A Korean Restaurant
On 3 March 2008, I went to London to renew my passport, and I decided to eat something I cannot in Birmingham. The first thing that came to my mind was the Korean food. I found this place by chance near Tottenham Court tube station, and, as I was pretty hungry, I decided to settle without looking around too much.
This time, I don't name the restaurant. There is a reason for that. When I was taking photos of their menu outside, a guy from the shop stopped me saying that I should not take photo of the menu, because it was his restaurant. Fair enough. I don't name the restaurant, as he might complain if I publish thes photos from his place. And you would not feel sorry, I as I am not goint to recommend it to you.
First, this is a cup of green tea for £1.80. Expensive for a tea bag in a mag. The waiter brought it to me quite a long time after I placed the order. Seeing that he was very apologetic, he must have forgotten about it. As it is a very small restaurant with 10 tables or so, and it was not even busy, there is no excuse.
This is a Korean BBQ restaurant, but for lunch time, it offers set meals for £7 or 8. I ordered Stir fried squid and vegetable with sweet chili sauce for £7.50. Soup and two kimchi (Korean pickles) are part of the meal deal. They offered the same quantity of Kimchi both to me and to a Korean couple sitting next to me, so I got the better value eating alone.
It looked lovely, but it did not taste as good. It wasn't bad, but certainly below my expectations. The chili sauce tasted suspiciously similar to bagged Korean chili sauce I used to eat find in supermarkets in Japan, and the chunks of onions in the stir-fry were almost raw. The plate was stone cold, as they did not warmed it up before serving. The soup tasted of hot water as it did not have particular flavour.
The only thing I found delicious was this Kimchi. It was made of crunchy green leaves that I did not recognise. Might be sesami leaves, but I am not sure. The Chinese cabbage kimchi, however, was very disappointing as being not fermented enough.
Another unattractive thing about this restaurant is the toilets situated in the underground, next to the kitchen. It was dark and they forgot to put the paper.
After the meal I was offered two pieces of orange to cleanse the palate. They were cleverly cut to look them pretty and easy to eat.
The clients were mostly Koreans and they seemed to know each other. I wondered if the Koreans like this kind of cooking.
The bill for lunch set and a cup of tea came to £ 9.30 (left £10). The price was ok, but I think I can find better food elsewhere else for the same price.
