Sam Won Kai Bi - 2606 Telegraph - 10.19.2007

Sam Won Kai is a Korean BBQ place that has a mysterious look about it from the outside. My Partner in Chow (PIC) was truly frightened to walk in here, as no windows and zero experience with Korean food were daunting.

Inside, this place was filled with Korean people. We took this as a good sign.

Not ever having had Korean BBQ, I don't know what I was expecting. I *wasn't expecting a shit-ton of smoke and actual mini BBQ's at tables below massive fans, but hey. When in Koreatown (or, more accurately, the Korean minmall)...

Anyway, our waitress was really nice and helped us pick our meal.

What we ordered: Mung bean cake with vegetables for an appetizer, which was huge and awesome. We then had 2 kinds of beef, and before they brought it out with our groovy personal BBQ they brought us a boatload of vegetables and condiments. They were: soup, rice, salad, kim-chee, mung bean sprouts, lettuce, cucmbers, broccoli, seaweed, tofu, weird fishy stuff, mushrooms (?), jalapenos and garlic, and peanut sauce. Phew!
Service: eager to make sure we didn't order something we wouldn't like
Atmo: smoky & a bit cafeteria-esque
Crowd: local Koreans, their friends and family
Spent: around $40.00
Overall rating: 4 sporks

I love condiments, so all these groovy things made me very happy, and that gives extra bonus points on the rating.

We had barley tea, which was interesting and good. It was also hot.

Grilling our own beef was fun, and while the quality of the beef certainly wasn't Niman Ranch I wasn't entirely afraid of it. Both beefs were marinated and tasted like delicious, fresh jerky.

Overall, as you'll see from subsequent reviews this is by far the best Korean place we've been to yet. But as of this writing we haven't tackled the Koryo plaza Korean BBQ place yet, because we've been slackers. Yes, I know it's March. Unfortunately our love of food sometimes pulls us off Telegraph... we're trying to be better about that.