Chicken Sooni Cheoli Buldak (치킨순이 철이불닭)

This is a chicken joint near my way that I hit up recently.  They specialize in fried chicken and buldak, which is notorious for being one of the spiciest Korean dishes.  I just came for the fried chicken.  They specialize in PAN fried chicken here and they claim they use a fresh batch of oil for every bird they fry.  Needless to say, I was definitely intrigued.

complimentary sides

They got a popcorn machine in the store so they give you buttered popcorn as the basic anju.  That’s definitely a plus in my book.  Moving on.  They also give you this really Koreanized salad consisting of cabbage, greens, fruit cocktail, corn, cherry tomatoes, and Korean thousand island dressing, which is basically ketchup and mayo.  Although I appreciate that they went above and beyond the typical shredded cabbage and kiwi dressing salad, I couldn’t get past that fake thousand island.  Blech.

16,000 the sauce on the right got cut off

The chicken was really good.  It was a bit oilier than your average Korean fried bird, but that’s what I liked about it.  It tasted closer to the fried chicken you’d get in the states.  The skin was really crispy and I liked how non-uniform it was in texture in that there were clumps of fried skin that had a harder crunch.  This gave it a more homemade taste.    The bird is seasoned just fine, but the sauce here is really noteworthy as well.  It’s a lot less syrupy and definitely more watery than your average chicken sauce.  It wasn’t too sweet either and it had some very nice hints of cinnamon in it.
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Vatos Urban Tacos

With all the praise and hype this place has received, I couldn’t help but to be a little skeptical on my visit.  I’m going to start off by saying that overall the food was fantastic and I definitely recommend this place.  With that said, I’m going to be a little more nitpicky than some of the other reviews I’ve read on this place.

these were just okay

So they first start you off with their “chips” which seem more like deep fried taco shells.  I liked the dipping sauces they provided, but the texture of chips were kinda off.  Some parts were nice and crisp, but other parts were kinda chewy like they weren’t fried long enough.  No refills on the chips.  Also, they kinda took a while to come out after we were seated.  I guess it’s because they’re fried on the spot.

9,900 these are fan-fucking-tastic. they'll probably appear in my dreams tonight

We got their kimchi carnita fries, which is their most popular menu item.  After one bite it was easy to see why.  These were absolutely fucking delicious.  By far the best french fry-based dish I’ve ever had.  I absolutely loved the charred crispiness in the pork, the sharp notes of the grilled kimchi, and the smooth cooling effect of the sour cream.  I also liked the skinny fries they used instead of the crinkle cut fries that I find at almost every other western restaurant in Seoul.  I say it’s worth the trip JUST to get this menu item.  Unfortunately, with such an explosively delicious starter, everything just kinda goes downhill from here.

6,500 galbi short rib

Next came the galbi tacos.  Basically it tasted like really good Korean bbq wrapped in a tortilla shell.  Not very much Mexican flavor in this taco, but delicious nonetheless.  The beef was very sweet and flavorful.  Reminiscent of my mom’s galbijjim.  I really wish they would’ve served these last as the strong flavor kinda ruined the progression of more subtle flavors of the following tacos.

6,000 braised carnitas

Next came the braised pork carnitas tacos.  These tasted a bit underseasoned and I definitely think it’s because we ate the galbi tacos first.  We had to dip these in the sauces provided with the chips.  Same deal with samgyeopsal tacos.  Everything just kinda got muddled because I still had that intensely sweet galbi taste in my mouth.  Maybe I should’ve gargled some water before eating these.

6,000 Korean style pork belly (comes with two)

Another gripe that I had was the size of the tacos.  These things are small!  Definitely the smallest I’ve ever had in Korea.  Two bites is all it takes to destroy one of these.  We had to order more food, so we got the chicken quesadilla.  It was pretty good and I liked how cheesy it was.  There was a nice Korean-inspired sweet seasoning on the chicken, but it definitely needed more meat as the cheese really overpowered this whole dish.  I could barely taste the Sriracha sauce they squirted on top.

9,500 chicken quesadilla

Ever since I heard about Kogi BBQ I’ve been wanting so badly to eat Korean-Mexican fusion.  In that aspect I don’t think this place really delivers that taste that truly melds together the flavors of both countries’ cuisines.  I would actually like to see a taco where they take the toppings from the kimchi carnita fries and put it into a tortilla shell.  Now THAT would be an awesome and proper Korean Mexican fusion taco.  Also, they don’t have burritos on their menu.

Price-wise this place wasn’t too bad.  The total bill came out to 37,900. It’s cheaper if you buy three tacos at a time.  We bought two at a time because we wanted to try out as much of the menu as possible.  Definitely gotta try the fish tacos and kimchi quesadilla on my next visit.  Here’s their website for the map, address, and contact info, but oddly, no menu.

Yetnal Saenggogi Kimchi Jjigae (옛날 생고기 김치찌개)

this is the jeongol which has a lot more extra ingredients than the jjigae

This is a great kimchi jjigae spot near my office.  I had a few drinks there with some coworkers and we liked it so much that it has now entered our lunch rotation.  They serve a mean pot of kimchi jjigae.  They also got kimchi jeongol, which is like kimchi jjigae on steroids in that it comes with a bunch of additional items in the stew like dumplings, rice cakes, and all sorts of mushrooms in addition to the pork and tofu.  You can also order ramen noodles to throw into the pot, which I’m always a big fan of.

delicious

The broth here is outstanding.  Mouthwatering even.  It’s deliciously sour and a bit on the spicy side.  It’s the kind of broth that might make you cough, but you’ll go back for more because it’s so good.  They also give you a big mixing bowl here similar to the one found in Nanpung.  The spicy broth becomes a lot more bearable when you mix rice into it.  Another thing I love about this place is that they give you shredded laver to add into your mixing bowl.  The laver really does at another layer of flavor to this already delicious bowl of food.  We always ask for several refills of this over the course of our meal.

the shredded laver really makes a difference

They got donkatsu on the lunch menu here also.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks pretty good.  There’s also a lot of celebrity autographs on the wall if you’re into that kind of thing.  Upon doing some research on Naver I found that this place is actually a chain.  There’s another location in Hapjeong and the menu items are slightly different.

McD’s Mega Mac

6,800 for the set

This is a new menu item at McD’s that came out recently.  It’s a Big Mac with 4 beef patties instead of 2.  After reading a review on this item here, which mentions that the extra patties overpower the overall taste of the burger, I did a bit of a custom order for mine.  I asked them to spread on some extra Big Mac sauce between the burger patties.  For the most part I think this did the trick of evening it out.  Same classic Big Mac taste with a significantly meatier bite.  It was like a Big Mac meets a Quarter Pounder.  Kinda pricey though for McD’s.

Taco Rico (Revisited)

Chorizo taco

This was my third time visiting this place.  I did a write-up on them some time ago.  My main gripe about this place are the prices.  It costs between 4,500 to 5,500 for ONE stinking taco.  I know property value in Gangnam is ridiculous, but come on!  This is essentially a deal-breaker for my broke/cheap ass.  Also, the burritos here are REALLY small and skinny.  I could definitely see myself eating here a lot more if it was a bit cheaper.  Fortunately, someone else paid for me on this day.

Pork taco

Anyways, for this particular visit we ordered a pork taco, a chorizo taco, and the chili cheese nachos.  I ate both tacos and a good amount of the nachos as well.  The only other place I’ve had chorizo was at Los Amigos and their chorizo looked and tasted like fucking sliced hot dogs.  I’ve never had chorizo in the states and this is what I imagine proper chorizo would taste like.   It’s delicious.  It’s chewy and peppery and it doesn’t taste like any other sausage I’ve had in Korea.  I would say that this is the real reason to come here.  They make chorizo burritos and quesadillas as well.

Chili cheese nachos

The chili cheese nachos were served with a very bean-heavy chili that was light on the meat (if they used any at all).  They did totally hook it up with the cheese sauce though.  We had to ask for more chips (which were provided free of charge) to scoop up the rest.  There were also a few random slices of carrots in there, which I found to be kinda odd and out of place.

These sauces are good, but the tacos are well seasoned and taste just fine without em