Seoul Korean Cafeteria

首爾韓國食堂

No. 27, Linquan St, Lingya Dist
高雄市苓雅區林泉街27號
(07)716-2179

Monday-Sunday
11:30am-2:30pm
5:00pm-9:00pm

English friendly: no
vegetarian friendly: yes
average cost: 150-250NTD

 

Another Korean cafeteria! At least no one can accuse me of being inconsistent.

 

You can tell from the menu/placemat paper that this place isn't nearly as classy as the other one. It is also a great deal cheaper. It offers pretty much the standard spread of Korean fare: BBQ, hot stuff in a bowl, noodles, etc. as well as various combinations of kimchi, pancake, and other things. Their alcohol selection is not very exciting, but they do have soju (like Korean sake, but made from sweet potatoes). Somewhat relatedly, I am no longer a fan of soju.

 

We had seven people in our party so we got a giant spread (9?!?) of free appetizers. I'm not sure how they calculated that. Unfortunately, I only tasted one or two of them because the people sitting across, diagonally across, and to the right of me all ordered Korean BBQ and their giant personal burners effectively walled me up in the corner, away from everybody else/the appetizers. It was such an odd problem to have. Their tables could stand to be a little larger, or their burners a little smaller...

 

I did get this guy dispatched to my burner fortress. Potatoes in a sweet sticky sauce. It tasted like... potatoes in a sweet sticky sauce. Why would you do that? I mean, it was fine, but... why?

I ordered one of my favorites, 炸醬麵 or "fried sauce noodles." I guess Korea has this dish too. Well, maybe that's what that means. It was definitely different than the 炸醬麵 I've had before. For one it came out looking all dark and reddish like that. Those huge chunks of jelly-like stuff turned out not to be tofu, or meat, or even congealed blood like I was suspecting...  Radishes! Who would have known?

When I mixed it all up it looked like this. Mmmmmm, right? Well, not so much. It certainly photographed nicely, but the taste was extremely 'eh'. It was slightly sweet, what with the random radishes and all, but mostly just bland. The noodles seemed handmade, but had no flavor or texture to them, so WHAT DOES IT EVEN MATTER I ask you. Sigh. An utterly forgettable dish, all the more of a disappointment because it looked so yummy.

We also got this kimchi pork thing! It was pretty good, but the kimchi was not at all on my level. Ahem. I would consider myself a great connoisseur of painfully pungent kimchi and this... It looks a LOT spicier than it tasted.

Really, it barely registered as spicy at all.

Like I said, most of my friends ended up going for beef or pork BBQ. Their giant burners were topped with a flat plate of this...

...And turned it into something like this! It seemed a bit on the small side, as a serving, but they all seemed pretty pleased with it.

In conclusion, this Korean place is cheaper--and you always get what you pay for. Honestly, I really wasn't all that impressed. But don't take MY word for it...

OVERALL RATING: 2/5

Harmony Korean Cafeteria

哈摩尼韓國食堂

2nd floor, No. 408, Fuguo Rd, Zuoying Dist
高雄市左營區富國路408號2F
(07)556-9333

Monday-Sunday
11:30am-2:30pm
5:30pm-10:00pm

English friendly: yes
vegetarian friendly: yes
average cost: 250-350NTD

Someone walked out of this restaurant right as I was taking this picture...

And now here he is on my blog! Hello, sir. I hope you've enjoyed your first steps into the world of internet celebrity.

This Korean restaurant is hidden away on the second floor of a row of restaurants and bubble tea shops in the super hip Kaohsiung Arena district. You have to go up this flight of stairs to get there, if you can find the stairs in the first place. I wish you luck!

Can you believe I hadn't been to a Korean restaurant in Kaohsiung until last night? There aren't many in this city, and I hear that most of them aren't very good... Luckily I made the right choice in coming here to break my fast. This place was awesome!

It's a little on the expensive side, as you can tell from the high-quality texture of their menu paper. The menu is pretty extensive, but in a good way. It has pictures in it, too (not pictured here).

Each table gets a free spread of appetizers, which you can refill as MANY times as you WANT, if you want. These guys were alright! The pickled radish and cucumber with strange ketchupy sauce in the front were not my favorites, because--despite all appearances--they had no spicy Korean kimchi punch. That is, they were Korean food for Taiwanese tastebuds. Alas. I am so long-suffering.

The bean sprouts in the upper right were crispy, crunchy and addictive though, and the stinky tofu in the upper left was innnnnn-credible. It wasn't really stinky, it just had that nice salty "pungent French cheese" flavor to it. The tofu itself was chewy, and the outside was crisp. Awesome.

These are in fact two different drinks, though they look exactly the same. The drink on the left is my alcoholic cider thing, and the drink on the right is my friend's alcoholic yogurt thing (?!?). I really liked mine: it was basically slightly milky fruity sweetness, with a touch of hard liquor, cut with a hint of carbonation. My friend's was the same except it had an extra hint of chalky yogurt taste, which is great if you're into that... He seemed to like it, anyway. Either way, it was definitely COOL to have these exotic Korean drinks available!

Aaaaaaaaaa!!! I ordered the fried 年糕 dish, which also included instant noodles, fishcakes, tofu, cabbage, and an egg, topped with a lovely thick, sweet, slightly spicy sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. 年糕, for those of you who don't know, is our best friend noodlestuff in yet another new and exciting form: they're the cylinders you see in the photo above. And they were awesome! They arrived perfectly cooked, soft and slightly chewy all the way through, not hard in the middle like when I make them myself sometimes. (Surprise everybody, I am a terrible cook.)

Here's another photo, because this guy was SOOO delicious. The noodles may have been the prepackaged kind, but they were also perfectly cooked and completely delicious. Which makes sense, because Korean instant noodles are famous in Asia for somehow being... actually incredibly good. I don't know how they do it, but really; this is no Walmart instant ramen we're talking about here. These particular noodles had a really nice heft to them, and they soaked up the sauce in the most sinful way.

Everything else in this pot was also smothered in sauce and totally delicious. It was also a LOT. We ordered three dishes for two people, thinking there wouldn't be enough, but I regret that decision very much (and so does my wallet).

My friend got this chicken and 冬粉 (rice noodles) thing, which came out looking a lot more like something you'd get in southern China than Korea--but then again I've never been to Korea, so what do I know. I just assume everything they eat there is bright red and kind of sticky.

The noodles were good though! I can confirm that much.

We finished our meal with this completely unnecessary seafood kimchi pancake. I was already stuffed at this point, but I just couldn't stop myself from devouring it (handily). It was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, absolutely stuffed with savory seafood and suffused with delicious oils. Oh man. Oh man oh man.

Sooo, even though I had a little trouble moving after this meal, looking back I have only the happiest of memories. You won't regret going here, really. It's a little on the expensive side (especially if you order too much), but the atmosphere and food is all of very high quality, so you really feel like you're getting your money's worth.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5