After seeing a family of Koreans cooking their own version of Bulgogi beef next door to our BBQ pit last week, I decided that a Korean BBQ was long overdue.
I’d recently read a review on Myung Ga, a Korean BBQ place in the World Trade Centre, and was told that it was one of the best in HK, so JEd lover organised a mahusive dinner for our group of carnivorous friends.
Given the size of our group, we had managed to reserve a spacious private room at the back of the restaurant with great views of Victoria Harbour. Our table had 3 hot grills but not everyone was sitting directly in front of one which caused a bit of whining (honestly people, it’s just food!) oh, hang on, I think I was the one whining..
Anyway, D the Imperial Taster and I decided that the group was far too spread out and big for all of us to order and share plates of food, so we split the group in half and we stormed ahead ordering: Bulgogi beef (marinated beef), an assortment of marinated meats including beef short ribs, Japchae (clear noodles stir fried with beef and vegetables), Kimchi soup, Pajeon (green onion pancake), kimchi pancake, Dolsot Bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables in a sizzling stone pot) and some kind of dumplings (sorry, I wasn’t paying attention at this point to note the actual name, too busy stuffing my face!).
We also ordered a fair amount of shoju (rice whiskey) and plum wine to accompany our meal. The plum wine was delicious!
The platter of marinated meats and bulgogi beef came with a great selection of Bachan (side dishes); I especially enjoyed the glazed potatoes and the apple salad.
My friends Di and A aka “Vendino Boy” were the anointed grillers of the evening serving up scrumptious barbecued beef short ribs, pork and chicken. I was going crazy with the dipping sauce and kept grabbing more beef from Vendino Boy forgetting I already had a pile of meat on my plate! The photo of the meat on the grill doesn’t look as good as in real life…
The kimchi soup had a great kick to it and it really was quite spicy. I was a bit disappointed with the Japchae which is one of my favourite Korean dishes, as they made the noodles a little too al dente which made the noodles chewy and sticky. That aside, the overall dish was tasty but I wish the noodles had been cooked for longer.
I liked both of the pancakes, but the better one was the Pajeon or green onion pancake. In our gluttonous frenzy, our side of the table accidentally ate AT’s vegetarian Bibimbap, whoops. But then we were given our own Dolsot Bibimbap which was equally delicious.
We struggled to find some vegetarian dishes on the menu for AT which is a shame as the menu is pretty bog standard for a Korean restaurant and so should include some veggie fare.
Our Korean BBQ evening was loads of fun as there were loads of us cooking up a storm on the grills and knocking back the shoju and plum wine. Myung Ga appears to be popular with Korean families so that’s definitely a good sign.
If you want to learn more about Korean dishes, check out this blog that has the top 100 Korean dishes, read and drool: http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal/archives/600
Chopstick rating: 4/5
Myung Ga Korean Restaurant, Podium 3, World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay. Tel: 2882 5056. Opening times: Noon- 2.30pm, 6- 10.30pm
$$– $$$$$$$$$$$
chopstixfix.wordpress.com 