Baroo - Arts District

Been back maybe 5-6x over the last year and went to the Kato x Baroo dinner this evening.

Some notes on previous visits:
my review from the other thread is here

The vegan/veg menu might be better than the original meal, tbh. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The only minor dock is that dessert feels incomplete without the housemade ice cream (which isn’t vegan!)

In my initial review, I mentioned that Baroo felt like a punk rock band becoming more refined; but subsequent meals—and a collab dinner at Kato—make me think that Kwang and team were (maybe?) holding back in caution before stretching out again.

The tasting menu has seen some pretty regular updates on a course-by-course basis; maybe enough that you could be a regular every other month, if you really wanted; but definitely enough to be a quarterly visit for a food geek.

Kato x Baroo:
tl;dr: Fans of OG Baroo would weep tears of joy at the first couple dishes, the remainder of the menu was a retread for Baroo’s regular dinner service.
The first dish (boribap) will look familiar to fans of baroo v1, combining the barley of the noorook, the now-infamous potato chips of the kimchi fried rice; but even more refined with a depth of flavor:

https://imgur.com/a/2IIQzfL

Subsequent dishes were s-tier; but I didn’t really take photos bc it was date night:

  • marinated raw crab, which was excellent and made me grin from ear to ear (please, more messy dishes at fine dining!!!). The crab quality was what you would expect from these restaurants, the seasoning was great, and we definitely put away a few scoops of rice finishing up the broth. Maybe up there (or better than?) Soban.
  • Noodle dish was a saucier version of the noodle offered at Baroo’s standard service
  • Shortrib ssam was great; but also similar to standard service. Betel leaf wraps were a nice touch.
  • More restaurants need to offer a bingsoo, period: the shaved ice was topped with a corn pudding and had roasted corn kernels hidden beneath. excelllleennntttttttttt
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