ottawa foodies

I've had the bulgogi at Alirang three times in the past month, I think I might be developing a problem. I love the flavours in it, and the amount of beef you get. It's one of my first forays into Korean food, so I can't speak much about the location in comparison to other places. I can honestly say though that I could eat this weekly, or even daily. ;)

in this case, pork bulgogi aka Gochujang bulgogi, was very very good

being an afficiando of pork, this ranks up there
tasty!
sweet, spicy and salty
num num num
stirfried with onions and carrots
sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds and served on brown (white available) rice..wow!

My coworker whose parents own this place brought in a bunch of this today and offered it up to anyone who wanted some. I jumped right on it of course - I'd never had bulgogi before. But moreover, free food! Of course I'll take it! It was extremely yummy and I'd definitely order it myself.

My sweetheart and I went to Koreana a few months ago. We like the decor. But we love the food. It is not expensive and very tasty. The place is very clean including the washroom.

The service is excellent. We gave the waitress a 20% tip.

We recommend this restaurant highly. You wont be disappointed.

The tabletop barbecue is the main attraction here (although the tempura at another table looked good -- will try that another time). Each table has a burner in its center. There are a bunch of different meat choices, ranging from $17 to $22 per person for individual portions. That might sound like a lot, except it's all you need to pay. Side dishes, appetizers, etc are all included in that price. We didn't even pay for tea (tasted like toasted rice green tea) so I assume that is included too. Or they made a mistake. ?

I asked the server which meat is the tastiest and she recommended the beef rib spare marinated in soy sauce. You get two thin sheets of marinated beef, about 3 inches by 8, with a rib bone at one end. You grill the whole thing on one side and then cut it into little strips with scissors once it has firmed up a bit. It was very good. Maybe better than the bulgogi I make at home using flank steak. ;-)

I was there with my bro-in-law and we opted to have the pork neck as a second choice. The pork neck is somewhwat less fatty than the pork belly. It is not marinated in any way so the delicious, seemingly homemade, chili garlic sauce comes in handy here.

We were given a thick orange squash "soup" to start. It was more like a small warm savoury pudding. Very nice. Then all the side dishes came: kimchi, green salad with sweet sesame dressing, marinated daikon strips, and a nice one made with wilted zucchini slices. Bowls of rice (the only thing we got two of) and a plate of lettuce leaves for wrapping. The server brought a bowl of tofu soup, which kind of stumped me. When I asked how we were meant to share it, she brought a serving spoon and two small bowls. ;-) The soup was awesome.

As we reached the end of our side dishes, we were offered refills. I asked for some more kimchi and it was presented promptly at no extra cost. Very nice indeed.

The picture here was snapped in some haste and is missing a few things, like the plates of raw meat. Small technicality. LOL

Anyway, my bro-in-law is a hungry university student and I have a very healthy appetite. We left very satisfied, so at just over $25 per person, including tax and tip, I take exception to any claim that the food here is overpriced.

I'm looking forward to my next visit!

The Husband always orders the Pork Bulgogi because it's the spiciest one. Then he asks for it "a little extra spicy" and they try to kill him with it.

He always loves it.

We opted for the beef bulgogi and enjoyed the tasty morsels of tender beef combined with an unusually generous amount of onions and broccoli, all on a sizzling plate. It doesn't quite have the charm of cook-at-your-table bulgogi, but it still tastes great! We each got a nice big bowl of rice to go with it but we had to share the little dish of kimchi.