Today I went with two colleagues, who had found the blog and commented on earlier entries.
We went to Da Won, which is the Korean place next to TCBY and Subway. (I still dread the fact that I have to go to TCBY on this tour. The '80s are over, and I no longer have to go to bad fro-yo places just to have a date away from the prying eyes of my parents. Anyhow.)
J. was very happy about getting pork bone soup, while O. and I both got hwaedupbap, which is basically little bits of raw fish over salad, with a spicy sauce.
I like this dish very much, and often get it at Tomu Sushi, at Erb and Amos, off campus. There, it's usually three or four different kinds of fish, plus a big bowl of salad with cucumber spears and red pepper and carrot, and a separate bowl of rice, plus miso. And a ketchup bottle full of hot sauce.
At Da Won, it had only one kind: salmon, and the salad was just lettuce with pickled carrot. And the rice was under the salad.
This was less exciting somehow. It was fun to have people to eat with (and they're both relatively recent hires in the School and it was good to spend time with them both), but the food didn't make me squeal with delight. That said, J. seemed very happy with his pork bone soup.
I had: hwaedupbap and barley tea
I paid: $13 including tax and tip
Verdict:
Speed: You know, with people I was talking with, the wait seemed less long. (No, this blog is not a blog about loneliness, I promise. I enjoy eating alone at lunch, too, and as my job is fairly talky, it's sometimes a great way of putting a pause in the middle of my day.) But I think it was fast.
Quality: I've had better, but it was fine. The banchan were in small portions considering that there were three of us. But I love kimchi, and my partner won't let me ferment it in our condo, so I only get it when I eat out.
Value: This wasn't super, either. I think if the salad had had more ingredients, or there were more and more different fish, I'd have been happy.
Would go back: Maybe? They had things on the menu that I also like, and I really love Korean food. Typically I go to Mirage, but it has a pretty small menu.
The new Seoul-Soul has much better pork bone soup, tho Da Won is still OK. However, the service at Da Won is often painfully slow. Like, I-won't-come-back-here-again slow.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I'm eating only at Seoul-Soul and Sogo when I eat lunch out.
I guess I should try the new Seoul Soul soon. Otherwise, it'll all turn into a pita sandwich haze, which is not nearly as appealing as a purple one.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that much needed and long overdue side-swipe at TCBY. I now feel validated. I have always felt that frozen yogurt is just a bankrupt concept. It is sweetened goo with no flavour. A useless intake of sugar calories with no concomitant enjoyment. Desserts are fun because of the simultaneous infusion of fat and sugar, and any attempt to remove, suppress or replace one of the terms in this equation kills the fun. The inventors of frozen yogurt simply did not understand this.
ReplyDeleteFor me it really is wrapped up in the '80s-ness of it. It got really trendy a couple years ago again in LA, I'm told, but I never go to LA.
DeleteTo me, it's like soft-serve ice cream (which is really only interesting for the completely random connection to Margaret Thatcher), only worse. And I hate soft-serve.
The fellow who runs the Korean grocery in the plaza at King and Breithaupt makes decent kimchi that keeps and ages in the fridge well without cross-contamination.
ReplyDeleteI could buy it. But I really want to make it, instead. *sighs*
DeleteI *did* like the pork bone soup (although I've never met a pork bone soup I didn't like - I actually prefer it at Seoul Soul, same as Mike).
ReplyDeleteI was too focused on my soup to even consider the banchan, but I agree with you that they were pretty small.
It would be nice if Da Won had a lunch menu (faster service with better prices on a few select dishes).
The renovation they did a while back is quite nice.
Yeah, a lunch menu would help, I agree. Mostly, I would've liked a more interesting salad. But I'm glad your soup was tasty!
DeleteFermentation foments feistiness?
ReplyDeleteI rarely eat in the plaza as I live and work too far away to make it feasible. However, I will try some of your recommendations the next time I go near a meal time.
Given that you'd be driving, I really can't recommend any places in the Plaza over the better places in Uptown Waterloo, or at Laurier, except possibly Waterloo SOGO.
Delete