Thursday, July 28, 2005
Korean restaurants in the Washington area often share the same general steakhouse architecture: lots of wood, gas grills built into the center of some tables and ventilation hoods overhead, complete with sprinkler nozzles. When the hoods are working, the noise can be distracting.
Although barbecue is often the specialty of the house, it's more a reflection of Korean restaurant cuisine than home cooking. Meat in Korea is expensive -- two or three times U.S. prices -- so dining at a Korean barbecue restaurant is analogous to dining at a premier U.S. steakhouse.
Other Korean dishes aren't always appealing to Americans, so many Korean restaurants offer Japanese dishes to attract more customers. Many of the best Korean restaurants in this area have extensive sushi and sashimi offerings, as well as cooked Japanese dishes such as teriyaki, tempura and katsu (breaded, fried cutlets).
Many Korean restaurants also offer some Chinese dishes. A few specialize in Chinese-Korean cuisine: Korean versions of Chinese dishes that originated with Koreans who worked in China. Those dishes often bear little resemblance to well-known Chinese or Korean dishes.
Servers at the Korean restaurants I visited were almost all women. Language is often an impediment to communication. Service is frequently perfunctory. That said, the servers seemed thrilled when I enjoyed their cuisine, and they became more helpful on subsequent visits. Few restaurants have Web sites, and many don't accept reservations. Paper napkins are the norm, even at upscale places.
There isn't a concentration of Korean restaurants in the Maryland suburbs similar to Koreatown in Annandale. Howard County, which has a large number of Korean residents, has only two restaurants that feature mainly Korean cuisine. There is a small cluster of Korean restaurants in Glen Burnie. There are several Korean restaurants in the Rockville and Wheaton areas, mostly in Korean-owned strip malls.
HOWARD COUNTY· Ellicott City
Han Sung Restaurant bills itself as having Korean and Japanese cuisine, though the Japanese offerings predominate.
Han Sung looks more like a coffee shop or carryout than a sit-down restaurant. There are no grill tables or ventilation hoods, just a lot of red-and-black kitchen-style chairs and laminate tables.
Most of the favorite Korean dishes are available, including pan-fried dumplings, seafood pancake, jap chae ( called chab chae here), a few Korean soups and a couple of barbecue dishes. The panchan don't compare with Shin Chon Garden's. 3570 St. John's Lane, 410 -750-3836 .
Shin Chon Garden, in Ellicott City's Lotte Plaza, is the only Korean restaurant in Howard County that offers barbecue cooked at the table. Korean newspapers and fliers are strewn in the foyer, but the interior is stylish in an Asian steakhouse way. It's all dark wood and rice paper screens. The sushi bar is across the back; the private dining spaces are to the side.
A single order of bul go gi was cooked in the kitchen and carried to the table on a sizzling platter, similar to the way fajitas are presented. The dumplings were tasty, and the seafood pancake was plump with shellfish and nearly greaseless.
But a luncheon bento box, which included good sushi and California roll, had too-chewy pork belly slices, though they were wonderfully spicy.
The panchan are especially good, and on occasion included cubes of well-cooked beef with boiled egg, silken whole-cabbage kimchi, Asian pears in mayonnaise, and lettuce with Thousand Island dressing. 8801 Baltimore National Pike, 410-461-3280.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY· Rockville
Ha Dong Oak draws a construction worker/auto mechanic crowd, at least at lunch, for hearty Korean food. Here you find the requisite dark room and tables with grills, but it's all a little run-down. In the foyer are stacks of Korean newspapers, a bulletin board with notices in Korean and boxes of audiocassettes of evangelical sermons.
There is a small sushi bar just inside the entrance, and there is unlimited sushi on the luncheon buffet. I watched some people load up two plates and eat every piece.
The dumplings are fatter than most, more like round pouches than smooth half-moons, and the dough is thin and tasty. The shrimp pancake -- plump with shrimp, squid, green onions and peppers -- is flavorful and cut into squares, in the traditional way. The barbecue is well cooked -- in the kitchen, for a single order. The servers are attentive, and the kimchi is excellent. 2104 Veirs Mill Rd., 301-340-6880 .
Hyahn Korean Restaurant looks nothing like most of the other Korean restaurants I visited. It is light and bright, with white walls, white floors, pale white tables and black chairs that look like they could have come from Ikea. There are no grill tables or ventilation hoods, and the restaurant is spotless.
The welcome is friendly, the explanations come easily, and the menu doesn't stray from Korean standards. The spicy barbecue pork belly was tender and delicious. The easy-listening hymns playing in the background seemed a bit out of place, but not jarringly so. 4007-D Norbeck Rd., 301 -929-9066.
Sam Woo is the best-known Korean restaurant in the Maryland suburbs. This Rockville favorite features typical Korean steakhouse decor, but with blond wood. There is a large sushi bar, a luncheon buffet and grill tables along the side. There is also a heavy westernized flair to much of the food.
Order bul go gi, and instead of lettuce for wrapping the meat you'll get a lettuce salad -- and no soybean paste. The meat is good, and so are the panchan , but it all seems too homogenized for me. Although there are some exotic dishes on the menu, such as beef intestines, the more familiar dishes lack soul. 1054 Rockville Pike, 301-424-0495.
· Wheaton
Dae Sung Kwan is the premier Chinese-Korean restaurant in the area. The decor is old-time Chinese, with lots of red and heavy lacquered furniture. The menu doesn't include any standard Korean dishes, and even the dishes with Chinese names often don't look like anything familiar.
We began with dumplings, which were large and thick, Chinese-style, deep-fried rather than pan-fried. The dish identified on the menu as kung pao chicken ( mawoondagogi in Korean) had none of the punch or peanuts of the traditional Chinese dish, and a lot of vegetables and onions.
Gunpunggi , which was listed as spicy fried chicken, most resembled General Tsao's chicken, but on the bone. The buchoojabchae , described as shredded pork with vegetables and crystal noodles, had no vegetables and no noodles. It was shreds of pork coated in cornstarch, quickly fried and then stir-fried with copious quantities of julienned leeks. It was good, but nothing I'd anticipated.
Happy Family looked and tasted like typical Happy Family (a combination of seafood and meat with vegetables in a mild sauce). The server tried to dissuade us from ordering each dish. The whole-cabbage kimchi was sensational. 11215 Veirs Mill Rd., 301-949-1500 .
Seoul Soondae is in the Korean Korner shopping center. The room is nondescript, a study in gray. There is a small bar in one corner, stacked high with karaoke paraphernalia.
The house specialty is soondae , or Korean sausage. Even my Korean friends have warned me off the dish because of its ingredients, which include offal and blood.
We tried a dish translated on the menu as "tender beef," which turned out to be cold, paper-thin slices of cooked brisket, a dish usually served at major banquets and festivities. An order of spicy cold noodles was refreshing on a steamy afternoon, and the dumplings and seafood pancakes were typical fare and hearty.
The dish listed as barbecue pork was more like stir-fried marinated pork, with peppers, onions and carrots. It was served with lettuce topped with Thousand Island dressing.
The barley tea, a faintly flavored favorite, was cool and soothing.
There is a sister restaurant in Annandale's Koreatown. 12203 Veirs Mill Rd., 301-942-5200; 4231-L Markham St., Annandale, 703-642-2220.
Woomi in downtown Wheaton is a hidden jewel, tucked just off Georgia Avenue. There is a sushi bar to one side, lots of tables with grills and hoods, private rooms and a fish pond.
Half the menu is Japanese and half Korean, with a picture of every dish.
The kalbi meat was cut into chunks, rather than thin slices, giving it more taste and texture once cooked. The seafood pancake was the best I ate anywhere in the Washington area and the best looking -- stuffed with seafood, green onions and slices of brilliant red sweet pepper. There were a few language problems, but the servers were eager to assist. Strains of Vivaldi played throughout dinner. 2423 Hickerson Dr., 301 -933-0100. Yett Gol , which means "old town" in Korean, has been in the crook of the Glenmont Shopping Center for more than 15 years. This is a true neighborhood place; many of the regulars are Korean War veterans who grew fond of the food during their service years.
The menu is strictly in Korean, and the dining at large tables is communal. At each is a wooden box filled with thin Korean-style metal chopsticks. If you aren't an expert, ask for a wooden pair. The seafood pancake is exemplary. 12337-C Georgia Ave., 301-949-9060.
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY· Glen Burnie
Goong Jeon Palace in downtown Glen Burnie, next to the Moon Dragon tattoo parlor, has been serving Japanese and Korean fare in upper Anne Arundel County for 15 years. A large sushi bar and seating area dominate the front of the restaurant, and grill tables line one wall of the main dining room. A large buffet, which attracts a big luncheon crowd, fills the other side of the room.
The restaurant has a complete range of Japanese fare, but the Korean selections are the most impressive. Goong Jeon features noodles, broiled fish, barbecue, stews, large family-style stews known as jungol and a smattering of Chinese dishes.
The dumplings were light and delectable. The dooboo kimchi kokeum, soft tofu stew with pork and kimchi, was the spiciest dish I found in more than two dozen restaurants in Maryland and Virginia. Advertised as a chef's special to share, the serving was huge: slices of silken-soft tofu with a heap of kimchi and pork slivers. 202 N. Crain Hwy., 410-768-9788.
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY· Beltsville
Gah Rham , just off Route 1, is a study in pine with a steakhouse-style interior. There is a buffet lunch that draws regulars from government agencies near and far, and the regular menu features all the Korean classics, with a healthy dose of Japanese sushi, sashimi and cooked items.
There is a large banquet hall and several tables with grills and hoods. A sushi bar dominates the back wall.
The thin pan-fried dumplings had a tasty filling and a wonderfully pungent pickled pepper/soy dipping sauce. The jae yook boke um, sliced pork with vegetables in spicy sauce, was akin to a stir-fried pork dish. It was very good, as was the whole-cabbage kimchi. 5027 Garrett Ave., 301-595-4122.
· College Park
Yi Jo is a longtime favorite in the Days Inn in College Park. The dining rooms are just off the entrance and are a study in blond woods rather than dark. The menu is in Korean, and the inexpensive lunch specials draw a diverse clientele from nearby businesses and the University of Maryland.
There are grill tables and ventilation hoods, but they don't seem to weigh down the space as in other restaurants. The dumplings were tasty, and the jap chae was even better, a pleasant tangle of chewy noodles, sweet carrot, mushroom, green onion and beef slivers. The panchan did not include cabbage kimchi. 9137 Baltimore Blvd., 301 -345-6500.
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY· Beltsville
Gah Rham , just off Route 1, is a study in pine with a steakhouse-style interior. There is a buffet lunch that draws regulars from government agencies near and far, and the regular menu features all the Korean classics, with a healthy dose of Japanese sushi, sashimi and cooked items.
There is a large banquet hall and several tables with grills and hoods. A sushi bar dominates the back wall.
The thin pan-fried dumplings had a tasty filling and a wonderfully pungent pickled pepper/soy dipping sauce. The jae yook boke um, sliced pork with vegetables in spicy sauce, was akin to a stir-fried pork dish. It was very good, as was the whole-cabbage kimchi. 5027 Garrett Ave., 301-595-4122.
· College Park
Yi Jo is a longtime favorite in the Days Inn in College Park. The dining rooms are just off the entrance and are a study in blond woods rather than dark. The menu is in Korean, and the inexpensive lunch specials draw a diverse clientele from nearby businesses and the University of Maryland.
There are grill tables and ventilation hoods, but they don't seem to weigh down the space as in other restaurants. The dumplings were tasty, and the jap chae was even better, a pleasant tangle of chewy noodles, sweet carrot, mushroom, green onion and beef slivers. The panchan did not include cabbage kimchi. 9137 Baltimore Blvd., 301 -345-6500.