Seoul Garden

After an evening of shopping, it was actually just a couple of hours but it was getting closer to 8pm so J and I need food. We were suppose to either go to Food Gallery or Woorijip but ended up at Seoul Garden. It took us a while to find it because we were on the wrong side of the street, no wonder we couldn't find it! Then we have to walk up 2 flights of stairs which felt like 4, and when we got up there we saw the elevator working...

We got seated right away. The restaurant is extremely spacious. Their menu was like any typical Korean restaurant, but J wanted the Samchi Gui, Korean grilled fish. And I wanted something barbeque, mostly I wanted the banchan.

After our order was taken, our banchan came out in no time.

Six plates of yummy banchan. I'm starting to like kimchi a lot more than I use to. Love the spicy crunchy cabbage. One interesting banchan of the night which neither of us had before was the gelatinous plate of, well, jello. Literally smacked right int he middle of the photo was that dish, kind of gives you that skeptical feeling but it was delicious. The sauce brought it together because the jelly looking thing was just bland.

In this photo you see the lettuce also. Comes with the barbeque dish so you can do your wrap-thang. It's exactly what I wanted plus I get my favorite miso paste sauce along with it. That stuff can get really addicting.

The Samchi Gui came with the Seafood Soon Tofu ($19.95). Grilled king fish was bland which was why they give you a lemon that burned the crap out of my fingers. It is true, all you needed was the lemon because the fish already had a taste to it and you don't really need anything else to mask that.

Our favorite part of getting the tofu stew now is breaking the egg into it. I'm sure J feels the same as I, though I do wish they gave us 2 eggs. J accidentally ordered it "medium" when we were actually thinking of "spicy". So the dish came out as not spicy at all to us, bummer indeed but it was still good. Lots of tofu pieces in there which is a plus.

And finally, my Duk Galbi ($25.95) which is said to be prime beef. Come to think of it, it's quite a hefty price for that portion but then I factor in the banchan that supposedly free and my oh so awesome miso paste!

Seoul Garden was good, but not great. It's a solid place for Korean food and I wouldn't mind coming again. But next time, I'm taking the elevator.

Seoul Garden
34 W 32nd St, 2nd Fl
New York, NY 10001
(212) 736-9002