Da Nang, when it was booming with tourism as it normally does, caters to a primarily Asian market. This is quite obvious when you walk around and see that there are scores of restaurants that specialize in Korean BBQ – which is something that I normally enjoy immensely. The combination of nice cuts of meat, Soju, and especially kimjee really appeal to me. When I found out that my friends had organized an event to one of the nicer-looking restaurants of this sort, I was thrilled because you kind of need a big group of people to justify going to one of these places in the first place.
To say that this was a bit of a letdown doesn’t really encapsulate the full measure of my disappointment. Dining out in Da Nang is a very inexpensive endeavor but this sort of place is an exception to that rule. Normally it is quite easy to go out to eat for $10 or less but this place was “breaking the bank” at nearly $30 each. While I realize that is still very cheap compared to places back in Europe or America, you need to understand that if you are truly being stingy, you can easily go out to eat here for less than $2 a meal (without booze.)
The cuts of meat look great and I am not a chef nor do I really know what properties to look for in meat. When I hear about marbling I am just kind of pretending to understand what that really means. This steak looked like it was going to be outstanding but honestly, it was just rather tasteless. The sauces had to be used in copious quantities to give it any real flavor at all.
The kimchee was pretty fantastic and the general consensus among my entire group was that it was the highlight of the meal. The other cuts of meat we got were equally as disappointing and all of the pork that we ordered, which is normally the highlight of the meal in a Korean restaurant, all tasted like sliced ham.
Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that these restaurants are a bit of a scam because they all have rather high prices and according to people I have known that have been here considerably longer than I have, the other ones aren’t particularly mind-blowing either. This is a real shame because it is one of my favorite types of places to eat. Normally I would eat so much of it that I would be in a “food coma’ upon leaving but when we did finally throw in the towel and decide to leave we actually had a ton of food left over, that one of our crew put into a box to take home to his dog.
In a rather funny twist of fate, he later told us that the dog didn’t particularly care of it either.
On my walk home I ended up on some kind of spooky alleyways that reminded me of certain portions of videogames that I have played in the past. I didn’t feel like I was in any danger or anything but based on the extremely busy and crowded streets that one is likely to encounter in other parts of this city, this was pretty unusual.
Then right as I was exiting there was a giant pile of rubble that doesn’t look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.
So I learned a couple of things about this fine city I live in: One, construction debris just seems to hang around forever and Two, the Korean restaurants in Da Nang are not at all genuine. Perhaps I need to find a Korean resident and ask them where they eat – this would probably be the only way to find a good one.
i haven't had much exposure to Korean restaurants but i do like the idea of cuts of meet on a BBQ thing like that. Do you cook it yourself or does someone else?
I experienced the same thing at one of the near beach Korean spots in My An, it was really expensive compared to other places and the meat was just not very high quality. Sure it looks great in the pics on the menu and it even looks great when they deliver it. I wonder what sort of trickery is going on because I had a similar experience in it being rather tasteless, even with the myriad of sauces provided.
Not trying to brag but the Korean restaurants here in Chiang Mai are actually very good... maybe we just have better access to high quality pork.
it hasn't improved I see. It's been years since I was last there but I do remember that these kinds of establishments were relatively expensive and a let down as far as quality was concerned. I only ever ate at one of them because it was recommended as the best value for the money. It was too expensive and pretty crap.