Before braving the extremely long line for the Empire State Building observatory deck, we decided to stop for lunch on the street know as “Korea Way” in Koreatown, Manhattan.  “Korea Way” is actually 32nd Street, and it is lined with Korean shops and eateries.  Trying to decide where we wanted to get lunch was a chore as each and every establishment offered many delicious dishes.

32nd Street – Manhattan’s Koreatown

After browsing at the menus of about four Korean barbeque restaurants, we found ourselves at Shilla BBQ and were seated in the back room, amidst many tables with their table top barbeque grills fired up at full blast.  By the time we left the place, our clothes smelled like we had been bathing in a barbeque pit – all part of the experience of dining in a Korean bbq joint.

Banchan are small side dishes, usually set in the middle of the table to be shared by everyone.

Our banchan consisted of kimchee, a soy based dipping sauce, steamed spinach and about five others, that were not so distinguishable, yet tasty just the same.

Instead of cooking our own lunch at our table top grill, which I often like to do, simply because it’s fun, we ordered from the lunch special menu and left all the cooking and food preparation to the chefs behind the kitchen doors.  For lunch I ordered the Bulgogi Lunch Special Box ($10.95).  Lunch was served in a partitioned plate reminiscent of school lunch trays, only prettier, as the partitioned plate was a nice shade of red orange.  Lunch also included seaweed soup and steamed rice.

Bulgogi Box Lunch Special

Following are pictures of my “lunch box” deconstructed…

Bulgogi

Tender, tasty, marinated thinly sliced boneless ribeye steak, grilled,

then garnished with green onions and sesame seeds.

Chapchae

Potato starch noodles with vegetables, dressed in a sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil,

a touch of sugar and usually served at room temperature.

Green salad with Miso dressing (I think)

It was your basic green salad with grated carrots and thin slices of

red cabbage.  The grape tomatoes were a welcomed surprise and the

dressing was simply delicious.

Fried Mandoo

Korean dumplings that were generously filled with ground pork

and vegetables then deep fried till golden brown.

It was fried, so it was good.

Cold Ginger Tea

This was served at the end of our meal and was merely 3 sips of liquid heaven.

It was the best ginger tea that I have ever tasted, so I asked the waitress if she could tell me how it was made.

In her limited English, she said it was made with ginger root, water and cinnamon. My guess is that they also add some sort of sweetener, either brown sugar or honey as it was quite sweet. A perfect digestif.

After a delicious lunch, we stopped by the Korean pastry shop and made our way to the Empire State Building where we were herded like cattle through the many queues to get to the observation deck.  I actually liked the view from the Top of the Rock much better and there really was no line issues or claustrophobic situations or any risk of being goosed by that stinky European tourist.

Happy Spooning and Forking…

*****

Shilla Restaurant

37 West 32nd Street

(Between Broadway & 5th Avenue)

New York, New York 10001

Phone:  212.967.1880