58-59 Great Marlborough Street
London
W1F 7JY
Another C (this seems to be a popular first initial among my friends!) suggested Ran for Korean food when we were planning dinner, so off I went to Soho. We had a great evening catching up on how we were doing as we both quit working at our old jobs this year - so good to hear that other people have enjoyed the change as much as me! While chatting up a storm, we managed to eat some pretty good food as well - we ordered beef with glass noodles (listed as a starter), the spicy stir fried squid and the spicy soft tofu chige. The chige had quite a bit of seafood in it - I spotted mussels, squid and prawns (none of which is mentioned in the menu but it is entirely possible that all chiges have seafood and thus I am the dumb one). I thought the level of spice in both the squid dish and the chige was nice - I am so glad I eat spicy things now! C also introduced me to rice punch, a slightly sweet, refreshing drink that I guess is made out of rice (there were small grains of rice in the drink as well).
Another C (this seems to be a popular first initial among my friends!) suggested Ran for Korean food when we were planning dinner, so off I went to Soho. We had a great evening catching up on how we were doing as we both quit working at our old jobs this year - so good to hear that other people have enjoyed the change as much as me! While chatting up a storm, we managed to eat some pretty good food as well - we ordered beef with glass noodles (listed as a starter), the spicy stir fried squid and the spicy soft tofu chige. The chige had quite a bit of seafood in it - I spotted mussels, squid and prawns (none of which is mentioned in the menu but it is entirely possible that all chiges have seafood and thus I am the dumb one). I thought the level of spice in both the squid dish and the chige was nice - I am so glad I eat spicy things now! C also introduced me to rice punch, a slightly sweet, refreshing drink that I guess is made out of rice (there were small grains of rice in the drink as well).
One gripe - it seems that Korean restaurants in London generally don't give you the banchan (little side dishes like kimchi and bean sprouts) for free - I am used to seeing the table covered with banchan at Korean restaurants in New York as soon as you sit down so the fact that you need to order and pay for them here is not making me happy. Also, we were there quite early for dinner but then it got really busy - they were polite enough not to ask us point blank to leave, but instead kept removing things from our table as soon as we were done, so pretty soon even my water glass had been whisked away and they had come over, opened the bill, saw there was no payment yet, and walked off again a couple of times. So maybe not great if you want to stay for a long time. On the flip side, I noticed that each table at Ran had a big ventilation thing above it - if you order Korean barbecue they pull it down over the barbecue so that you don't end up smelling like smoky meat (a surprisingly unpleasant smell when it is in your hair, your clothes and your winter coat!) Maybe next time I should try the barbecue...
no banchan! i had the same problem with gyu-kaku. it just ain't right. we'll have to hit k-town when you get back. or maybe we'll get jinny to take us to flushing for some real korean food with still-squirming octopus!
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