Korean

Sollip, London, 2/20/26

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exterior – 8 Melior Street, Unit 1, London, GB SE1 3QP

Sollip offers Korean-French fusion cuisine in a tasting menu at lunch and dinner.  Sollip is the Korean word for pine needle, which is supposed to be the best ingredient to control smoke and fire in cooking.  A Korean husband and wife team, Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki,  combine their European skills with their heritage to create this one Michelin star restaurant.  Opening in August 2020 they made some changes during the Covid shutdown but now are back with full service.  One wall of the small place is windows to the street outside.  Bench seating lines another wall that was fitted with small bare wood tables.  There was a large cloth napkin and music in the background that helped drown out the noise of the jackhammers outside (lots of construction nearby).  Minimal decorations are provided by dried plants and earth tones make up the walls and drapes. The tasting menu did have optional supplement charges for caviar and/or truffles.  Service was friendly and relaxed and the food was good. Continue reading →

Baroo, Los Angeles, 2/6/24

~ hsnixon ~ 5 Comments
entrance – 905 E 2nd St #109, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Baroo, which opened in Sept 2023, was the result of a collaboration between Chef Kwang Uh and his wife Mina Park.  The pair had previous small places starting in 2018 and after much evolution opened this concept featuring a Korean fusion.  Presently they serve only one tasting menu but hope to offer vegetarian options in the future.  Their price point is on the low end of tasting menus in LA at $110 and they also offer wine pairings.  They offer Korean beverage pairings but they were not available that night.  After hearing about the options we ordered our own bottle of wine and a glass of red for the meat course, which is the only course you have a choice on.  The menu offered pork collar but beef short rib could be substituted for $12.  We opted to have one of each.  It was a medium-sized place with small bare wood tables and low lighting.  The fairly spartan interior goes well with the re-developed warehouse district it was in.  The Uber driver drove right past it and dropped us off at the end of the building but it was not hard to find from there.  The friendly staff were willing to answer questions and the pacing of the meal was pretty rapid with no long pauses, almost feeling rushed at times.  However, the food was wonderful and full of flavor.     I understand their earlier ventures were even better but this one is plenty good enough to add to your go-to list.   If you want to read another blogger’s fine accounting of their meal here, check out melhuang1972. Continue reading →

Hankki, Banff, 6/16/23

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exterior – 206 Buffalo St, Banff, AB T1L 1E4, Canada

Hankki means one meal in Korean and this meal is modeled after Korean street food.  They sell bowls or cupbop, and Korean hot dogs on a stick. The bowls are a stir-fry of different ingredients.  Cheap, quick and filling options which are a novelty in the tourist-laden Banff.  All the bowls contain Veggie Mandu which is edamame, sweet corn, lettuce, pickled carrot, sesame seeds and egg garnish along with some pan-fried veggie dumplings.  They are on a base of rice with sauce and then you pick your level of spiciness.  We both chose ‘hot’.  The Chee Bop bowl contained Korean-style crispy fried chicken and the Korean B.B.Q bowl contained sweet and savory marinated grilled pork, lettuce.  There were basic similarities but the flavoring was fairly different.  Both were quite tasty and best when all the stuff was mixed around.  Hot was a nice level of heat.  If you need a quick snack this is for you.  I saw some little kids getting and enjoying the hot dogs which are much less food, but we didn’t try one. Continue reading →