Kang Tong Degi - 3702 Telegraph Ave

This is the sign outside Kang Tong Degi, which is why it is known by PIC and I as "Nameless Korean place next door to New Big Daddy's."



Thanks to Yelp for filling in the blanks and giving me a name (and photo!) of this place for our blog.

Note that this is yet another Korean restaurant without windows. What on earth is the deal with this trend? Enlightenment from someone Korean, please.

In any case: This was our third try at Korean food, so we were feeling a little more comfortable with things. We walked in to find a vaguely hipster atmo much like Dan Sung.

We had two guest eaters with us for this adventure. One is a vegetarian, which would prove to be her undoing.

Like Sam Won BBQ, this place will bring you little grills to cook your meat. Unlike Sam Won, the grills are electric rather than giving you the satisfaction of actual fire. Also unlike Sam Won, you get way less condiments and groovy veggies, and the meat was frozen.

The quality of this meat paled in comparison to our impression of the Sam Won meat, and without actual flame we knew that this place just wasn't going to be as good. However, the atmo is groovier and it really puts you in the mood to drown yourself in some soju.

Unfortunately, vegetarian options are extremely limited. Our veggie friend ended up ordering some crazy noodle dish in a spicy sauce that was so hot she couldn't eat it. We're not sure what it was called; the menu wasn't very non-Korean-friendly.

What we ordered: Double beef BBQ (Sirloin and something else in chunks), vegetarian noodle thing with Ass-Burn-hot sauce, soju
Atmo: Korean hipster bar
Crowd: us and young Korean hipsters
Spent: Around $40 for 4 people
Overall rating: 3 sporks

We wouldn't go here again for the Korean BBQ (we'd go to Sam Wong BBQ), and with Dan Sung down the street with a similar groovy atmo and awesome chicken wings, we probably just wouldn't go here again, period.

However, we're glad we tried it out. At this point, the PIC has decided that she may actually be tired of Korean food. This is a problem, because we have at least 2 more Korean places that we know of before we get into the fancy stretch of Telegraph where Dona Tomas and Pizzaiolo live. Yikes.

Dan Sung Sa - 2775 Telegraph Ave. - 10.24.2007

This place looked about as unwelcoming from the outside as the previous Korean establishment, and we weren't sure if it was a restaurant or not. We don't know why these Korean establishments eschew windows. Curious.

Turns out that the interior of this place is super groovy. It's a bar with a kitchen and cool private booths made out of stables, decorated with bizarre Korean movie posters. Sweet. We might just hang out at the bar here regardless of this project.

Fortunately for us, the cocktail waitress was really knowledgeable about Korean food, and she spoke perfect English. She explained that this place was more Korean bar food, whereas Sam Won was more traditional BBQ.

Once we knew we were in for bar food, we ordered Soju. We asked what it's made out of and were told that it's 50/50 rice and barley as 60%, 20% sweet potato, and 20% tapioca. It's also 19.8% alcohol. Woo!

This place has lots of Soju specials, seeing as how it's a bar. Anyway...

What we ordered: Chicken wings, soup & Kim-chee pancake
Atmo: hipster Korean happy hour
Crowd: local Koreans hipsters + regular, younger neighborhood types
Spent: around $40.00
Chicken wing rating: 4 sporks
Other food rating: 3 sporks
Atmo rating: 4 sporks
Overall rating: (we don't divide evenly; food is more important)... 3.5

If you order the chicken wings, you'll be thrilled. They were massive drumsticks and covered in some hugely sticky honey-based sauce that we both loved. The kim-chee pancake was OK; the soup I liked, but the PIC wasn't thrilled about fish-based broth.

We'd go back for the wings and the interesting ambiance.

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.