with seafood and spring onions (not pictured) which was yummy.  And ddukbokki – rice and fish cakes in spicy sauce – one of my absolute favorites .  I cannot explain my obsession with this particular dish.  Its full of all sorts of strange textures and flavors and I just love love love it.  Their version was pretty good – not nearly the best I’ve had – but pretty good.

Kalbi

The main event is of course the meat and I cannot express to you how delicious the meat is.  I don’t know what it is that Korean chefs do to make it all taste so good but whatever it is it works.  We had a selection starting with Kalbi – marinated beef spare rib.  The marinade is slightly sweet and the beef was incredibly tender.

Next up was daeji bulgogi (not pictured) which is spicy pork – ridiculously good.  And last we had prawns which were not marinated and which were so fresh and sweet that they really didn’t need any sauce at all.

It was a fabulous meal and I am already plotting to go back. I am pretty sure my date liked it too.

Koba
11 Rathbone Street
London W1T 1NA

Dinner for 1 with beer: £18.00

Its bucketing down with rain, torrential downpour type rain, but I am not going home.  I am getting some spicy spicy Korean food if I have to get completely soaked through to get it.

When I arrive at Dong San – completely soaked through – a cheerful server seats me at a table in the front next to a family with a screaming baby. I am desperate for some mouth searing eats so I ignore the screamer and soldier on.

To start I order a selection of namul including kimchi.  I still bristle at having to pay for these as it is standard practice in New York to include them in the meal for free.  But I love namul – the fishier, saltier, spicier – the better.  These were just sort of meh – pretty standard, nothing memorable.

Namul

For a starter I had spicy pork – Daeji Bulgogi.  This was very good.  The meat was cooked really well and it was genuinely spicy which is definitely what I was after.  Probably more green peppers than should be legal but a good dish regardless.

Daeji Bulgogi

When I tried to order a dish of spicy chilled noodles with beef and radish my server tried to talk me out of it!  This kind of thing always makes me wonder.  Why try to discourage me from ordering things on your menu?  If you don’t want me to eat it, don’t put it on the menu. I managed to convince him that I really did in fact want that dish and am really glad I did.

Chilled Noodles with Beef and Radish

What you can’t see in this picture is the chili paste based sauce at the bottom of the bowl.  Once mixed up this dish was a great balance of hot and cold.  I really enjoyed it.  It was light and satisfying.

It was a fine meal.  And even though the service was attentive I don’t like the fact that in a large and fairly empty restaurant they sat the single girl next to the screaming child leaving the other tables for more desirable patrons. I would be happy to go back but will continue to search for a Korean restaurant in London that I can call my favorite.

Dong San
47 Poland St
London, W1F

Meal for 1: £20.00 for lunch

Went to the British Museum on Saturday with Martin and Tim B and in between the Shah Abbas and Babylon exhibits we decided to slip outside for lunch rather than settle for blah museum cafe food.  There are a handful of Korean BBQ places near the museum and since neither of my mates had ever had Korean that is what we aimed for.

Bi Won is a nice, small and cozy space – quite a bit different from the enormous, multistory Korean BBQs I am used to in New York.

Since it was lunch and we had a vegetarian on board we decided to skip the gluttonous grill your own meat experience.  We started off with a selection of namool – cold pickled vegetables.  Really nicely done with just a hint of heat on the daikon, some pickled sprouts and light spinach.  The portions could have been a little more generous.  For my main I ordered a kimchi, tofu and pork stew which turned out to be more of a soup.  It was tasty but eensy weensy.

Tiny Kimchi Stew - shown actual size

The Korean food neophytes enjoyed their meal – the veggie having vegetarian Bi Bim Bop and the non-veggie a chicken stew both of which were tasty and more adequately sized for an adult human.

I would love to go back here with some carnivores to try their BBQ.  I would however make sure to order more next time to avoid starvation.

Bi Won
24 Coptic St
London, WC1A 1NT