Sally's Thoughts:
I am pretty sure food challenges will continue to be my favourite challenges. This could be because I am not a particularly fussy eater, but also not massively adventurous, so there is lots to explore and the expectation is that I will enjoy most of it. This was actually the first challenge I set for myself, and was pleased to after at least a month of wanting to go, to actually go.
Korean BBQ is a thing I hear people talk about. There is no reason at all that I had never eaten Korean food, other than I guess it had just never come up, and because I had never tried it, never felt a particular craving for it. I think that may have changed now. Can we go get korean BBQ right now? It's ok, your plans don't matter. Not unless they are Korean BBQ plans.
Things I liked: The marinated beef was delicious, and the rest of the BBQ meats were at least quite tasty. The seafood pancake was great. The staff were friendly, and offered me warm tea while I was waiting outside for my friends to arrive/our table to be ready, and brought me a BBQ (a pot of hot coals) to keep warm.
I really enjoyed the communal feel of the meal, sitting around a BBQ watching delicious things be cooked was quite entertaining. I also really like meals where they come and give you an exciting array of side dishes which you don't need to specifically order.
Things I didn't like: Well, this is just a problem I have in the world where calamari that is not calamari my Dad has caught and cooked is just inferior. It's not calamari's fault. Sorry, calamari.
Rating: 8/10
Would I do it again: Yes. Can we please go now? Tomorrow? I am free anytime.
Dave’s 2 cents:
I’d never done Korean BBQ before, and I’m not sure I’ve had any Korean food before, and I had some vague ideas it was like yum cha. I went to yum cha last year and I was kinda over it, but I may have found a replacement.
For various reasons our booking went from 8 to 5, and that was kinda better – I’m not sure how 8 of us would’ve huddled around a BBQ burner they put in the centre. I liked that like yum cha it is a continuous thing – rather than having to make to cram too many dishes on the table it is a steady streamy of meaty goodness.
It as much about the condiments as the meat, which I guess is kinda necessary when you’re pretty much eating BBQed meat which can get samey. The marinated beef was the highlight and I would happily just order that if I went again. We even got a free steak because we had some onion in something that we specifically asked not to have it in.
At $25 each not including drinks it wasn’t expensive and there were lots of Asians there which is always a good sign.
Rating: 7/10
Nutshell: An innnersting alternative to the usual Chinese-Vietnamese stuff I usually have.
Would I do it again? Yes.