*** Boo Cho is now Dae Jang Keum, and an updated post can be found here.
On a recent trip to Sammy’s next door, I noticed that Boo Cho had changed owners again. This would make the third set of owners in the last three years. Though it’s disheartening to see a revolving door of ownership for any restaurant location, a part of me was a bit happy. You see Boo Cho used to be one of our favorite Korean BBQ Restaurants in San Diego. But under the last set of Owners, I thought the food had gone steeply downhill. As fate would have it Ed from Yuma was making one of His trips down to San Diego. So we decided to give Boo Cho as shot. You can read Ed’s Chowhound post on Boo Cho here.
As we entered on this evening there were only two other occupied tables in the restaurant. But it was only 6pm, and with the recent hot weather, people are eating at a much later time.
We were seated and given our menus, which did reflect on a few slight changes. Soon enough we placed our order. We decided on the Special BBQ for 2($49.99). Now we understood that there were 3 different types of meat, I’ll try to remember what they are, but please forgive any inaccuracies, I usually don’t take notes. In a few moments our sauces arrived.
As did the rice paper wrappers, mesclun, and thinly sliced daikon radish, for creating your own dumplings with the BBQ.
Our brazier was prepared, by first placing a container of charcoal into the receptacle built into the table, then laying the cast iron grill on the top.
One thing I quickly noticed was the very large amount of flaming charcoal being used, a very good sign.
We also had our first "surprise" of the evening. It seems that the special for two comes with a bottle of Soju, that mind numbing alcoholic beverage that brings to mind vodka. For some reason, the evening really started "brightening up".
Soon enough the banchan arrived.
To be perfectly honest, banchan had never been Boo Cho’s strong suit, and I didn’t expect this visit to be much different. How wrong I was. Not that the banchan was outstanding, but it was pretty good. I really enjoyed the Baechu Kimchee(Napa Cabbage), I mean I really enjoyed it. Things were really looking up, when our meat arrived:
Now if I recall, the 3 types of meat provided were; San Galbi(unmarinated beef ribs), Chadolbaegee(a thinly sliced fatty beef), and a nicely marbled, lightly marinated beef, I believe it was Joo Mool Luck. And we got cooking……
About this time we got our next "surprise", a boiling casserole was delivered to our table. The special came with a vegetable "soup":
The broth was quite beefy in flavor, and the soup was full of tofu, daikon, and other veggies.
By this time all of the flavors started to blur, with the banchan, the soup, the various meats, and of course, the Soju. I did think that the meat was a step up from the previous Boo Cho, though still a step down from Buga Korean BBQ. Still, there’s nothing like the flavor of charcoal. At this point, the grill was soiled, and I was beginning to think that our next course would be the Fire Department.
Just then one of the Servers stepped in, and replaced our grill. Perfect timing!
In the end Ed and I devoured everything, and remarked how Boo Cho was back on our list. Ed enjoyed Himself so much, that He returned a few days later. Funny thing, the Missus and I returned a few days later as well. I’ll post that in Part 2.
Some Notes: The main thing to remember is to not wear anything that you DON’T want smelling like charcoal. As Boo Cho fills up, even the heavy duty ventilation system can’t quite keep up.
Part II tomorrow!
Boo Cho Restaurant
7905 Engineer Rd
San Diego, CA 92111