Category: Korean Restaurants

It's strange. In spite of the rather warm weather, I was craving some Kimchi Fried Rice. So, I decided to head to a fairly regular stop for me:

Sue’s Korean Kitchen:

Hard to believe that I've been coming here since 2021. Though it's been over a year since I last visited.

Located in the food court of Plaza Sorrento, its a rather convenient stop for me since I can go to the bank and they open at 1030am, thus I can avoid the "lunch rush".

The simple counter is in place. I guess I haven't visited in a while and I didn't recognize the women working. I wondered if they've gone thru a change of ownership since my last visit?

I was a bit shocked when I looked at the posted menu. There's only one item I get here; the Kimchi Fried Rice and it's actually gone down in price. It was $12.99 on my last visit and is not just a straight $12. I know, it's just ninety-nine cents, but where else have seen prices go down over the last year?

So, of course I wondered if the dish had been changed? Anyway, I placed my order which was ready fairly quickly.

Opening things up, my suspicions were confirmed. Remember when I received the kimchi fried rice from here suffering from shrinkage? Well, even though they tried to hide it by spreading the rice out; I could tell that the portion size was indeed smaller.

    The texture of the rice was so mushy.

Also, a lot less kimchi than before. I'm thinking they added some Korean red pepper powder because this was spicier than I recalled, while lacking in the nice fermented tones.

A decent amount of Spam though. 

In what I thought was kind of comedic, there were even less strips of egg! 

Kind of sad overall as Sue's had been a fairly regular stop for me. I would have preferred that they raise their prices, rather than sell, in my opinion a diminished product. But of course, times are hard and perhaps their customer base prefers not paying a bit more?

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 1030am – 8pm
Closed on Sundays

This was quite disappointing and really didn't scratch that kimchi fried rice itch. So, a few days later I decided to return to a place that I hadn't been to in a year:

Kuljem Chicken & Beer:

I know, it's chicken and beer……but I was actually after the fried rice, which I thought was pretty good on one of my visits. I got there right at the opening time of 1130 and was blessed with a parking space as the lot has many 30 minute parking slots, making it somewhat bad at meals times when folks are eating in.

One of the co-owners; Jin who was half of the original name of the place; remember when it was supposed to be JJ's Chicken?

And while the name infers to the place being a beer and "KFC" shop….well, I just wanted the Kimchi Fried Rice which is now $17; up a buck from last year. I placed my order and after a short wait my fried rice arrived.

   Now, this was more like it! 

Liked the egg with a decently runny yolk and crisp edges….kind of on the smaller side, but good enough.

The rice was cooked decently and well coated, large pieces of kimchi, I even enjoyed the slices of green bell pepper. Nice fermented-sour tones with a hint of spice.

 The only thing that I wished for in this version of kimchi fried rice is Spam. There's a good amount of chicken, yes I know it's a chicken restaurant; but I really don't think it adds much to the dish.

It was more than enough to fill me up. Yes, I know $17 for fried rice….but this is UTC and remember, I just paid twenty bucks for a mediocre eggs, black beans, and soyrizo on toast! The place was completely empty during my visit and I asked Jin how business is. He told me that happy hours and dinner are when they do a good amount of business. I'm glad. Hopefully, they'll be open for a while.

So yes…this did indeed "scratch that itch"!

Kuljem Chicken & Beer
8895 Towne Centre Dr. Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am – 2pm, 5pm – 11pm

We've seemed to hit that "transition" period with regards to weather…….it's May Gray…or is it June Gloom in the mornings, sometimes a bit humid; the sun might peek out later in the day. Some days are hot-humid, on others we get a nice breeze, with a bit of overcast skies, JJ's kind of weather it seems. Speaking of JJ, we've been able to get some time free to shop and grab lunch these days, by giving him a morning full of walks, runs, and activities.

Which is what we did on this morning. Leaving our "pooped pup" in need of a break away from the "terrible" 70 degree sunshine! Upon which, the subject of lunch came up. For some reason, the Missus wanted to return to Yuk Dae Jang! Based on my last visit, we for sure weren't going to do takeout. 

We arrived right at opening and the place was empty, but filled up quickly as the clock struck closer to noon. The same two really nice young ladies were working. One thing we noticed was that prices hasn't seemed to have changed since we first visited in October of 2023, which seemed to be quite an different from what we've noticed at other restaurants. With all the price increases over the last year, this seemed like quite a departure from the norm.

As I mentioned, the weather had been up and down. What we ordered kind of reflected this posture.

The Missus wanted some Seolleongtang and for some reason, so mandu as well. So we got the Ox Bone Soup with Mandu ($19.99). I also wanted to get the Bossam again, which we had enjoyed on a previous visit. So we also ordered the Premium Bossam in House Special Sauce ($39.99).

As I noticed with my takeout order, the baechu kimchi does not seem to be fermented, more like pickled, and not quite up to what we enjoy. I do like the eomuk bokkeum, the fishcake panchan, which has more spice and sour notes than other versions, but the Missus is not a fan of that type of panchan as a whole.

The Purple Rice (heukmi bap) was nicely cooked this time around. 

The Ox Bone Soup with Mandu was better than expected.

  The soup was nice and beefy. Unlike the usual Seolleongtang, this had a perfect amount of salt…usually you need to season to your taste. The Tteokguk, the flat rice cake like Nian Gao still had a nice chew to it. 

Most surprising were the mandu. The wrapper while slightly on the brittle side was of nice thickness; the filling, pork and chive was much more tender than what we'd had before and nicely seasoned as well.

The standard accoutrements were provided. The radish bossam panchan was especially tasty; the pickled garlic quite astringently pungent.

As for the bossam, well…it delivered. We find the sweet-soy based sauce to be quite refreshing.

The generous amount of slightly porky, mildly chewy pork belly was pleasant to eat. For some reason, we really enjoy the onions in this dish. I'm certain they presoak the onions before serving as it is only mildly pungent, but quite sweet. You might say I enjoy the onions even more than the pork at times! Especially when having leftovers the next day.

Overall, an enjoyable meal. I'm sure we'll return soon. That bossam will be nice as the weather gets warmer.

Yuk Dae Jang
7307 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Wed – Mon 11am – 9pm
Closed on Tuesday

A few weeks back, I did a "circling back" post on Tanuki. I'd been meaning to return after doing an abbreviated post back during the pandemic. Well, there was one other restaurant on that post that we'd been meaning to return to. Song Hak. And just to really set that reminder, "Sami" of the wonderful blog Things I Tried did a post on the place a while back.

The Missus was wanting a Dolsot Bi Bim Bap and really wanted something different from Her usual choice, so this was a great opportunity. We decided to head on over for lunch, because like many of the places on Convoy, that parking lot is horrible. And now that all the street parking is gone, well that just makes things more difficult.

On weekends, Song Hak opens right before 11am, which is when we arrived, encountering no issue with parking in the lot.

The woman working was so nice…..very kind, warm, very much an "Imo"… Auntie. Because the Missus was getting the dolsot, we wouldn't be doing BBQ, so no Gopchang for us. Though we still get a kick remembering when that young girl ate the Gopchang and said to her dad: "Did I just eat POOP…..it really looked like POOP!"

I went thru the lunch specials and the woman steered me to the LA Kalbi lunch. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of LA Kalbi, the cross-cut ribs. I prefer the more traditional So-Kalbi, even when making Kalbi at home. But, I decided to take her word for it.

The panchan arrived.

Not too impressive, except for the baechu kimchi which had a nice slight fermented sourness to it.

I must say; the Kalbi was quite good. A thicker cut than what I'm used to, but surprisingly tender, beefy, though the marinade was a bit on the sweeter side. The Missus sampled some and enjoyed it! It was a good recommendation. The rice was decent as well.

The Sundubu was not very good however.

Thin, salty, lacking in savory tones…..not a favorite.

As for the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap…..

Man, this was quite hefty. The Missus enjoyed the bulgogi, which did skew to the sweeter side of things….but of course that egg with crisp edges. She (we) waited as the rice crust developed and also poured the juice from the kimchi onto the bowl. The namul added some nutty and textural contrast. This might just be the Missus's current favorite Dolsot Bi Bimbap…….

Which is kind of a dilemma….because I want to return and get the gopchang and similar dishes again……

Still, the woman working was so nice; we enjoyed our meal, so I'm thinking we'll return again soon.

And maybe get some, ahem, "poop shoot"…….looking forward to having some gopchang here…..

Song Hak Korean BBQ
4681 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 1130am – 11pm
Friday            1130am – Midnight
Sat – Sun       1050am – 1130pm

I first noticed that yet another Korean BBQ Restaurant was opening in the spot where Olleh Sushi was back in July of last year. Of course, the location has basically been a revolving door of places from back when Szechuan Taste occupied the spot. The name of the place is Sot BBQ and I really didn't give it much thought until I started reading about the style and the quality of the KBBQ. "Sot" is short for Sot Ddu Kung ("sotttukeong"), basically the cast iron cauldron lid, which is used to sear various cuts of meat. These days, we're really not into AYCE KBBQ, we're looking more for quality. So, after taking a look at various posts and being aware of the prices, we decided to head on over. We also liked the fact that Sot opens at 4pm from Mondays to Thursdays (noon other days). We're into eating dinner rather early these days.

We arrived to see the place rather full, even at 430pm! 

We were shown to a table and handed a menu.

As the sot stood in all its cast iron glory.

Our first interaction with one of the young folks serving us was so very friendly. We were looking at the Wagyu Sampler ($175), but she quickly informed us that it's quite a lot of meat as was the Prime Sampler ($129)…like for 4 people amount of meat! She recommended that since it was our first visit, that we start with the Sot Sampler, which was much more reasonably (it's all relative) priced at $89.  We also got the fried rice ($9) since I had read that it's made on the sot to finish the meal. The fried rice was one of our favorite items when we ate at Song Hak.

Soon enough all the "tools" arrived.

Surgery was soon to be in session! Gladly, we noticed that the folks working took charge of cooking everything. They worked so very hard and were so sweet about it. Key item were the scissors and the rack on which you could stack your meat once cooked.

And then all the sides and panchan started arriving; chili sauce, two types of salt, Yangpa Jjangachi; the pickled onions.

Bean paste and a pretty good and refreshing Oi Kimchi (Cucumber kimchi).

We quickly noticed that the panchan here was pretty good; that baechu kimchi had a nice fermented touch, the kkakdugi was sour-spicy-refreshing, the various radish kimchi were quite pickle-y and flavorful.

Soon enough even more kimchi was brought out; this time the baechu kimchi looked very "old style" and it was placed on the sot along with what looked like kongnamul muchim, bean sprout kimchi.

I had a taste while the young lady sliced it; and yes, it was nicely fermented and almost savory. The young lady told us that the flavor would get even more intense on the sot….which it did as it caramelized.

As the meat was brought out, the king oyster mushrooms were placed on the cast iron…..I don't know if you've noticed; but thus far, we really hadn't done any cooking!

We surprised at how much meat there was.

 Now, I believe that you're going to think I'm strange, but for us, the meat was the weakest part of the meal. The beef belly was tough as was the short rib; the pork belly did well, but again wasn't anything special; the rib eye was supposedly prime, and was adequately tender, but nothing special. At a point in time, I took over the cooking duties as the wonderful young folks, whom I'm sure were doing their best and working on their experience with other customers…can you imagine; they were doing the cooking on all the tables! Well, things were turning out overcooked.

The gyeran jjim (steamed egg) arrived, but it was sort of "deflated" and on the drier side.

And yet, the highlight of the meal was yet to come. At then end fried rice was made on the Sot, using all the drippings, the hot cast iron….

The nor, the kimchi……the heat…it all made for a nice kimchi fried rice…especially if you let it sit and develop a bit of a crust.

So yes, we came for the KBBQ and left enjoying the fried rice! Which left me wondering, this was so close, yet so far……… We were wondering about the actual wagyu and I had an idea about the fried rice! Which meant we decided to return.

It was a different day, same story. The panchan was just as good. 

This time around, we went for some Wagyu Rib Eye – 6 ounces, $79 and also some ribeye bulgogi $35, and of course the fried rice!

And things started off as before; except this little fatty bugger joined us at the table. Along with a cube of fat, and a "crown" of wasabi.

Strangely, this looked just like the wagyu you can get at Tokyo Central or sometimes at Nijiya. It was quite thin and cooked quickly; in fact, I again had to take over.

It was quite tender, but the rendered fat made everything else on the sot wonderful.

So, this might sound a bit strange, but we had enjoyed the fried rice so much during our last visit. But I thought it would be even better with more savory sweet tones. And heck, I did want to try the marinated meat here as well, so we got the bulgogi. 

Now to be perfectly honest, I was really disappointed when this arrived as I was wondering, "where's the marinated beef"? So, this was sliced beef on top of a pool of marinade. Hmmm…….

Once mixed together and put on the sot, it wasn't too bad….still a bit more chewy than I expected, but not bad. We placed most of the bulgogi on the side rack.

Now the reason I ordered the bulgogi was actually for the fried rice. I thought that having the soy-sweet-savory base would make the fried rice even better.

And in combination with the fat from the wagyu and the crust from the sot…oh my……

And yet, one would have to pause at this point and think; "did I just spend over a hundred bucks for awesome fried rice"? Hmmm……..

To put things into perspective; we weren't overly impressed with the meats….it is perhaps a step above the norm but heck, I can get better quality wagyu at Tokyo Central. The panchan is very good and that fried rice….. The service is awesome, though I'm still wondering if the meat is worth it?

Sot BBQ
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs  4pm – 10pm
Fri – Sunday   12pm – 10pm