Korean Barbecue

After fasting all day Saturday and overeating bagels, nova, whitefish, kugel and ruggelah, I was definitely ready for a different type of food on Sunday night. We were getting together with our friends and neither of us could come up with somewhere to eat. We were overloaded. We finally decided on Kum Gang San in the West 30’s. She had been before, so off we went.

What a hoot. The West 30’s is “Little Korea”. There are easily 10 restaurants on that block serving Korean food. There is a rock structure water waterfall to the right when u walk in. Up the stairs is dining and downstairs below. The lighting is very bright. It feels sort of like a cafeteria. It doesn’t really feel like you are in the middle of NYC.

We sat down, there were 8 of us, at a long table that has 2 barbecues set into the table. We ordered shrimp, chicken, beef and vegetables to grill. We also ordered a side of vegetable dumplings. The waiters start by putting your food on the barbecue and you get to watch and pick it out when you are ready. The food starts coming out in droves. There are tons of small plates of different Korean specialties such a kimchee, fish cakes, steamed spinach, tofu with chili sauce, red chili paste, cabbage and onions and a big batch of lettuce. U are supposed to take your barbeuce and wrap it with sauces in the lettuce. It was fun. The food was good, nothing out of this world but different.

The place was packed with people when we left. I saw some different things on tables. Next time I would considering making a walk around the restaurant before I decide what to order. I could just tell the waiter – I want what they are having. People seemed to know exactly what they were doing.

Afterwards, the search for ice cream in the neighborhood proved to be unfruitful which was a drag. We ended up walking down to the Shake Shack for custards and our friends went back uptown to their local haunt. It was a great way to spend Sunday night.