My wife scored a crazy flash deal for KBBQ here at Miss Korea. The regular price was $95 but with additional coupon codes, she paid something like $70 for this BBQ barrage. We went above and beyond, though, when we started with this bowl of makgeolli (slightly bubbly, unfiltered rice wine at about 6% alcohol that drinks as easily as soda). I love this stuff.
First was a simple salad to get the juices flowing.
Then a bowl of rice porridge with dried fruits and nuts. This was refreshing and light.
Next up was a trio of Modeum Jeon pancakes: corn, kimchi, spinach.
These were amazing. Usually they’re thin, greasy and too crowded with scallions. Not the case here. These were thick and light.
Holy shit this thing came out next… Tuna tartare. But look at how vibrant the color is on this!
It had a perfect sear on the outside, nice and peppery. I could eat this all day long.
Next up was this spicy Sinseollo hot pot that had chestnuts, soy beans, veggies, beef and fish mixed in.
Very soul-warming, satisfying, and totally unique.
Then came the onslaught of banchan: small dishes and bowls of pickled items (kimchi) and veggies.
These are used to dress up your lettuce wraps, in which you place the finished BBQ meat after its all grilled up nicely.
Then you wrap it up and eat it.
But wait.. I skipped the best part. The MEAT! Our meal came with a plate of four meats: thick cut pork belly, spicy pork bulgogi, boneless beef rib and beef short ribs. Look at this fucking short rib…
That marbling… Holy shit! I was so captivated that I didn’t bother shooting the other meats. Just perfect. My order of preference: short rib, belly, bulgogi, boneless rib.
We also had a braised salmon dish. This was a bit dry and overcooked for my liking. In fact we threw the salmon meat into the hot soup dish for the next course, but I really enjoyed the sauce and radish that came with it. It was topped with a slice of lotus root too.
Next course: noodles. I couldn’t believe we were each getting a bowl here. We picked Haemul Kalguksu: spicy seafood noodles (hot); and Mul Naengmyeon: green buckwheat noodles (cold). Both were tasty but we seriously had no more room left in our stomachs! We brought these home, but not before my wife lifted the noodles for an Instagram pic.
That cold soup (green noodles) had some sweetness to it from the shaved winter melon within.
And then there was dessert. Little puffy, sweet and soft logs of fried dough with a cup of cold and sweet rice juice.
Between tax, tip and drinks I dropped another $50 on this meal, but for an all-in grand total of $120 (including the $70 we paid for the flash deal), this was a steal. I highly recommend this joint.
MISS KOREA
10 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001