Jinkook Korean

So in Dallas, there's a sizable Korean town area. 

One of the places that was recommended was Jinkook.  This is a very authentic mom and pop kinda place and it is intimate = not alot of tables. 

Seafood Pancake, which has lots of seafood ingredients, definitely worth getting. 

Bossam - which is Korean's style of broil pork wrap.  It has pork, kimchi, and squid. 

Banchan - we have kimchi, salad, and kimchi daikon. 

Cute little pot arrives.

They have Purple Rice!!!  They added peas and beans to add flavors to the rice. 

The table liked the Ox Tail Soup. Super flavorful and full-bodied. 

This is the Eel Soup - there's tons of ingredients in there.  Besides broth, there's scallion, freshwater eel, and glass noodles. 

This is Pork Stir Fry, very flavorful and definitely has a kick. 

For sure, next time I'm going to get the Chicken Ginseng Soup next time.  That was a very popular dish and saw tables around us getting it.  The Ox Tail is good, maybe get the eel in a different style next time. 

The Jinkook

1012 MacArthur Drive

#144

Carrollton, TX 75007

469-986-1012

https://www.thejinkook.com/

 

Dao'n Korean

Drove past here several times and was curious about inside.

It's a Korean fusion place, but they also have some traditional dishes too. 

But first, their drinks game is strong - highly recommend you checking them out.  Lots of mocktails so it's nice to have choices. 

This is a Yuzu Mojito - it has mint, yuzu, lime and soda water. 

Ahh, here comes the food.... yay!

But first, banchan.  Of course, there's kimchi, sprouts, sesame spinach, and pan-fried tofu.

One of their popular dishes, Tofu Sesame Salad - spring mix with tofu, black sesame dressing, topped with nuts and orange slices.  It was a delightful surprise.  This was pretty tasty. 

Kimchi Arancini - It is pretty good, it has kimchi flavor blended in rice and fried.  It's delish and the sauce which looks to be spicy mayo is a great match.  

We got the Steak Diane Pasta. It's their signature pasta dish, with steak and creamy sauce.  It is ok.  It's not what I expected.  I was hoping the sauce be more savory, but it missed the mark on that one.  The other dishes that we had are good.  I may come back for their traditional dishes though.  They have Korean style soup, stew, and Korean pancakes.  I do look forward to a good pancake and stew.

DA O'N Korean Restaurant

9861 Long Point Rd

Houston, TX 77055

713-993-6945

https://daonkoreanmodernrestaurant.com/

 

KOL KBBQ

A brand spankin' new Korean BBQ in Meyerland area.

I've been driving by it, and have been excited about it.  Needless to say, when I see that they're opened, I dragged my mom to try it with me. 

When you first sat down, they of course bring out the banchan.  Their salad, it's so good, I can't stop eating it.  There's onion, fish cake, kimchi, potato salad, lettuce salad, and perilla leaves. 

We got the Special Mix Combo, which comes with a stew.  We got the Mixed tofu stew.  It comes in piping hot, lots of veggie, tofu and lots of meat bits.

Our combo comes with Beef tongue, 

Brisket, and Pork belly.

As an add, we added the lobster.  And that's the best lobster KBBQ we've ever had.  

The service was great, the server explain the process, the menu, and cooked for us.  They do have beer on tap, and most of the sodas are in canned, but that did not impact our experience.  We had a great time, the food was good, and the service was great, can't ask for more.

KOL BBQ

10275 S. Post Oak Blvd

Unit B

Houston, TX 77096

713-485-4890

https://kolkbbq.com/

 

Taste of Korea

Went to try a new place on Wilcrest

KBBQ? Sign me up!

Very impressive presentation through and through.  This is our protein.  From L to R: Boneless Short Ribs, Pork Jowl, and Bulgogi.

Dude! The banchan is crazy. We must've like 12 dishes of them, plus rice.

You got your salad, daikon, kimchi variations, veggies, potato.  My favorite out of this bunch is the egg.  For whatever reason, the way they marinated the sliced egg was super delicious. 

Then you have sausage (yes that's unusual), sliced daikon, and kimchee. 

Then perilla leaves, seafood combo (shrimp and mussels), shredded onion, and sliced red daikon.

Not to mention the sauces for your to dip your meat into.  Whew!  

For the boneless rib, the staff was kind enough to cook and cut it up for us and served (thank you - just because I'm either too focus to cooking or too focus on eating.  This way someone stepped in to assist). 

Forgot to take a pic of the pork jowl but lovely fat and meat combo, not too heavy and not too rich.

The above is bulgogi, and of course, it went with rice so nicely.  

Our combo also came with a soup from a choice of 4 types of soup.  So we got the seafood tofu.  There's tofu and seafood at every spoonful.  Was super impressed.

What we chose was a set meal.  There were 5 kinds to chose from and it is mainly depended on the size of your party and your focus.  If you wanted all beef, they do have a all beef combo (large and small serving), we got the mixed combo (which they also offer large and small), all those comes with a choice of a soup from 4 kinds that they offer.  And there's a premium mixed combo that has it all and you get to choose a soup plus pancake.  It's alot of food, so come hungry with a lot of friends. 

This is newly established, but the service is great everyone was thoughtful and polite.  Looking at the menu, besides cooking table top, they also have noodles, stew/soup, and fish courses too.  Of course, by this time, we were super stuffed and cannot even entertain more food.  But definitely want to come back to try to other dishes. 

Taste of Korea

6968 Wilcrest

Ste A

Houston, TX 77099

346-374-7407

https://www.tasteofkoreabbq.com/

 

Dubu Dubu Korean

Was driving by this place and has been curious...

and you know, if it's Korean food, just sign me up.

I ordered Kimchi Fried Rice to go, and it came with banchan and soup.

I will say, that is the best damn kimchi fried rice I've ever had.  It came with an egg, but it by itself was pretty dang good.  The banchan dishes are kimchi, kimchi-ed shredded veggie, picked turnip, and mix veggie.  You get so much more than just normal dish.  

Dubu technically is tofu in Korean, but they have all sorts of meat dishes (and veggie dishes too).  The place is family owned and operated.  So if you can support a mom and pop shop, please do give them your patronage. 

Dubu Dubu Korean

3815B Richmond Ave

Houston, TX 77027

713-592-3007

https://www.dubudubutx.com/

 

To Soc Chon

I was telling my friend that I was craving Korean food, and no, it's not because I've been watching Kdrama.

She suggested To Soc Chon, which I've seen as I driven passed it. 

It's kinda quaint, they took over a family style restaurant, and you see alot of Koreans come here.

First thing first, Soondae, which traditionally is beef or pork intestines with noodles and spices.  Frankly, it really has very little taste of the cow, but the spices and the noodles are great.  You dip it in this pink salt to give it flavor, not too heavy.

Of course, my favorite: Seafood Pancake.  Love, love, love this. 

Their Banchan (side dishes) game might be few, but they're all made in-house.  The kimchi and the radish, you can taste that they're all fresh with natural preserves. 

For the entree, I got the Gamja Tang - in case you're ever wondering if you see Tang at the end of the dish name, it's a soup.  This is a pork neck and potato soup.  Came in its own stone pot and a side of rice.  I will say, even though it looks like there's alot of spices in there, and there is.  It's not spicy at all.  It was easy to eat and delicious.  Not to mention the meat fall right off the bone.  Eating the left over is even more flavorful than the day of.   Highly recommend.

To Soc Chon

22453 Katy Freeway

Katy, TX 77450

346-387-9800

 

Sweet Pot

Friend of mine invited me to go to Sweet Pot for brunch.

Turns out it's a cute little place with TONS of food.  Yep, this is an All You Can Eat Korean food joint.

First off, they have bubble tea galore, but as all good AYCE pro's will tell you, you should save this one for last.  Don't be an amateur. 

This is Spicy Seafood Salad

Japchae & Bulgogi Japchae (yes please)

Seafood Pancake and Vegetable Pancake - My favorite here.

Skewers of fishcakes, spicy and not spicy.  If you watch enough K-Drama, you'd know that these are a fixture in the show.  That's where people casually walk by and chit-chat to grab a snack.  

More fried goodness, left side is Seaweed roll, Veggie Roll, right side is fried dumplings.

Korean pancake and dessert Fish Taiyaki.

Left side is tteokbokki (rice cake) and candied sweet potato - YUM, this is my favorite 'carb up' spot.

You have Bulgogi Pizza, Wings of various kinds.  If you watch any K-Drama, you'll also know that they really do normalize having pizza at home vs. at a restaurants like they used to.  And Wings and Beer goes hand-in-hand together. 

Kimball - which is rice roll, kinda like sushi roll but it has your balance of veggie and meat all rolled into one.

Here's where you pick your ingredients for the soup.  You have noodles, veggies on one side...

Then, there's some seafood (clams, prawns), fish cakes, sausage, tofu to add to your soup.  And there are some sides too.

When you have your bowl of uncooked ingredients, you ring the bell at your table and tell your server which soup base you want and how spicy.  They will do the cooking for you and come up with your own concoction.   This one the base was thicker than I pictured, but it is definitely flavorful. 

The price of admission also includes side dishes - this is Korean Sweet and Sour Pork.  I must say the flavor didn't really come thru on this one, so I didn't really pick much at it even though it sounded good in theory. 

This is the Bulgogi Rice Bowl, not sure if it's supposed to have warm-ish rice at the bottom, but the bulgogi was spot on.

At the end you can even order a bowl of BingSu and make your own topping.  By the time we get to this point I was beyond stuffed and didn't even bat an eye on this section.  But if you want there's options.  

For lunch at $20.45 per person, this is a great deal.  Not only the selection is decent, the food combo is great.  Even the items you can order off of the menu is decent.  I can see grabbing a group of people and come here to enjoy a little bit of this and that.  Is everything we encountered was great? No, not all, but there's alot of good stuff that came across.  No regrets of going there and definitely wouldn't mind coming back.  Of course, we need stretch pants for that, but it's a cute spot that I won't mind returning. 

Sweet Pot

15295 Southwest Fwy

Sugar Land, TX 77478

832-500-4535