Good Food: Part 2

I cannot believe I was motivated enough to finish this list.

• Bon Chon Chicken (본촌 치킨) - This is not exactly a restaurant, but the food here is so popular that I decided that it had to be included in the master list. The specialty here, as the name suggests, is chicken. Traditional, Korean-style fried chicken. The difference between Bon Chon chicken and normal fried chicken from Popeyes or KFC is that the Bon Chon chicken is deep fried with little oil, leading to crispy, thin skin and tender meat. They also marinate the chicken in one of two sauces: soy or spicy pepper. You can hold the drumstick in your hand and almost none of the sauce will stick to your fingers, while "normal" fried chicken will leave an excess of oil. The unique thing about this restaurant is that the chicken is fried for exactly 30 minutes, so you order by phone 30 minutes before you want the chicken. Another thing is that almost nobody eats in-house. The norm is to order the chicken and pick it up to eat at home, school, etc.
  
  There is not much to comment on about service or the restaurant's atmosphere. The restaurant is actually in the style of a bar, which is partly the reason why people tend to just pick up the chicken and leave. They do mean it when they say 30 minutes. If you get there a little bit early and wait a few minutes, you will hear a bell ring from the kitchen at exactly 30 minutes, and your order will come out. The food is absolutely fabulous. The price: Moderate
  
  Rating: 5/5
  
  
  
• ARA Fusion Restaurant (아라 퓨전요리) - ARA is a relatively new restaurant compared to many of the others in this list. The restaurant is geared towards teenagers and young adults more than other traditional Korean restaurants. The "Fusion" in their name is supposed to mean that they serve not only Korean, but also Japanese and "fusion" dishes. They are lacking in side dishes compared to others, but the main dishes come in huge quantities. The menu boasts a wide array of foods, ranging from small appetizers like fried squid to seafood casseroles to barbecue skewers to simple ramen. "Restaurant," however, is not the accurate word to describe ARA. The food is not the focus, especially on Fridays or Saturdays - on those nights this place turns into a karaoke bar with tons of Koreans drinking and enjoying themselves. This restaurant has two ambitions: first, to be a karaoke lounge, and second, to be a restaurant. It is extremely successful in the first, but it fails to impress in the second. ARA is more of a place to snack than to dine.
  
  The restaurant plays some nice music and has a good atmosphere in general. What bothers me is that even if you sit at a smoke-free table, you can sometimes catch a whiff of smoke from a smoker in a smoking room (I have a very sensitive nose >_>). The service is nice; friendly compared to other restaurants. Although, I once had a teenage waiter who messed up the order completely... But they gave us a free dish to compensate, so it's all good. But in the end, the major part of the rating has to do with the food, and ARA needs some work in that respect. The price: Cheap-Moderate
  
  Rating: 4.4/5
  
  
  
• Vit Goel (Lighthouse) Tofu (빛고을 순두부) - Lighthouse specializes in Soondubu Jjigae, a hot and spicy stew made with tofu and vegetables. The restaurant gives a variety of options for toppings, ranging from a simple kimchi stew, to beef and pork stew, to seafood stew, to a "combination stew" that combines meat, seafood, and what have you. And of course, if you are not in the mood for this stew, you can always get the Korean BBQ, or the stir-fried spicy squid and noodles. The menu only has about 15 items, 8 of which are different varieties of the tofu stew, so you generally only come here for the soup. That being said, Lighthouse has the best tofu stew in the Northern Virginia area. For about 10 bucks, you get the stew, side dishes ranging from pickled vegetables and kimchi to a cold kinchi soup for appetizer, endless rice (they give you more if you ask for more after your first bowl), and as an added bonus, some browned rice (that results from cooking the rice in the traditional black bowls with fire) suspended in hot water (for after the meal). The place is usually crowed during lunch and dinner hours, but it's almost empty between those hours. When they give out the side dishes, everyone gets a raw egg. When you get the soup, which is still boiling and bubbling as it is placed in front of you, you are supposed to put the egg in the soup for it to poach. Just don't fail like Jack and end up with half of the shell inside the soup.
  
  They have a nice atmosphere. the chairs aren't necessarily the most comfortable to sit in, but that's just the spoiled me talking again. The service is great; the waitresses are all very nice, and they never mess up your orders! As with any Korean restaurant, you get free "refills" on side dishes and rice. The most American-friendly thing about this place is that you get a range of options for how spicy you want your soup to be, ranging from white and normal to double spicy. The price: Moderate
  
  Rating: 5/5
  
  
  
• Seoul Gooldaegee (Honey Pig) (서울 꿀돼지) - Honey Pig Restaurant is a recent phenomenon. They opened fairly recently, only a block or two away from Lighthouse Tofu. This restaurant specializes, as the name may suggest, in Korean BBQ. This restaurant is very unique. The tables are round metal tables with a large circular grill at the center. Once you make your order, the waitress brings out the raw meat to your table, and cooks the meat on the grill for you. You get the standard side dishes: sauce, if appropriate, that goes with the meat; lettuce for wrapping the meat in; raw peppers and garlic; cold kimchi soup. I've only been there once, but the food was really good. When it first opened, Honey Pig was crowded 24/7, with people waiting for hours in line. Even now, people wait in hours-long lines during dinner hours, and even at around 4-5 pm, the place is about 60% full capacity. The prices on the menu seem fairly expensive, but 4 people can share 3 servings and be extremely full, resulting in only about 10-12 dollars per person.
  
  The only thing that irks me about the place is how small the tables are. With the huge grill in the center of the table, which is small enough alone, you barely have enough room for anything. They do have larger tables, though they have the portable grills instead. Pretty hard to hear yourself talk, even with only 60% saturation, so I can't imagine how loud it must be during dinner. A word of advice: it gets really smokey inside, so leaving coats and jackets in the car would be a really good idea. The price: Moderate-Expensive
  
  
  Rating: 4.8/5