nothing to add beyond what has already been said - this place is truly outstanding. the galbi being sous-vide[d] first made the texture of the cartilage around the bone almost fat-like in texture.
their last seating is at 10, and there’s often reservations that open up for 9:30 or 10 the day of or the next day, if you’re able to be flexible about when you go
true laurel a couple blocks away for drinks beforehand is an ideal combo
I missed the QR code for the glossary. What a great idea.
I had their takeout during the pandemic; it was amazing, especially the salads; lots of interesting unique Korean dishes I had not seen on other menus. Still need to make it out the brick and mortar!
one point on whether to reserve the house menu or general menu - i think for first time visit, house menu offers great value at the cost of not being able to choose some of the more interesting meats or other dishes not on the house menu, but after the first visit, a la carte is definitely the way to go
That does sound very good and refreshing. Korean food does the cold vs. ‘hot’ contrast (iced broth vs. hot mustard and vinegary dongchimi broth) and chewy vs. crunchy (cucumber and maybe asian pear vs. tendon and jelly) so well, like in mul-naengmyeon. I haven’t had red cabbage in this kind of soup before, but I can see the crunch working. I like the idea of tendon in soup, great texture. I’d love it in naengmyeon and it’s great with Chinese ho-fun soup noodles as well.
Smoking tiger sweatshirt for sale. Unfortunately their largest size is too small for me.
If you want a different size, looks like they’re still available:
Amuse banchan. Also got the little tofu thing. Great start.
This unpasteurized makgeolli is delicious and went great with all the food.
Hwe muchim of dry-aged halibut plus baechu, perilla, and chonggak kimchis. So good. Remarkable to compare the fresh and fermented perilla leaves.
Wild baby onion and shrimp pancake. Best jeon I’ve had. I’m glad the soondae was off the menu since we would probably have ordered that instead.
Grilled tteok, nice mochi-ish texture.
Ssam and sauces for the beef. Ssamjang is exceptional.
Rib cap was a little disappointing, probably because what I crave is corn-finished and long dry-aged, but still great with the wraps and ssamjang. Next time I’ll try the tongue or pork.
That was plenty of food for two, I’d have been happy if the bowl was all fluffy coconut ice, which is insanely delicious. The mango was good too. The Wild Tree Yunnan Red tea was fascinating. The Fragrant Leaf green tea was beyond my limited tea-appreciation skills.
With that steep corkage I probably won’t bring wine again, especially given how good that Sang makgeolli is. I want to go back again soon.
Highlights
Regular/free banchan (first 3 pictured, all of them)
Galbi Mandu
Gyeran-jjim (egg souffle)
Grilled tteok
Double-cut Galbi
Neck
Tongue
Ssamjang & house chili oil
Bingsu
Would skip next time
Baek & Haepari kimchi (the last 2 banchan pictured)
Mackerel
Corn
Ssam (lettuces) - not pictured
Finally got myself here with 3 friends. Overall, fabulous meal. Maybe you can tell by how more than half of what we ordered made it into my “highlights”. (The things that stood out even further in bold.) None of the “skips” were bad, merely relatively uninspiring. Meat quality & execution head-and-shoulders above other kbbq places, really just not comparable, in a way where I think categorizing it as “kbbq” is mostly misleading. Did need to ask for a refill on the (free) banchan 3 times and it only arrived at the end of the meal… but eh. We went through every meat on the menu except the pork ribs, which we weren’t planning on getting, and ended up being sold out anyways. Next time I’d probably want to try more of the appetizers, maybe the large format tteokbokki. Really don’t think the tasting menu makes any sense unless you’re going with 2 people.
The food was good quality, but it’s the weakest Michelin star restaurant I’ve ever been to. Truth be told, I couldn’t distinguish some of these dishes from those at an ordinary place like Genwa in DTLA. I much prefer Baroo. Caveats: I ordered mackerel, not meat. Korean ranks low on my list of favorite cuisines.
I mean, the meat is sort of the thing here. (I have the mackerel listed as a “would skip next time”, in my review.)
I would indeed not think San Ho Won was particularly exceptional if I didn’t order any meat there, but that seems like a solveable problem.
I thought most of the non-meat dishes I’ve had there were great (e.g. tofu amuse, hwe muchim, dumplings), but Korean is one of my favorite cuisines.
