The recent hot weather had me craving some Bi Bim Naengmyun, so I started thinking of some options. I'd last had a metal bowl of it at Yuk Dae Jang, but I wasn't very impressed. Thinking back, I had enjoyed the BBN from Prime Grill, though on our last visit there back in March of 2022, the panchan was terrible and the service even worse. Would things be different over 2 years later? Well, we decided to roll the dice and find out.
We arrived for an early dinner and the place was still fairly busy. This time around, the woman who waited on us was quite warm and friendly.
The Missus had always enjoyed the Dak Bulgogi here and ordered the combo ($24.99) and I (of course) got the Bi Bim Naegnmyun ($16.99). The panchan was much better than what we'd had on our previous visit.
The Baechu kimchi was nice and fermented, with a slight funkiness we enjoy, the kkakdugi (radish kimchi) was spicy, sour, yet refreshing, the Missus enjoyed the namul and I the oi (cucumber) kimchi!
The Missus's combo soon arrived.
And when the gyeran jjim (steamed egg) hit the table, I thought that this would be the interesting test of the service. You see, the Missus enjoys some sesame oil on Her steamed egg. I think it's kind of a Northern Chinese thing. On our last visit, Her request for some was met with some testy derision. This time, the nice woman came over with a squirt bottle and told the Missus, "tell me when…."
Also of note, the woman had told the Missus that there was an option for "sausage tofu stew", basically Budae-jjigae with the combo. And surprisingly, the Missus went for it.
Apparently the Missus enjoyed the gyeran jjim as it was gone in an instant.
The version of budae-jjigae was fairly mild in terms of spice and on the salty side. It was not bad on rice. And the weather was so hot that I just really had a taste and left the rest to the Missus.
Who really enjoyed the salty-sweet-soy flavors of the dak bulgogi, which was also decently griddled with spots of caramelization without charring.
I had a bite and thought it was not bad; dark meat chicken, nicely balanced flavors, not overly tough.
As for me, well, soon enough my metal bowl of spicy-vinegary-sweet elastic noodles arrived at my table.
I made sure to accept the shears that were proffered as I'd had enough experience trying to slurp in what seemed like an endless stream of highly elastic naengmyun. These days I go for a "four-cut". I enjoyed these as the noodles weren't too elastic, but still held on to it's pleasurable, springy-stretchy resiliently bouncy texture. The sauce had a nice spice to it, I added a bit more vinegar to balance things out. If the heat rose to bit too high, I simply took a sip of the icy sour and sweet broth to recover.
The slices of Asian pear helps "Sweeten the pot" and there's a single slice of very dry meat and the boiled egg was overcooked, you could tell that by the evil "gray ring" around the yolk. But heck, I didn't order this to help fulfill my protein requirement for the day.
I wanted something with loads of flavor to help cool me off. And this did the job in spades.
The Missus also enjoyed Her meal with the panchan and service back on track, so I'm thinking Prime Grill is back in our good graces after a two year wait. Just in time for the summer heat.
Prime Grill
4620 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 10pm
nice!
Nice revisit! Glad to hear the meal was back to their old high standards.
We enjoyed it Kat!
Yes, we really enjoyed this meal Junichi!