Korean Food and Cooking

Second Mission Rhea's Deli Location Put a Dent in S.F.'s Korean Deficit

A few years ago, the South Korean consul-general for San Francisco blurted out that to get good Korean food in California, you basically had to go to L.A. For someone tried in diplomatic niceties to be so blunt about San Francisco's lack of bibimbap and ssam really says something. Well, there's Rhe ... More >>

Kimchi Company Sinto Gourmet Celebrates Lunar New Year With Dumplings

Kimchi Dumplings for Lunar New Year Where: Sinto Gourmet, 1226 Folsom (at Eighth St.) When: Sat., Jan. 19, 5-8 p.m. Cost: $25 (purchase in advance via Eventbrite) The rundown: A local purveyor of kimchi products is opening up its HQ to the public for one evening only in order to celebrate the Luna ... More >>

YakiniQ BBQ: Seoul Food for San Francisco

Gung Ho Now Serving Lunch and Dinner in the Design District

The other day we stopped into the Design District's new Gung Ho, a casual "San Francisco-style Asian" restaurant across the street from the fortress of Zynga. It's the first brick-and-mortar from Seoul Patch pop-up chef Eric Ehler, and we predict it will be insanely popular with the office lunch and ... More >>

Dolsot Bibim Bap at New Korea House Comes With Nine Free Banchan

Comedian and San Francisco native Margaret Cho first tipped us off to the delights of New Korea House, which for us had always been an overlooked restaurant in the midst of all of the Japan Center restaurants (it's located across the street). Besides, obviously, trusting Cho because she is Korean, ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: Like Right on Rice

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: KoJa Kitchen The Cuisine: Korean and Japanese Specialty Item: KoJa Rice Cake Sandwiches Worth the Wait in Line? Yes; the line and service move quickly. It would be easy ... More >>

Namu Gaji: Reincarnation Fits Nicely into New Mission Home

Jang Soo BBQ: Rethinking Korean Barbecue in Style and Substance

Jang Soo BBQ's New Owners Are Swankifying Up Korean

Lara HataBarbecuing kalbi at Jang Soo.​A couple of months ago, Jang Soo BBQ -- the subject of this week's full-length restaurant review in the paper -- closed for a short spell to change owners and make a few radical changes, which are only visible to those who pass through the front door. Now it' ... More >>

Meet the Koja Kitchen Food Truck and its $5 KoJa Sandwich

Luis Chong​Some new gourmet food trucks stretch what it means to offer an affordable menu. Fortunately, new food truck KoJa Kitchen stays true to affordability. Their signature KoJa "sandwich" is just $5.  The KoJa is a clever combination, where toasted rice cake patties act as buns for your ... More >>

Seoul Patch Starts Serving Bulgogi LTs Today

Kenichi KawashimaSeoul Patch's Korean fried chicken po'boy.​Not long ago, Eric Ehler, who'd been a cook and sous-chef at Serpentine for three years, took a break from cooking to hang out in Seoul. "I didn't just love the cuisine of Seoul," says Ehler, who was born in Korea but had spent ... More >>

Frozen Street Food Meal Hits Costco

Gary Soup​In his new "not a food blog" Geezericious, local pavement cuisine enthusiast/Chinese food blogger Gary Soup spots the mobile eating trend in play at a local Costco in the form of frozen Korean beef "street tacos." Soup jokes that Korean taco purveyors such as Seoul on Wheels and LA' ... More >>

Drinking Snacks and Korean Fried Chicken: Q&A with Seoul Food Blogger Jennifer Flinn

Jonathan KauffmanJennifer Flinn at a ramen-rice cake shop in Seoul. Note: She does not normally wear a bib.​Eating fried chicken wings, rice cakes, and fish-egg soup at Red Wings ― all with beer and soju cocktails ― made me wonder about how these foods would be eaten in Korea. Were they drinki ... More >>

Pyongyang Express: Food Truck Handing Out Free Korean Tacos for the Next Month

John BirdsallWho wants free Korean tacos ― anybody?​A sister truck launched in L.A. last week, and now it's San Francisco's turn. Starting tonight and through March 21, a pop-up food truck named the Pyongyang Express ― created to pimp a new video game ― will make near-daily appearances a ... More >>

Surrender to Self-Preservation

Tofu-Kimchi Tacos from TaKorea

John BirdsallFrom left, on the hood of a stranger's truck parked on Brannan, TaKorea's vegetarian, chicken, pork, and beef taco, $2 each.​Friday, September 17, 2010 John Birdsall​Mr. Cho's Korean fusion truck flaunts a Kanye West bear clone in samurai armor and sunglasses, fronting a ta ... More >>

HRD Coffee Shop's Kimchi Burrito

John BirdsallBurrito with kimchi fried rice, pork, and kiwi salsa, $5.75.​Thursday, September 9, 2010 John Birdsall​The guy shitting in Taber Alley breaks his concentration long enough to give you the death gaze, like, Dude, you do NOT want to be here. Meanwhile, the South Park workers ... More >>

Punk Domestics' Sean Timberlake Talks Pickles

Genie GrattoBlogger Sean Timberlake will judge Sunday's pickling contest at Eat Real, Puttin' It Up.​When Eat Real's Puttin' It Up pickle contest assesses the winners on Saturday, Sean Timberlake will be one of the judges (winners will be announced Sunday). Timberlake lives in Noe Valley and p ... More >>

TaKorea: Late-Night Korean Tacos in SOMA

TaKoreaThe Korean-fusion truck serves three kinds of tacos; recipes for marinades and kimchi come from the 28-year-old owner's family.​It wasn't dreams of riches or an urge for culinary self-expression that nudged Mr. Cho to launch the food truck he calls TaKorea. It was how shitty he felt aft ... More >>

Kalguksu at Muguboka

Jonathan KauffmanKalguksu (plus one million side dishes, $9.95).​ Monday, July 19, 2010Muguboka, which the Weekly reviewed last fall, is yet another of that class of Korean restaurants in America that advertises its barbecue but specializes in everything else: black-goat stew bubbling in a wok big ... More >>

To Hyang: With traditional Korean, it's all about the sauce

Forget the Bistro. The Most Personal Cooking in Town is at To Hyang

A W./YelpEven the panchan sparkle.​Quick: Name the most deeply felt, auteur-driven, DIY-committed restaurant you can think of. Canteen? Nope. Commis? #fail. French Laundry? Please. Try a 30-seat Korean place in the Inner Richmond called To Hyang. In today's "Eat" column, SF Weekly food criti ... More >>

Don't Sound Like a Tool: How to Pronounce Korean Dishes

​Don't Sound Like a Tool is SFoodie's series of audio pronunciation guides to sort-of-common-but-not-obvious words we keep encountering on wine lists and menus. No more shame, no more pointing, no more godawful imitations of a language you don't speak.Ordering off a Korean menu can pose quite ... More >>

Mixing Like a DJ at Mazu

Tamara Palmer​Mazu chef/co-owner Silma Salamin, who's worked in the East Bay kitchens of Ozumo and Mezze, started making bowls filled with a little bit of everything on her menu to feed the hungry DJs (of which this blogger is an occasional one) who spin funk, hip-hop, and soul there four nigh ... More >>

Finish the Korean Suicide Burrito at John's and You Don't Have to Pay

Set yourself on fire.​To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Korean burrito, John Park, owner of John's Snack and Deli in the Financial District, is calling for Scoville junkies to take his Suicide Kimchi Burrito Challenge, starting tomorrow (March 16). He's taking his regul ... More >>

Jonathan Kauffman's Tips for Venturing Beyond Korean Snack Food

hyperbolation/FlickrLunch at Han Il Kwan.​You have questions about restaurants, dining, food, drinks that you can't figure out or are too shy to ask? I have answers ― or know people who do.Under the SFoodie teaser to this week's review of Korean snack food joints around San Francisco, Urbanstoma ... More >>

Korea Attacks! Korean junk food has established a tasty foothold

House-Made Kimchi from Rhea's Deli Perfect for DIY Korean

Made by the Korean grandmother you wish you had.​Kimchi burgers, kimchi quesadillas, and kimchi fried rice only sound surreal to people who haven't tried them. Speaking as a man with three different types of kimchi in his refrigerator, kimchi works better as a universal condiment than ketchup or s ... More >>

Korean Flavors, Local Comfort: Your SFoodie Lunch Planner

Marti L./YelpDeal with the line.​Tue., Jan. 12, 2010 It's comfort food that smacks of San Francisco. John's kimchi burrito is quietly masterful, a juxtaposition of sweet-ish beef bulgogi, mild-ish kimchi, and delicious-ish salsa, fleshed out with rice, bracketed in a tortilla, served up with ... More >>

Nombe brings street food indoors, with mixed success

Nombe's Street-Food Ramen Expands the Mission's Late-Night Offerings

Luis ChongSaturday's street-food serving of chashu kimchi ramen: Better than homemade.​If you find yourself hungry in the Mission after midnight on a Saturday ― just like we were last weekend ― your options are no longer limited to a few taquerias. Now you can add ramen to your short list ... More >>

Muguboka offers homey Korean fare that goes beyond meat

Tomorrow at the Ferry Building, Steep Yourself in the Finer Points of Kimchi

FotoosVanRobinStinky in a good way.​The Bay Area's self-described fermentation maven will lead a hands-on kimchi and sauerkraut workshop tomorrow. Urban Kitchen SF and Happy Girl Kitchen Co.'s Todd Champagne (the aforementioned maven) are teaming up to shed light on the finer points of cabbage ... More >>

John's Snack and Deli, the FiDi's Original Mom-Style Taco Fusion

nerd.loveKimbap sushi, a meaty take on maki.​Long before Kung Fu Tacos began selling Asian-fusion tacos out of a truck in the Financial District, John from John's Snack and Deli was serving Korean fusion from an unassuming convenience store in the same 'hood. At first glance, John's looks like ... More >>

City's Mourned Korean Taco Truck is Back, Sort Of

A pre-exile Yoon and her truck in 2007.​The good news? Korean taco truck Seoul on Wheels plans to start doing business again early next week. The sucky news for San Franciscans? It'll be dishing out its rice bowls and kimchi fried rice in Emeryville. But take heart -- Seoul on Wheels owner Jul ... More >>

First Korean Market's Killer Kimchi

It's the best you can buy (though your grandma's might be better).

Secret Places

A few modest ethnic eateries that are worth checking out.

A More Refined Fire

Korean goes upscale in the Inner Richmond

Food Porn: Hot Kimchee Action At Namu

Food Porn: Brother's (and Brother's II) Korean Barbecue

Specialist Referrals

Everybody orders the same particular thing at these Korean finds — for a reason.

Space Kimchi Poses Explosion Risk

Last Night: Opening Night of the Chinkalicious Asian Film Festival

Dueling Korean: Jang Soo BBQ Vs. Brother's Korean Restaurant

Dueling Korean: Jang Soo BBQ Vs. Brother's Korean Restaurant

Start the Fire

The grazing's great at the Richmond's most inviting Korean barbecue

Tofu vs. Tofu

My Tofu House

Best Korean Barbecue

Brother's

The Other Asian Cuisine

Aisle Seat