Our Overall Score: 4.25/5.0 Amanda: 3.5 | Sean: 5.0 Google Score: 4.8 | Yelp Score: 4.5 Korean Food | 12 W 20th St., Baltimore, MD 2121 Cost: $10 - $20 | Portion: Might have some leftovers Parking: Adjacent private lot | Wait Time: None Seating: Just right | Ambiance: Underground, Dim, Hole-in-the-Wall Vegetarian Options: Yes | Time Spent: 2 hours "These are probably the best Korean chicken wings in town." Last Saturday evening around 6 pm, Sean and I visited this restaurant with another couple, who had suggested the place. We pulled up into the parking lot, ridden with weeds and adorned with graffiti - the only sounds were the murmurs of the two African American men chitchatting away in their lounge chairs at the corner of the lot. To be honest, everything was a bit sketchy.
We walked into this dimly lit, black-walled, rather empty establishment and was immediately greeted by the hostess, who asked us if we wanted BBQ or regular. Past the silver, circular metal tables with covered grills at their centers, we proceeded up a few steps to the back of the restaurant - a small area with a little more than six tables lined along the perimeter. The walls were decorated with old-time Korean posters, including the Korean poster for the film Leon. The restaurant's length is like that of a train car - longer than it is wide, which makes it easy to lose track of the time of day since the only windows are at the entrance. Yet, the area was brighter than the typical candle-lit restaurant. Our party of four sat at the furthest end of the restaurant. Each of us received a menu decorated with various cartoon covers of children engaged in some activity, especially one weird one that likened the Human Centipede. Prior to receiving our entrees, the typical small Korean appetizer dishes came out. The kimchi was a little too sour. There was one gelatinous dish, though, that reminded me of the texture of rice noodles, like that of the shrimp rice noodle roll from dim sum. Besides that, the little dishes were unremarkable. Sean and I still believe that Tofu House in Edison may have the best small dishes that we've eaten, primarily because of the fish cakes! Onto the real food, Sean ordered the curry omu-rice with shrimp ($14.99), which he thought was okay. The rice inside the omelet seemed to have been made with tomatoes. After a recent trip to NYC, in which I fell in love with a hot stone cheese kimchi fried rice, I hoped to reinvigorate those taste buds with Kong's own kimchi fried rice with cheese ($13.99), but I was utterly disappointed. Unlike the kimchi fried rice with cheese I had a week ago, this was soft, not crisped, and not on a hot stone. As a result, the kimchi fried rice and cheese did not continue to melt or sizzle as I ate. Sean, however, loved this kimchi fried rice, perhaps even more than the one I had in NYC. Sean's not a fan of spicy, which goes to say that this was probably pretty mild. In fact, we couldn't really taste the kimchi and Sean mainly liked the dish because it was just like regular fried rice. The other couple with us ordered the Cheese Tteokbokki to share, and it was alright, but could have been better, in my opinion. Sean liked it. I just thought the rice cake was a little too hard, even when it was first brought out to us. If not for that, I think it would have been pretty good. Lastly, our friends let us try some of their chicken wings, and man, oh man, that made everything better. As our one friend stated, "These are probably the best Korean chicken wings in town." I could not agree, although, I currently have a sample size of one, but oh man were these good. I would definitely recommend that you order this! You get a lot of chicken for a good price. Sean loved their batter and I loved their sauce. As we ate, service was pretty prompt with refilling the table's water bottle, as long as we flagged them. There was nothing particularly spectacular or unspectacular about the service. I would go back again and try some other dishes. Overall, it wasn't too bad. I think my opinion was heavily influenced by my recent experience in NYC's K-Town, and those are some pretty high standards, so perhaps in a month or so, with a fresher mind, my opinion will change. Recommendations Chicken wings - Amanda Curry Omu-Rice with Shrimp - Sean Kimchi Fried Rice with Cheese - Sean Seating Most of the tables could seat four people. I'm sure they could push the tables together if you had a larger party. For the BBQ, it looked like those tables could fit at least six people. Parking The lot was huge and maybe 3/4 empty when we arrived and left that Saturday evening. The surrounding area was a little sketchy, so you may want to reconsider walking. #korean #baltimore #md #asian #casual #holeinthewall #vegetarian #meat #bbq #kimchi #chicken #maryland
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Our Overall Score: 5.0/5.0 Amanda: 5.0 | Sean: 5.0 Google Score: 4.5 | Yelp Score: 4.5 Hot Pot | 520 Bergen Blvd., Ste 2, Palisades Park, NJ 07650 Cost: ~$23 | Portion: Buffet Parking: Medium Lot | Wait Time: None Seating: Decent | Ambiance: Casual Vegetarian Options: Yes | Time Spent: 2 hours “Can we go back for dinner tonight?" We went to this restaurant to celebrate Sean's mom and sister's birthdays on a Saturday at noon. Originally, we were going to skimp and order everyone the vegetarian buffet ($17/person), but since Sean and I were paying and his mom was very excited for meat, we went for the AYCE Regular ($23/person). AYCE Regular comes with 6 choices of meat, of which we primarily ordered the tripe, fatty beef, and lamb. For an extra $2/person, you can opt for the AYCE premium, which includes seafood options and some other cuts of meat, but we didn't think it was necessary. Also, it's important to note that the entire table must pay the same price per person.
Unlike most other hot pot places in NJ, here you get to go up and choose your items (everything that's included in the vegetarian option. You've got your collection of noodles, veggies, fish balls, rice cakes - all which you already get with the $17/person choice. For the meats, you push a button conveniently located at both ends of the table and a wait staff comes to you immediately, like we did not wait a second. Then, a few minutes later your meat arrives. Remember, though, this isn't prime business time and you may experience longer wait-times if you go for dinner. The theme for this restaurant is choice. From the food to the sauces to the soaps in the bathroom, you are offered a plethora of options, which can be overwhelming at times. My personal favorites were the green tea noodles, rice cakes, cheesy fish balls, and fatty beef. Sean loved, loved, loved the meat and claimed to have had the best ramen noodles ever. I have to admit, I was a bit ashamed that he was having ramen noodles at a hot pot place, but if they're the best ones ever then what's there to shame? Their beautiful sauce selection can also be a lot to take in for the infrequent hot pot visitor. For me, I fell in love with my combination of a ton of garlic, a little bit of oyster sauce, some hoisin sauce, cilantro, chive sauce, a drop of sweet chili sauce, generous amounts of soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil, and a lot of chili oil. It worked for me. What was your combination? Leave it in the comments below. I did not like the pre-made peanut-based sauce that they had, but again, that's personal preferences. I like my sauce spicy and salty. Okay, well, hold-up Amanda, back up and talk about broths. So they have 6-8 broths available, if I recall correctly, and 3 of them are only available during dinner. The waiter recommended the Dashi and Chinese MaLa broths. One of the reasons this place get a perfect score is that each person gets their own pot! No more fighting for food, but more importantly, you get to choose your own broth. We all ended up getting the Dashi broth and we asked for MaLa on the side, so that we could pour in just the right level of spiciness. This worked great and I didn't find the MaLa to be that spicy, but I do have a pretty high tolerance. Last, for dessert, they do have a soft-serve ice cream machine with vanilla, green tea, and mixed flavors. For my first soft-serve green tea ice cream, I have to say it was not bad and I secretly wanted seconds. Recommendations Ramen noodles - Sean Fatty beef - Sean and Amanda Green tea noodles - Amanda Chinese MaLa broth - Amanda Rice cakes - Amanda Cheesy fish balls - Amanda Seating Have a table less than 6? This restaurant innovates by setting up table dividers, so a table of 6 can become a table for 4 and 2 or a table for 3 couples. I just thought this was ingenious! If you have a large party, you can forget about Reservations. This place doesn't do them, but you can get added to the Wait List online. As I mentioned, though, Saturday at noon is a good time. Our table of 6 sat down immediately. Parking There are spots immediately off the road, such that when you leave, you'll be backing up into the main road. I am not a fan of that, so if you're like me, I would recommend that you get onto 10th Street behind the plaza and pull into the back of the plaza. #hotpot #chinese #korean #northjersey #nj #palisadespark #perfectscore #asian #casual #vegetarian #meat #celebration #buffet #ayce #newjersey |