Suhrabal Korean BBQ

Editor's Note: My Guest Blogger, Raven, and I (and a large group of people) went to Suhrabal for lunch about a week before the tragic shooting there. We decided to wait to post the review until a respectable time had past. If mention of the shooting might be offensive to you, please read no further.

Gee, it's been about three posts since I, or most likely Raven, has written about Korean food so I decided it was about that time. Thanks to Raven for being my Guest Blogger (again!) this week.

We Enter Korean Drama Territory: Suhrabal

FADE IN:

INT. SUHRABAL – DAY

A KOREAN MAN enters, gun in hand... Okay, I don't want to be flippant about the tragedy that occurred at Suhrabal barely a week after we were there, but you have to admit it could be something out of a kdrama (a dark one where folks get killed). The restaurant owner was rumored to be having an affair with one of the waitresses, so her husband showed up with a gun and killed the owner and himself. Plus the restaurant was open for business the very next day, or so I'm told. I can't imagine who would have gone there then...

But when we were there this tragedy was still in the future, and we had no inkling that it was going to take place. So...

BEGIN FLASHBACK

A large party enters Suhrabal. From the ambience you expect this place to be expensive. It has an upscale dining room, heavy tables, overall an upscale atmosphere. You walk in past an area where the many meats available are open to view. This could seem chintzy, but it doesn't. It seems classy.

We ordered a LOT of food. In fact we ordered so much that we couldn't keep track of it all before we placed the order, so I had to write it down in Korean to give to the waitress, proving that I have bad handwriting in every alphabet. I'm not sure she bothered to read it, though, since she ended up bringing us an appetizer we hadn't ordered. Here it is, the accidental appetizer:



Granted, although we did pay for this appetizer (since we ate it), because of the mistake we also received an order of kimchee jigae on the house. I don't do spicy, so I didn't try it, but it looked appetizing. See what you think:



The barbecue (Note from Bon V.: charcoal, baby, charcoal!), of course, was our main course. Take a look:



We also ordered a number of other dishes to round out our meal. Hey, there were a lot of us. We deserved a lot of food. We pigged out on a delicious seafood and egg pancake (yum!), delicious chapchae (noodles with vegetables), and a plate of kimchee dumplings. Despite the fact that I don't do hot food, I was enticed by the dumplings (below).



I don't recall much about the panchan except for the deep-fried seaweed. I think this is the Korean answer to potato chips. I loved it at the time. It's sort of salty, sweet, and crisp all at once. I have to say, though, after I picked up a whole container of my own at HK Market, I got tired of this seaweed treat really fast.



Finally, after we were done eating, we all received a refreshing rice drink, which I really enjoyed.



And the best part is, the bill didn't live up to the pricey atmosphere. I was sure we'd be paying through the nose, but it was really quite reasonable.

END FLASHBACK

FADE OUT.

Note from Bon V.: After Suhrabal, we all went over to HK Market and saw this crazy warning:



Suhrabal
100 S. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Soot Bul Gui Rim

A preview of coming attractions:

Our meal started off right at this Koreatown favorite. The top photo reveals our first round: unmarinated short rib, beef tongue, and the de rigueur pork belly. Glimpses into our second round in the bottom photo: marinated short rib (and we also threw on some fresh garlic and jalapeno).

Lately, I've been having a hankering for charcoal Korean bubbaque. With all of the Korean bubbaque places in Los Angeles, only a small percentage use charcoal. On this past Easter my nose took me (you can literally smell this place a block away) to Soot Bul Gui Rim which is known for being the best all you can eat bubbaque places in the city ("awesome" said one reviewer): what makes Soot Bul Gui Rim stand out from all the other all you can eat places is the use of charcoal briquettes and the high quality of meat.

Come, delight your senses in the world that is Soot Bul Gui Rim:

So, for the first round we were limited to the three choices. I thought that the unmarinated short rib was more tender than at Cham Sut Gol ($24 there) and the pork belly was much tastier than at the over rated, in my opinion, Honey Pig (don't even get me started on Honey Pig!).

I really liked the marinated short rib; at most places I feel that they put too much sugar in the marinade and what I'm left with after barbequing is candied meat. At Soot Bul Gui Rim the marinated meat was more on the savory side. And with our second round we also got a dainty...

Have a heart - literally:

You know, Dear Reader, I fail to understand why people do not eat heart more often? It's like a really tasty and uber tender filet mignon.

Ooh, look at the flames:

Below, photos of some panchan - a lovely bean sprout salad and a healthy dose of kim chee:

Take a full tour of the panchan and the dipping sauces:

I forgot to film one dipping sauce (the chili garlic paste) which was fabulous with the pork belly.

And finally, my thoughts on charcoal Korean bubbaque:



Soot Bul Gui Rim
233 S. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Cham Sut Gol

Raven exclaims, "Bulgogi chuseyo!" ("Korean bbq please!")

A couple of years ago, Soot Bull Jeep was the standard for me when it came to Korean bubbaque places that used real charcoal in their grills as opposed to just gas (come to think of it, Soot Bull Jeep was the only place that I knew of that used charcoal). Then a friend told me of this legendary place that was better than Soot Bull Jeep. It was hard to find since there was no sign in English, but the name in Korean meant "House of Charcoal."

I never did find out exactly where this place was (I knew that it was on Olympic somewhere) until I posted a comment on eatdrink&bemerry's site and mentioned the legend of the "House of Charcoal." He responded that he thought Cham Sut Gol might be the place that I've been looking for. Since Raven and I were going to see "The Host" and I knew that I would be craving Korean afterwards, I suggested to her that we try this place.

Cham Sut Gol might just be the "House of Charcoal." It's on Olympic, there is no English sign, and it definitely has charcoal grills. Is it better than Soot Bull Jeep?

Smoke gets in your eyes (and in your clothes and in your hair...)

Cham Sut Gol has fairly high quality of meat but it's not a large amount and it's rather expensive. The Galbi (short rib) was nearly $24 and the Bulgogi (thinly sliced marinted beef) was nearly $18. We probably could have ordered an additional meat, since we were still hungry, but we really didn't feel like paying an additional $10 - $12 each for it. At most places that I go to ordering one plate of meat per person is a sufficient amount of food. However, in their defense, they do have lunch specials that are a combination of meat and some other dish like naeng-myun (cold noodles). I didn't look at the price of the lunch specials but I'm assuming that they are considerbly cheaper.

Below, the waitress suggested that I add a slice of the wasabi marinated daikon radish to my beef and rice noodle wrapper (not only did it look pretty but it tasted great.)

At this outing we received rice noodle sheets and lettuce salad to make our bangja gui but I think that my preference is towards lettuce leaves, rice, and scallion salad. We received a variety of dipping sauces: fermented bean; chile garlic; and sesame oil with a healthy dose of salt added to it.

A tour of the panchan. Good but nothing stood out.

Below, beautiful and tasty seaweed salad:

The de rigueur kim chee:

Slices of raw garlic and jalapenos that we put on the grill (notice the bean sprout salad in the background):

Now to answer the question posed above. Even though I like the sides better at Soot Bul Jeep (that scallion salad is fabulous!) I think that I'm leaning towards Cham Sut Gol. I thought that the quality of the meat was higher and the service was quite good. I like the fact that parking was pretty hassle free at Cham Sut Gol (lot and plenty of street parking.) It's probably not too much more expensive than Soot Bull Jeep because SBJ charges an additional $2 per person for rice and panchan.

Cham Sut Gol
3700 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
www.chamsutgol.com