Category: Korean Restaurants

I really don’t know the Korean name of this restaurant, so will just go by the English sign.

I first noticed this little restaurant over a year ago. We had finished a nice meal at China Max, and were wandering around the strip mall, when I noticed a Woman running two plates of Mandoo over to the Pool Hall located right next door. Even though I was stuffed to the gills, it still looked pretty good. A few days later I received an Email from our eating buddy Calvin; who mentioned that "the food is like what my Mom and Aunts make, and the sometimes surly service is like what you’d get at home." Hmmmm…..sounds good, after all Mom’s make the best food, right? Hmmmm…sounds bad, remember how Mom acted when you didn’t eat your peas???? Or when that "Tuna Surprise" really did surprise???

Recently the Missus and I finally made our way to this restaurant. The interior is full of wooden booths, with Soju posters on the walls, along with a closing time of 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, I could sense pretty hearty grub.

This really is a Family operation. We were first served by an Older Lady, and later on when 2 other Young Women(daughters?) walked in, they immediately started waiting on us as well. A Middle-Aged Gentleman was manning the kitchen. We looked over the menu, and placed our orders.

And soon enough our panchan arrived.

The portion size of the various panchan were pretty good. And the quality ranged from some pretty tasty stuff, to very, very mediocre(iceberg lettuce salad with thousand island dressing??).

The Missus enjoyed the sweet potato and shrimp:

And the steamed egg.

The Seaweed Salad wasn’t bad.

Even though the Baechu(Napa Cabbage) Kimchi wasn’t the best, it was still passable. As was the most of the panchan. We were starving so we basically attacked the panchan. And even though we were in the secluded corner booth, the Older Lady came by just as we were finishing up our panchan, looked at us, and said, "Oh, you hungry, huh?" To which we pointed out the stuff we liked and said "It’s really good". Damned if She didn’t break out into a smile, and a minute later came back with a second round of panchan…and we didn’t even ask! Just like Mom????

The Missus, being absolutely starved had ordered the Combination BiBim Naeng Myun and Bulgogi($13.99). Not knowing what to expect, the usual metal bowl of rice, and a sizzling plate of Bulgogi arrived at the table.

The Missus enjoyed the Bulgogi, though I told Her it was on the sweet side, and with the mushrooms and carrots it was almost like a stir fry. I will say this, it wasn’t bland in the least. With some help She managed to finish the Bulgogi, only to be met with this. The BiBim Naeng Myun(spicy cold noodles).

Geez, do you think this was enough food? I didn’t think this was very good, the Hot sauce tasted earthy and beany, but without any sweetness, or tangy flavor, and suffered from a lack of depth. The noodles were not good either, instead of having a taut elasticity, they were on the mushy side. The ice was shaved frozen broth. Overall, not something I’d have here again.

I realize that we didn’t even get to what I had yet. I ordered the Spam and Kimchi Fried Rice($8.99):

This was a large portion of rice, that had been stir fried with a generous helping of Spam(must’ve been a half can!),  some kimchi, and  Gochujang. I really enjoyed this, the sour hints from the KimChi kinda freaked the Missus out, so She ate the Egg! Try as I might, I couldn’t finish, so I had the rest the next day.

Korean Hometown Restaurant serves up rustic, though tasty Korean dishes. It is indeed Homestyle. Doesn’t some KimChi Fried Rice sound good with a couple of Hite? Looks like we’ll be back….well, I’ll definitely will be back. Mainly to try out this item on the menu:

It’s the only item that’s priced the same for lunch and dinner. Is that saying something?

Korean Hometown Restaurant
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

No, it’s not a joke, this Korean Food "booth" in the Food Court at Zion Market is really called Happy Meal…..automatically puts a smile on your face doesn’t it?

Happy Meal came recommended by Denver, based on price and portion size, and Cathy, based on the same value criteria, plus She mentioned they used to give out little "toys" when they first opened up. So one evening a few weeks back, I had done some shopping at Zion Market, and my stomach and I decided to have a "Happy Meal". The prices at Happy Meal are very reasonable, and come with a good selection of panchan.

The best was the seasoned squid on the bottom of the photo above. Here’s more.

Overall, a nice, though pretty routine selection.

All this, along with a bowl of fairly bland seaweed soup, comes with your meal. Which in this case was the Bulgogi Box($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

I had wanted to order the Spicy Pork, but "no pork today…" A pretty large portion of Bulgogi, rice, a green salad with sesame dressing, and 2 mandoo(Korean Dumplings), along with the panchan made for quite a large amount of food for $7.99. The mandoo tasted like packaged frozen stuff, and the salad was pretty much routine. The Bulgogi was quite mild in flavor, and the thin slices of potato and onions mixed in with the beef, almost reminded me of a stir fry. Not great, but well worth the price.

The usual drill at Happy Meal, is to place your order at the counter, pay, and have a seat. The counter person will first bring you your panchan, soup, and drink; than later drop off your main course. This can be a major factor during a busy lunch hour, as I found out on my next visit. Even though it was quite early for lunch (1115am), every table except one(which after ordering and paying I occupied), with plastic number cards on them. Very few customers actually had food in front of them, and I really felt for the Young Lady working the counter, both taking orders and serving each table twice. I shoulda brought a book, it took me 30 minutes to get my food, which started with the usual panchan and soup:

Do you notice something about the panchan? Check out the portion size…..

The Young Lady explained that they accidentally gave me panchan for two, but that was okay since I had to wait so long.

The Japchae(cellophane noodles) tasted really good, everything else was pretty routine, though the radish("Mu") kimchi tasted a bit too sour and off. Still this was quite a bit of food, and I still hadn’t gotten to my main course. Which was the Dolsot BiBimBap($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

The sizzling Stone Bowl(Dolsot) was brought to my table along with a squeeze bottle of Gochujang, I let the bowl sit for a minute to develop the wonderful crust, and dug in. The toppings were pretty routine, fernbrake, ginger, bean sprouts, minced meat, all topped with the perfect egg. Sorry, not the best photo I’ve ever taken, so let me mix it up for you….

I really enjoy the various textures of the crusted rice, the veggies, and so forth. The flavor wasn’t anything special and none of this is going to stand the culinary world on it’s ear, but you really get what you pay for(In this case $6.99) at Happy Meal. This ain’t no lousy same chicken with a different sauce food court garbage. So after my Happy Meal, with the happy panchan mistake, I was looking for a cool dark place to lie down. Happy, happy, me………

Some Notes: As I mentioned, service may be on the slow side during peak hours. I didn’t notice any difference, except price between lunch and dinner. The food and portion sizes  are an excellent value, especially lunch.

Happy Meal
4611 Mercury St
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for the recommendation Denver and Cathy!

*** Kim's has closed

Located in the Jumbo Strip mall, at the corner of Plaza Boulevard and Highland Avenue, next to a Hometown Buffet and Chuck E Cheese in National City….yep, National City, is Kim's Restaurant. A Korean BBQ in the most unlikely of all places.

I'd been in the area several times, but always thought the doorway to the restaurant seemed a bit uninviting.

But today, I took a walk down the dark hallway lined with a few doors, and past a "private" BBQ room, to the front desk, and met with a slightly surprised look. Perhaps I looked like a refugee from Chuck E Cheese's next door. After the surprised look faded, a smile appeared, and I was guided to a table, and brought a menu. The interior of the restaurant is fairly large, and really contrasted with the slightly run down exterior.

As I read through the menu, full of the usual suspects, BiBimBap, Dofu Jigae, and various meat both marinated and unmarinated for BBQ, I was told that a minimum of 2 orders of meat was required in order to use table top cooking. I really didn't feel like smelling like a piece of grilled meat myself, so I had no problem with not cooking my own. I placed my order, and proceeded to get hooked on the Korean Soap Opera playing on the plasma television.

I know it's cheesy, silly, and predictable, but I kept watching the show.

Soon enough my panchan arrived, 8 little dishes all told, along with a plate of sliced romaine, and thinly sliced radish.

The panchan was consistently unremarkable, and nothing stood out. The Baechu(Napa Cabbage), and Oi(Cucumber) Kimchi were very mild, and one dimensional, lacking any any sweet, slightly sour, fishy, or spicy flavor that would make it memorable. The same for the pieces of Gochu Pajun(green onion pancake), Namul(Ban Sprouts), Sliced Mushroom, etc. If I had to select one that was the best, it would be the spinach with garlic.

I had ordered the "full order" of Bulgogi($16.95). There is a "smaller" order of Bulgogi for $10.95 on the menu as well. And soon enough a large sizzling plate of Bulgogi was brought to my table. Along with the usual metal bowl of rice, and a small bowl of watered down Miso Soup(!).

Once the Bulgogi had settled, it was time to get to work with the greens and sliced radish.

Never having read the "manual" on eating in this manner; I was once shown the correct way to eat, by placing a small piece(s) of Bulgogi on my plate, place some of the greens on top, cover with the slice of radish, and ta-da!!!!

You got yourself some "insta-dumpling" action going on. I enjoyed the slightly pickled flavor of the crisp radish, the greens were drenched in a dressing that was way too sour, and covered with chili powder, the Bulgogi was very soft and tender, though coming up short in the flavor department. Still the Bulgogi was light years better than the version at another restaurant that I had eaten recently. After eating about 6 of these, I started on just the Bulgogi and Rice, and in the end had quite a bit to take home. Overall the Bulgogi and the Panchan were nothing to write home about, and gave me no reason to make the a trip out to National City in the future. If in the neighborhood during lunch, I may give one of those $5.99 lunch specials a try.

But then again, they must show that Korean Soap Opera every night, right??? Hmmmm……not that I'm hooked mind you; just an interested spectator.

The prices at Kim's BBQ, is about par with most Korean BBQ's. Galbi runs about $19-21, and most items range from $10.99 to $20. I thought the plates of panchan were on the small side, but there were 8 different types. The portion of Bulgogi was more than satisfactory. The service was adequate, and once the Young Lady realized that I wasn't a wayward Hometown Buffet customer she was very nice. I'd say the food is several notches below Seoul BBQ in flavor, but just as tender. And I don't think there are too many other Korean restaurants in the area. If you know of one, please let me know!

Kim's Restaurant
1141 Highland Ave
National City, CA 91950

**** Han Bat has closed

A while back, knowing how much the Missus enjoys Korean Black Goat Casserole, Calvin told me about Han Bat. Calvin said he noticed signage in the front of the restaurant mentioning Black Goat Soup. So we made a trip to Plaza Del Sol, and Han Bat.

Han Bat is a fairly small, Mom and Pop type operation, with a brightly colored and well lit interior. In what was a ominous sign, Han Bat was also totally empty, on a Friday evening!

The limited menu had about 20 items, all of them some type of soup or casserole. We saw several Black Goat soups and casseroles, and attempted to order, but was told that they were out of goat. When I asked when they’d have goat again, I got a shrug of the shoulders. So no goat. In one instant, twenty percent of the items on the menu weren’t available. We did find something interesting, and placed our order.

The Lady dropped of our panchan, which consisted of only 4 little plates of very routine panchan. Nothing earth-shattering, and a little on the chintzy side.

Since they were out of Goat, we ordered the Duck Casserole for two ($26.50):

A portable stove was placed on the table and a smallish sized cast iron pot of broth and vegetables was heated. First off the broth had a very high oil content, as you can clearly see by the distinct yellow color. Strangely enough, as rich as the broth was, it was lacking in flavor, and spice. The Missus kept adding sea salt from the little jar on the table to Her broth. The duck meat resembled tough slices of beef with gristly, tough, fat. The Missus couldn’t bring Herself to eat it, but it was fine to me, though really lacking in flavor. I ended up using all the dipping sauce for the duck and vegetables.

Though we got charged $2.00 for tea, served in a small beer glasses, we never got refills. Even when we asked….

It really did seem that Han Bat was in full cost-cutting mode. Maybe someone else can tell me how good their Black Goat is, I don’t think we’ll be back. We’ll stick with Ko Hayang Jip.

I actually went home and made tacos.

Han Bat Restaurant
4690 Convoy St Ste 108
San Diego, CA 92111

*** Update: Ko Hayang Jip is now Go Ba Woo, but the menu and the food seems to be the same.

We were mulling over heating up our leftovers from our previous night’s meal at Ko Hayang Jip, when we decided that it would be to our benefit to gather even more leftovers….. So we found ourselves back at Ko Hayang Jip. We had made mental notes of a few items that we wanted to try, and so placed our order. Being a real Mom-and-Pop operation, the Lady who I’m assuming is the Owner, recognized us immediately. Also, I don’t think they get very many non-Korean customers. As with the night before we were given 8 plates of panchan.

No lotus root this time; but at least we got the green peppers, I don’t know the Korean name for this, but we call it Shishito Peppers. Makes a really good panchan.

I also enjoy the potato salad. This version has quite a bit of boiled egg in it; but very creamy and rich tasting.

The Missus ordered the Spicy Beef Soup($8.50):

The broth was similar to a slightly beefy and not as spicy jjigae style broth, very velvety in texture, and not as spicy as it looked. A boiled egg, gosari(fiddlehead fern), dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles), and a few thin strips of beef stood out. The Missus thoroughly enjoyed Her soup, though she’s not a big fan of the Korean style "mixed"(black and short grain) rice that is served here. She even asked for white rice, but was told that they only serve this type of rice here. Also, she was told "it’s good for you".

I ordered the Dol Sot BiBimBap($10.50):

This version was served on a hot cast iron plate, with a small portion of bulgogi, mung bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, and other vegetables, all topped with a sunny side up egg. We both thought the portion size was quite small, and the overall taste was pretty much on the bland side; I ended up using up the entire dish of Gochujang provided. I much rather have my BiBimBap served in a hot stone bowl which forms a really nice crust; we weren’t too impressed with this.

Overall, Ko Hayang Jip provides a pretty good alternative to all the other Korean Restaurants in town. The ingredients are fresh, the prices in line, if not a bit more inexpensive, and I also noticed that except for the Mandu, all the dishes were not oily at all.

We didn’t have the chance to try the Korean BBQ at Ko Hayang Jip, but Calvin was kind enough to provide a photo for our viewing enjoyment:

*** Update: Ko Hayang Jip is now Go Ba Woo, but the menu and the food seems to be the same.

One of the really nice things about having a food blog are the recommendations that I get. Recently, I received an Email from Calvin informing me that a new Korean Restaurant had opened on Convoy St. Having exchanged Emails with Calvin in the past, I knew Him to be a very knowledgeable and credible source. So on a recent wet and cold evening we made our way to Ko Hayang Jip (aka Ko Hyung Jip).

 

The interior of this Mom-and-Pop restaurant was small, yet somewhat "cozy."

Looking at the cover of the menu, I had to laugh at the Homer Simpson-Dilbert looking character on the cover.

After looking over the menu, we placed our order. And then the panchan began to arrive, 8 plates all told.

The panchan consisted of many of the usual suspects such as moo(daikon), namul( marinated bean sprouts), and baechu(napa cabbage) kimchee. But there were also a few items that I hadn’t seen before.

The hit of the evening were the marinated lotus root with a slightly sweet-soy sauce-light sesame oil flavor and in spite of being marinated, the lotus root was still quite crunchy.

We started with the Gum Mandu($6.95):

The Mandu were really not very good, oily, bland filling, and the wrappers hard and thin. They reminded me of the frozen gyoza that you buy at Nijiya. The Jap Chae($8.50) arrived next. At first I was disappointed at the small portion size. But the Jap Chae was pretty good, and not oily in the least bit.

Even though the signage says Ko Hayang Jip features Korean Barbeque, we saw something on the menu which we haven’t had since we moved from Los Angeles. Black Goat Casserole (Black Goat Meat w/Vegetables and Broth) for Two($28.50). A portable stove was brought out, and a wide pot was brought out and placed on it.

Once bubbling, we mixed the greens into the broth, and starting eating. The broth was very warming and spicy, but not as spicy as it looked. There were chunks of slighly gamey, but not too fatty goat meat, onions, and other veggies in the broth. The greens were crunchy with a slight peppery bitterness that cut through any heat that the broth had. So hearty, healthy, and delici-yoso!!! Served along with "Black Rice" this was more then enough food for us, and we had quite a bit left over for lunch!

So good, on a cold and rainy night. Coincidentally, that night I received an Email from Calvin regarding Ko Hayang Jip. Here’s what he wrote about the Korean Barbecue:

"We got the standard bulgogi, which they cooked at the table on a hot iron griddle and later kept moist with broth. I also got the chicken bulgogi variant, which came on a platter pre-cooked. Both were a tad underflavored compared to Boocho, but tender and yummy."

Thanks for the recommendation Calvin!

We knew we’d be back soon, but didn’t realize it would be the following night!

To Be Continued………..

Ko Hayang Jip
4373 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111