Kim’s: Korean Comfort
99 Eglin Parkway, Uptown Station, 244-2872
Hours: Mon-Sat 11am to 9pm
Sundays: noon to 8pm
Reservations: Not necessary


By Bruce Collier November 27, 2007 Issue

I first tried Korean food when I lived in New York in the 1980s. I worked for a short time for a Korean-owned company. My supervisor, a young man named Yong Woo Lee (Y.W. for short), invited me to lunch with him one day. The office was located in a part of Manhattan that sported a number of Korean-owned businesses, shops, and, of course, restaurants. We stopped in front of one called Seoul House. “You like Korean food?” asked Y.W. “Never ate it,” I answered. I wasn’t nearly as adventurous an eater then as I later became, but I must have persuaded Y.W. I was willing to try it. I’m glad I did. Seoul House became a regular lunch spot, not only for Y.W. and me, but also for other friends and sometimes just me by myself.

If you haven’t tried Korean food, I hope this review convinces you to do so. The taste is somewhere between Chinese and Japanese, with a few elements that a Thai chef would recognize, but it still has a character all its own. There’s beef — which the Koreans love as much as Americans do — pork, chicken, fish and seafood. Soups, rice, and noodles are staples, as is chili paste, both mild and fiery hot. For me, the most noticeable element of Korean food that distinguishes it from its Far Eastern neighbors is the pickle.

“Pickle” is not an adequate word to cover the legions of preserved foods made and eaten in Korea. You may have tried kimahi, a cabbage, onion, garlic and chili pickle, similar to slaw, available in most supermarket produce sections. Kimchi is eaten as a garnish, a side dish, and even cooked into main dishes. There are many kinds of kimchi, some with fruit. But the pickle doesn’t stop there. Most Korean restaurants serve an assortment of pickled roots and vegetables, in little dishes containing a bite or two, to accompany the main meal.

Kim’s is fairly large, with two dining areas, booths, and a sushi bar in the middle. We did not try the sushi, but several customers made a meal of it, and it is available at the tables, too. The walls at Kim’s are decorated with travel posters and pictures of Korea. Not surprisingly, a number of diners were in uniform.

Our server brought us a menu, which offered appetizers, seafood, beef, pork, chicken, soups, rice and noodle dishes, and some specialties. Be warned, Kim’s does not serve dessert, so feel free to fill up early. We ordered man du, fried meat dumplings, and won ton soup. They were out of the third starter, kim bob, a rice roll.

The appetizers came. The soup was a light chicken broth with several large dumplings, larger than usual. It was pretty good, but the man du was exceptional. Six crisply fried crescents contained meat filling, with a soy dipping sauce. I wish I had known about the lack of dessert, and ordered the 12-piece size. They were greaseless, addictive finger food.

My friend had never tried Korean food, so I followed Y.W.’s example and suggested she get what he had first suggested to me — beef bulgogi (sometimes spelled bulgoki). Bulgogi can also be ordered at Kim’s with chicken and pork. The meat is marinated and cooked in a sweet/sesame sauce, fried (some places grill) with onions. It was pleasantly sweet, not spicy-hot, and made a homey, satisfying meal with steamed rice. My friend said it reminded her of a dish she makes herself, without the sweet sauce.

It was a chilly night, and I wanted something spicy. I ordered pork and kimchi bokkum. Slices of tender pork came stir-fried with spicy, bright red kimchi. It reminded me a little of Hungarian cabbage rolls, a popular dish in the part of Ohio where I was raised, though Kim’s cooks its cabbage more crunchy.

The server brought us six small dishes of pickles — squash, kimchi, tofu, bean sprouts, a turnip-like root, and shredded radish. They were brightly colorful, and ranged from mild to spicy. We cleaned all six little plates. Some of the bulgogi went home, and reheated well the next day.

Kim’s offers quite a variety, including cod, mackerel, monkfish, and some hardcore Korean fare like beef tripe casserole. I’ve tried Korean-style tripe elsewhere, and we’ve agreed to disagree. Still, the kitchen gets high marks for not dumbing-down the food. If you feel less adventurous, there is stir-fried rice, soups of beef, fish, rice cakes, dumplings, tofu, short ribs, and simple meat-or seafood-and-vegetable stir-fries.

Kim’s is one of several Korean restaurants in the area. Its open, friendly atmosphere is encouraging to large groups and families. If you’re looking for exemplary Korean food, either as an introduction or to satisfy an old craving, here’s your place.

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