For whatever reason, it has taken me this long to write about Kangsane Korean Restaurant in Ampang despite having been there numerous times since more than a year ago. In fact, this is the Korean restaurant I most frequent in recent times, and there is a reason for it: simply the best Galbi (marinated beef ribs) anywhere!

nice ambiance, illustrated menu

Kangsane Korean Restaurant is situated right in the middle of Little Korea at Ampang, that interesting commercial square where you can find dozens of Korean restaurants, grocery stores, and even optical shops. This place is to Korean like Brickfields is to Indian. Parking is usually not an issue here.

kimchi jjigae (soup), samgyeopsal (pork belly), and Galbi (marinated beef ribs)

Just like most other Korean BBQ restaurants, Kangsane serves various BBQ meat, stews, bulgogi, and of course, all these comes with plenty of Banchan (side dishes) that is the signature of Korean food. The must-order dish here would be the Galbi, I just couldn’t get enough of the succulent and perfectly flavored beef ribs.

I suggest that you always give them a call to make sure that the supply of Galbi is ample before heading there. We had to go for pork galbi on the last visit as the beef version ran out of stock, while it was still very good, the beef ribs is simply irreplaceable.

the many banchan (side dishes)

The other commendable dish is the samgyeopsal (pork belly), do start with this dish first if you also order galbi as the pork carries a more subtle taste that might be overpowered by the beef if you reverse the order.

Of course, a good Korean restaurant must also serve good banchan (side dishes), and the good thing about Kangsane is that they always have different banchan every time we go there. From anchovies to tofu, kimchi to some funny looking vegetables, they are always very delicious and accompanies the main dish very well. I also absolutely love their kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup)

good food is to be enjoyed with friends: Kim, Kelvin, Pinkpau, ST, Kenneth

Price wise, this place is pretty much in par with similar Korean restaurants. Some BBQ meat dishes, stews, and maybe some dumplings will usually cost around RM 40-50 per person for a table of 4-5. Very worth it though.

Kangsane is situated in the Little Korea at Ampang, KL

Address:
C5 Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1
One Ampang Avenue
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.155283, 101.751364
Tel: 03-4251 2598

Tags:  Ampang,  dining,  kangsane,  kimchi,  Korean-BBQ,  korean-food,  little-korea,  restaurant

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »

Korean house is one of the newest restaurants at the very competitive diner’s district that is PJ SS2. I drove past the restaurant quite a number of times before decided to head in and have a look just a while ago. After all, the place does look pretty busy, and a busy restaurant is usually not bad.

very nice and clean indoor/outdoor set up

Now, there are 2 ways you can have Korean food, the cheap way (like at Mu Gong He, Haeun Khon) or you can have a feast with the Korean specialty, the BBQ. Fresh meat don’t come cheap, but sometimes the urge on my taste buds overcome my financial brain cells. Like this particular meal.

BBQ beef and pork, Kimchi stew

For 2 person, we ordered a serving of Joomooluck (marinated beef, similar to Galbi) and a serving of Samgyeopsal (pork belly), Kimchi jjigae (Kimchi Stew), and some rice. Of course, the Banchan (side dishes, 9 types in this case) comes free. On top of that, we got a corn on hotplate and an egg dish on the house. Plenty of food for two fellas.

egg, corn, kimchi, and tofu

Service at this place, and in fact as most other Korean restaurants I have been, was pretty good. The servers were attentive and they grilled the meat for you, so you don’t have to worry about getting your hands dirty. Though the portion of the meat dishes were actually slightly smaller than other places, the taste was good, and the variety of Banchan makes up for it.

The side dishes too, were of decent standard. We were given kimchi, tofu, clams, bean spouts, vegetables, potato salad, anchovies, and a few other things i can’t name. As with many other Korean restaurants, Korean House serves free wheat tea (cold), the taste is a cross of wheat and tea (what else), a bit strange at first, but I actually enjoy it.

Korean House is located at the far side of SS2, away from LDP

This rather lavish meal costs around RM 100 for the two of us, including 5% government tax and another 5% service charge. Price wise this is in line with most Korean restaurants.

Address:
185, Jalan SS2/24
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.116916, 101.622763
Phone: 03-7873 0031

Tags:  kimchi,  Korean-BBQ,  korean-food,  Korean-House,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  stew

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »

It was almost one year ago when I went to any Korean BBQ in KL, the Woo Ga Chon at Ampang, own by fellow blogger Hayanna’s mom. I’ve been to the same restaurant several times when my tongue is itchy for some Korean BBQ. However, Ampang isn’t exactly nearby where I stay, so when I was informed that they have just opened a branch in Puchong, I was delighted.

nice environment with informative menu

While the Ampang branch is much less refined in terms of decoration and furnishing, Dae Jang Gum at Puchong is nicely decorated. There are also exhaust funnels built on top of every table to channel away smoke from the charcoal grill lest it gets on your clothings. A very nice set up. As a side effect, this is also advantageous for smokers’ friends as the funnels works just as well to put away any second hand smoke.

Since Kelvin the expert in Korean food was with us, we let him did the ordering. Afterall, my limited knowledge in Korean food would have meant that we would always only stick to the server’s recommendation.

the Samgyeopsal (pork belly) and Yang Nyum Kalbi (marinated beef ribs)

We ordered Samgyeopsal (pork belly), Yang Nyum Kalbi (marinated beef ribs), beef bulgogi, Kimchi Jigge (kimchi stew), Dwenjang Jigge (bean paste stew), and of course, Korean BBQ always come with lotsa panchan (side dishes) like kimchi, vege, tofu, mushroom and so forth. The friendly owner (Suanie’s hometown friend) also brought us a bottle of soju, Pajeon (Korean pancake), and some very nice imported Korean canned drinks.

Before you ask, yes, it was a lot of food for just five of us.

beef Bulgogi, Pajeon (pancake), kimchi jigge (kimchi stew), and panchan (side dishes)

The waiters did the griling for us, and service was pretty brisk. We had the Samgyeopsal first, and since this is a grill, you can choose to have it as cooked as you like. For example, you might want to leave it a few minutes longer to have the crispy texture like bacon. The pork belly goes well with some sesame oil + salt sauce and wrapped in the fresh lettuce.

We had the beef Bulgogi and Yang Nyum Kalbi next. While the two beef dishes were different (one cooked and the other grilled), both are equally tasty and tender. The Bulgogi slightly sweet and was good with some rice. The grilled marinated beef though, is best served wrapped in lettuce with some green chili, sliced garlic, and the special sauce.

soju (Korean liquor), and various imported Korean canned drinks

Pajeon is the Korean pancake made with egg and flour and topped with lotsa green onion, imitation crab meat, and squid/octopus. Best enjoyed while still sizzling hot. The The two types of stew we ordered provided the contrasting texture taste, differing from the grilled main dishes.

The side dishes were good compliments to the main course we had, the restaurant also serves the more traditional fermented Kimchi that is more sourish and spicy, but you will have to specifically ask for it. For the average diner, usually the fresh Kimchi is served.

The same shop lots with Citibank, right next to Giant Puchong

It was a very satisfying and complete meal. As for price, meat costs a reasonable RM 30-40 per portion, you can have a good Korean BBQ dinner for RM 25-40 per person depending on how luxury you want to go. Of course, there are also the ala carte menu to choose from if you are slightly low on budget and yet want to have a taste of the far east that isn’t Japanese.

Dae Jang Gum Korean BBQ opens from 11am to 11pm daily.

Address:
15 Jalan 1/4, Bandar Puteri Puchong,
47100 Puchong, Selangor
Tel: 03-8061 2160

The Star’s article.

Tags:  Dae-Jang-Gum,  eats,  kimchi,  Korean-BBQ,  Puchong,  Samgyeopsal

Posted by KY | 19 Comments »

So we found out that hot chick blogger Hayanna (suanie said so) posted an entry on this korean BBQ place her mom recently opened. Being possessed by the hungry ghost soul, we went to check out Woo Ga Chon Korean BBQ restaurant at Ampang last weekend.

Half a dozen of us went there, rojaks, v0ices, fox, paul, horng, and myself. The place is not terribly easy to find, and thanks to rojak’s excellent lead, we had to make several u-turns en route. Kinda made us look abit funny. But lets get to the juice, the food.

Combination of Real Charcoal + Propane, Efficient

The deal is like this, you choose the types of meat you want for BBQ, and there’ll be a host of other companion dishes that follows, and those are bottomless. In a way, it’s a buffet that you never need to stand up, good for lazy buggers like most of you here. I mean, when you have to go to a regular buffet line for the 5th time, you do get a bit annoyed.

Don’t tell me you’re not drooling, noob.

We ordered beef, marinated beef, and “uh hwa jou” pork. The pork is actually kinda bacon, but in thicker slices, and fresh, not marinated or smoked. The staff did the BBQing for us, they usually make it to about medium rare before cutting it into bite size. If you want yours well done, just leave it on the pit for a few more minutes, it’s that easy.

The owner (Hayanna’s mom) showed us the proper way of dining Korean BBQ, get a piece of meat, dip in the sauce/seasoning, put in the leave + vege, add garlic if you like, put another type of sauce, wrap, eat, pwnage! It was really mouth watering.

Look at those boys enjoying, too bad Hayanna wasn’t there

The side dishes were too numerous to name, there were fried tong fun with chicken and mushroom (paul practically drank that,) few types of fried vege, miso soup with coagulated pork blood (best,) pickles, kimchi (of course,) and more. They were very good, and as soon as we finish a plate, the staff would be trying to shove 2 new plates in. You just simply can’t keep track of how much you have eaten.

The bill came and it was RM160 for 6 of us, or slightly less than RM 27 per pax. For this type of food, boy, it was well worth it. Highly recommended! Dont’ let the deco fools you, the food is way, way better than the setting, which is somewhat simple and plain. But why do you want to pay more for interior designing of a restaurant anyway unless you want to impress some high maintenance chicks.

So rojaks don’t have to get you to do a few u-turns to get there

Here’s the address, and of course, a highly professional map for your navigational needs.
Woo Ga Chon Korean BBQ Restaurant
G20 Jalan Sulaiman 1 , taman putra sulaiman, 68000 ampang
Ampang
GPS: 3.150972,101.748655

Tel : 03 4270 4211

Tags:  beef,  Korean,  Korean-BBQ,  little-korea

Posted by KY_a | 10 Comments »