Good Food: Part 1

With nothing else to do, I decided to make a reference list of Korean restaurants around the TJ/Annandale area. $4 Jajangmyeon is a really good deal, but after a while one gets tired of eating the same thing over and over again. The following is a list, not in particular order, of Korean restaurants. For the following, "cheap" is less than $5, "moderate" is $10, "expensive" is more than $15.

• Seoul Soon Dae (서울 순대) - This restaurant specializes in soondae. Soondae is a traditional Korean dish that polarizes people. Some love it, while some hate it. These sausages primarily consist of many ingredients, including cellophane noodles and vegetables. These ingredients are all stuffed in boiled pig intestines. The sausage is then cut into smaller cylindrial pieces, which are eaten with shrimp sauce or salt. Alternatively, these pieces may be put in soups.
  
  The atmosphere of the restaurant is okay, if you are used to the smell. The smell is overwhelming, especially because of the small space. During lunch or dinner time, the place is usually packed full of people. The service is fairly mediocre compared to some of the other restaurants in the area. The food itself is fairly good. The price: Moderate.
  
  Rating: 4.2/5
  
  
  
• Choong Hwa Won (중화원) - This restaurant specializes in Korean style Chinese dishes. Their specialty is the jajangmyeon, which is the Korean version of the Chinese noodle dish called zhajiang mien. It consists of noodles in a thick, black soybean sauce, diced meat and vegetables, and optional seafood (for a cost). Their second specialty is the jjamppong, a spicy noodle soup flavored with onions and chili peppers. It is said that if you eat jajangmyeon, you want to eat jjamppong, and vice versa. As a result, people sometimes pair up, order one of each, and split each dish half and half.
  
  The resturant has a good atmosphere. The dinnertime rush for this restaurant (around 9 PM) comes late relative to other restaurants, which are extremely busy around 7 PM. The service is excellent, with orders being fulfilled really quickly. Chat with some friends for about 10 minutes after placing your orders and the food will already be at your table. The food tastes delicious. This is by far the best Korean style Chinese food restaurant in the area. The portions are enormous, too. The price: Moderate.
  
  Rating: 5/5
  
  
  
• Il Mee Buffet (일미부패) - This is a buffet that specializes in sushi and meat. The sushi used to be terrible, but new management and cooks led to better quality food overall. A lot of time is needed to eat a meal here because of the mechanics of how the buffet works: You get some raw meat that is already seasoned, and the people there cook the meat on the grill, which is in the middle of your table, for you. The meat is always fresh and delicious, and the sushi tastes fairly good as well.
  
  The restaurant has a fairly good atmosphere, minus the moderate amounts of smog involved in cooking on a grill in the interior of any enclosed space. They have vents that suck up the smoke above each table, so there is nothing to worry about. The service is extremely good; the waitresses will come around every once in a while and make sure the meat is cooked well. The food is extremely good. The price: Expensive.
  
  Rating: 4.5/5
  
  
  
• Sorak Garden (소락가든) - This restaurant specializes in a lot of traditional Korean dishes. In particular, they have very good Korean barbecue and sushi. They have an extremely wide variety of foods to choose from, ranging from dumplings, to hot pots, to seafood platters.
  
  The tables are set in a large banquet-style room with a lot of room to breathe. The restaurant is very clean, and it just feels nice to be in there. Finding the restaurant and getting into the parking lot is a bit of a challenge. The service is a little slow, but the waitresses are very friendly. The food is good. The price: Moderate-Expensive
  
  Rating: 4.7/5

Part 2 is next!