Jang Gun: Crappy Korean Food Along Libis

While I’m a big fan of BBQ’ing and grilling, Korean food is surprisingly unappealing to me.  I’m not exactly sure why that is.  My best guess is that Korea was my childhood worst-ever trip.  It was filled with Koreanovela shooting locations (which I never watched or even knew about) and steamed vegetables.  Worst. Trip. Ever.  It’s either that or the fact that I’m constantly mistaken for Korean, which we all know is ridiculous.

Still, there are good Korean spots out there.  This is just not one of them.

Libis has no shortage of Korean joints.  We ended up in Jang Gun based on some previous recommendations from 3 (maybe even 4) years back.  There weren’t really too much customers, which made parking and seating easy.  It’s a 2-story building with the first floor closed to customers.  Go figure.

Like in any Korean place, you’re served with an assortment of appetizers of kimchi and other veggies.  I’m not a rabbit, so I’m generally not a fan of these things. Hell, I’d be damned if I knew what half of these things are. Some of them were pretty good, though.

They had some other dishes that were out of stock and some of the refills we asked for never came.  Plus, their kimchi sucked… Not that I care for these things.

First dish was the Dolsot-bibimbap, which is rice with beef, egg, and vegetables in a hot stone bowl.  First of all, I don’t think there was any beef.  Second, this was probably one of the least enjoyable bibimbaps that I’ve ever had.  If not for the Sriracha hot sauce, I don’t think I would’ve tasted anything.  The best part (like paellas) are still the burnt bottoms.

The Dakbul or Chicken BBQ wasn’t anything special.  On its own, it’s basically BBQ chicken.  Nothing to it.  They left out the leaves and the condiments, which we had to ask for and it tasted more Korean after that.

I like the spicy peanut sauce with the kick of a raw garlic, but other than that, 250 bucks for a few slices of grilled chicken seems barely unreasonable.  Maybe we should’ve gotten the spicy variety, but we were with kids so… Yeah…

Now, the Galbijim or the beef short ribs was pretty good.  That or our palates were dumbed down that anything with flavor actually tasted nice.  Still, the beef was cooked pretty well and the sauce was OK at best¹.

I really expected that great almost-Japanese/sticky rice, which would go really well with the beef stew.  I guess they use the (relatively) cheap kind here.  The sauce still went well with the rice, but it’s just not the same.

Overall, not the biggest fan of the place.  It’s expensive for small portions that aren’t really great, so it really begs the question where that money is really put into².  Maybe it goes to the rent where they close down the first floor of a 2-story building³, but suffice to say, I’m probably not going back.  I felt screwed.

Jang Gun: Crappy Korean Food Along Libis 2012-04-16

hile I’m a big fan of BBQ’ing and grilling, Korean food is surprisingly unappealing to me.  I’m not exactly sure why that is.  My best guess is that Korea was my childhood worst-ever trip.  It was filled with Koreanovela shooting locations (which I never watched or even knew about) and steamed vegetables.  Worst. Trip. Ever.  …