By ISABELLA OH
Staff Writer
After a long period of construction, Kang Ho Dong finally opened on Culver Drive. As one of the few stores open in its chain, this restaurant is quite a unique Korean BBQ restaurant.
They are popular for their introduction of cheese, corn and egg that are cooked straight on the grill. I loved the cheese and corn side that complemented the meat very well.
We ordered the thinly sliced briskets, beef belly and short rib. The beef was higher in quality and much more tender, than most Korean BBQ restaurants, which was very appealing to me. All three of these meats were served unseasoned, but the restaurant provided their house sauce and other side dishes, such as radish wraps, kimchi, and spicy bean sprout salad to compliment the meat.
I did not like how there was a very limited selection of side dishes. Additionally, I did not like wrapping my meat in nori sheets, as the restaurant suggested because the nori sheets were thick and hard to chew, especially with a big mouthful of meat.
The restaurant was too loud, which made the environment feel cluttered and disorganized. “It was very hard to talk with one another because of the Korean rap/pop music that was blasted high, and the waiters shouting, ‘Hello! Welcome to Kang Ho Dong!’ every time customers came in,” Grant Oh (Fr.) said.
The meat’s high quality resonated with its pricey cost of about $150 for only three plates of a small portion of meat. I enjoyed the servers cutting and cooking the meat for the customers, but that also made us feel like we were rushed to eat quicker. They also got frustrated when we tried to cook the meat ourselves, in efforts to avoid it getting burnt from the servers that were not coming fast enough to cook it for us. I will not be coming back and would consider this restaurant to be a one time experience, in spite of its positive reviews.
Kang Ho Dong
14160 Culver Dr.
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 559-9678
