Friday, March 2, 2012

My First Bite: Ye Dang

For some weird reason, I remember Ye Dang to be on the second floor of a building across the Union Bank head office. Thus it was a surprise to me when I saw it beside Metrowalk. What surprised me even more is when my balikbayan friend N wanted to eat there instead of a Filipino restaurant. Oh well.

Annyeong haseyo, Ye Dang!
 
It took us a bit longer to go to this rather popular Korean restaurant because of the rush hour. Luckily, the place was not crowded at all and we managed to get seats right away.

As first time diners, it took us good 5 or so minutes to decide what to order. Finally, we decided to order Tteokbokki (PHP300), Kalbichim (PHP300), Dak-Gui (PHP300), and Bulgogi (I forgot to take note of how much this one costs but I’m assuming it’s around PHP300 as well). Take note that it was just 2 people who will eat all these food. I guess N was disappointed that it was not eat all you can thus he ordered a bit more.
 
The side dishes arrived first and to avoid committing the same mistake every time, I did not eat much of it (plus I already ate so much earlier that day because of an event). The side dishes were your typical Korean fillers. It was good but not spectacular.
 
Next served was the “cooked already” Dak-Gui (grilled chicken). The server explained to us that since there were only few customers around, they decided to cook it for us. (I think they just ruined the Korean restaurant experience that most diners want.) We noticed though that if you are more than 2, they open the grill on the table. Hmmm.

Anyway, the Dak-Gui was quite tender and rather sweet. It was something that I’d want to eat with rice. For some reason though, it reminded me of chicken teriyaki because of the sesame seeds. Nonetheless, it was one good dish.
 
The Kalbichim was also very tender and savory. Cutting it was effortless and it was not the oily short ribs stew I do not like. The rather sweet sauce was also delightful and I just can’t help pour it on my rice.

Bulgogi has always been one of my top 5 favorite Korean dishes and I have tried a lot of versions already and I’d say my favorite is from the restaurant called the Good Restaurant near Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea. I love slurping the sweet soup and munching on the thin strips of beef. *bliss* [I fancy Korean food but I’m the type who doesn’t like to grill my own food (and I’m sure my friends know that as they do the grilling for me). Thus I always order bulgogi and chap chae as these are served cooked and ready to be munched!]
 
But to my surprise, Ye Dang’s version was served on a sizzling plate… soup-less. Odd.

I gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried it. It was still the soft and thin meat cuts that I love. The glass noodles were still the oh-so-good to chew. But, I still want my soup. (If you read my previous blogs, I usually order soup. I just love soup!)
 
As for the tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), it looked pretty mild as it was more orange than red. I managed to eat a few of it but it was still a bit too spicy for me. It was also my first time to eat it with boiled egg and without soju or makgeolli.  

To wrap up our dinner, we got free slice of pineapple. Since N doesn’t eat any fruit except mangoes, I finished the whole slice. It was one sweet pineapple. (I wonder where they bought it.)

Overall though, I’d still go back to order more of that Kalbichim (as I just fell in love with how tender it was) and try Ye Dang’s samgyeopsal.

Ye Dang is located at 88 Meralco Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

2 comments:

  1. those baby potatoes from the appetizers, I ate like 5 bowls of that! We both like the dishes served here because almost everything is sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, those baby potatoes are yummy! I noticed that almost everything is sweet. Better than it being spicy. :D

    ReplyDelete

Comments or other recommendations? :)