Free ice cream caps a Korean lunch in Leonia

Dolsot Bibimbap is filling Korean comfort food with rice, vegetables, ground meat, fried egg and a mildly spicy sauce (gochujang) prepared in a hot stone bowl. Above, a meatless version served at Dok Ka Bi Restaurant in Leonia.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

Editor

Palisades Park, Fort Lee and Leonia are three neighboring towns with a wide selection of Korean restaurants for fans of the colorful and often spicy cuisine.

On Thursday, I met a friend for lunch in Leonia, which has only a handful of places to choose from.

At my first choice, Miga, we opened the door a little after 1 p.m., only to find a line, and were told the wait for a table was 10 to 15 minutes.

But my friend didn't want to wait. 

We strolled down Broad Avenue to Dok Ka Bi Restaurant, which replaced the Leonia Cafe, for a filling lunch with four free side dishes, a small bowl of soup, iced tea and ice cream for dessert.

Excellent cabbage kimchi is one of four free side dishes served at Dok Ka Bi, above and below.

Made from acorn powder, this seasoned gelatin is easier to eat with a spoon than with chopsticks.

Crunchy turnip pickles, above, and bean sprouts, below.

Big menu

The restaurant has an extensive menu, but we didn't see any lunch specials.

I chose one of my favorite Korean dishes, meatless Dolsot Bibimbap, a rice-based mixture of seasoned vegetables topped with a fried egg, and served with gochujang, a red-pepper paste, on the side, allowing you to make it spicy or not ($11.99).

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn't serve brown rice or Mixed 7 Grain, a combination of brown rices and beans.

My friend had a Bulgogi Box with kimbap (seaweed-rice-vegetable-and-egg rolls) and fried dumplings ($14.99).

We were served excellent cabbage kimchi, three other free side dishes, iced tea and a small bowl of hot soup.

When we finished the kimchi and bean sprouts, a waiter brought us more. I enjoyed all of my food, and was pleasantly full.

Before we got the check, the server brought us two small bowls of what looked like strawberry ice cream, but I turned mine down (I'm on a diet).

Hot soup.

The Bulgogi Box includes slices of marinated beef, upper right; kimbap, upper left, and salad.

Judging by the 10-to-15-minute wait for a table on Thursday afternoon, Miga is the most popular Korean restaurant in Leonia (344 Broad Ave., near Fort Lee Road).

Dok Ka Bi Restaurant, 374 Broad Ave., Leonia; 201-947-5799. Two hours of free parking on street and in municipal lot.

A belly busting lunch at the 'House of Good Taste'

Stone-bowl bibimbap is one of South Korea's great, non-spicy comfort dishes. At Gammeeok Restaurant in Fort Lee, the rice-based dish is served with a spicy red-pepper paste on the side.

Gammeeok, which means "House of Good Taste," is known for its kimchi service and its deliciously sweet and spicy fermented radish and cabbage with extra sauce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Every Korean meal comes with unlimited free side dishes or panchan, but it pays to have a native at your table to get the full benefit.

I met friends for lunch on Friday at Gammeeok Restaurant in Fort Lee, and one of them brought a visiting South Korean judge as his guest.

During our meal, the judge explained that the simple bean-sprout soup served with my entree was considered as much of a free side dish as the wonderful cabbage and radish kimchi.

As such, I could ask for a second bowl. He did on my behalf.

If you have the room, a second bowl of bean-sprout soup is free, too.

Meatless bibimbap

I ordered Dolsot Bibimbap, a stone bowl filled with hot rice, vegetables, ground beef and a raw egg, and asked the waiter to hold the meat and tell the kitchen to cook the egg ($14.95).

When the bowl was set down in front of me, I spooned on gochujang, a spicy red-pepper paste, and mixed up everything before eating.

A friend who doesn't like spicy food ate his bibimbap without gochujang.

Belly buster

With unlimited cabbage and radish kimchi; two free bowls of soup and another complimentary side dish, fresh cabbage leaves dipped in bean paste, I couldn't finish the bibimbap, and took home a small container of leftovers. 

I ate it for breakfast today with an egg-white frittata and leftover kale and spinach.

Gammeeok is known for its ox-tail soup -- Seolleong Tang -- a bland milky, rice-filled broth ($10.95), but there are bowls of chopped scallions and salt on the table for seasoning it.

The restaurant is still honoring $10-off and $20-off coupons that appeared in The Record of Woodland Park in August.

A communal table and traditional low tables at Gammeeok.

 

My breakfast of leftover bibimbap.

Gammeeok Restaurant, 485 Main St., Fort Lee; 201-242-1333; and 110 Broad Ave., 2nd Floor, Palisades Park; 201-945-6300.

Web site: Bibimbap and so much more

The Fort Lee restaurant has valet parking and is open around the clock.

Service can suffer at popular Korean restaurant

The flash of cabbage kimchi being cut up and plated by your server, then covered in extra sweet-and-spicy sauce, is part of the experience at Gammeeok, a popular Korean restaurant in Fort Lee.

The Tofu Soup with Seafood for Two is filled with big chunks of soft tofu and large clams, mussels, head-on shrimp and even a few crab legs for flavor.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

This weekend, we showed up at Gammeeok, a popular Korean restaurant in Fort Lee, without a reservation (I didn't know the staff took them).

We didn't go until after 6 p.m. on Saturday, so we could park at a meter for free and avoid the valet in the small lot, but had to wait about 10 minutes for a table.

The restaurant was full, and that was reflected in the slow service.

There was a delay between the kimchi service and the arrival of a Seafood Jeon, a large, fluffy pancake with tender squid, shrimp and scallions ($14.95) that three of us shared.

And then we had to wait some more for our entrees -- two Korean comfort dishes.

The Dolsot or Stone Bowl Bibimbap -- rice, vegetables and ground beef topped with a raw or fried egg that you mix up and eat with a mildly spicy sauce -- was $13.95.

Gammeeok's signature cabbage and radish kimchi.

Seafood Jeon is enough for three or four to share.

The Tofu Soup for Two with Seafood wasn't listed on the menu, but we were offered it when I asked for an individual tofu stew.

The soup for two is served with steamed white rice for $20, about what we pay for two soups, rice and side dishes at So Gong Dong, our favorite tofu house in Palisades Park ($9.99 each, including tax).

We ladled the Tofu Soup into individual bowls.

At So Gong Dong, the tofu soup arrives at your table bubbling furiously and you take a fresh egg and crack it into the broth, which cooks it to soft-boiled perfection.

At Gammeeok, the soup was hot, but not boiling, and no egg was provided.

Still, there was plenty of soup and rice left over to take home and offer to our teenage son.

I liked the strongly flavored broth and the big mussles, clams and shrimp, but my wife doesn't care for shellfish and didn't think the version here approached the tofu soup at So Gong Dong.

Of course, she might have been upset at being denied bibimbap, her favorite dish at Gammeeok.

Condiments include bean paste, above, that you can scoop up with fresh cabbage, below.

Although we had to wait for food and for our tea cups to be refilled, the staff accommodated me when it came time to pay the bill, honoring a coupon I had, even though I didn't buy $50 in food.

The coupon, from the local daily newspaper, was $15 off a dine-in order of $50, not including tax, and I was short more than a dollar.

The Fort Lee restaurant, a branch of the Manhattan original, has been a reliable choice for Korean food since 1991.

 
Gammeeok (say GAM-yo), 485 Main St., Fort Lee; 201-242-1333.

Web site: www.gammeeok.com

Kimchi is the star of a Korean meal for 10 in Palisades Park

Image via Wikipedia

Palisades Park has the biggest concentration of Korean restaurants in North Jersey, from soft-tofu and barbecue houses to restaurants specializing in hand-made noodles.

Editor's note: This branch of Gam Mee Ok closed, but the stylish original still thrives in Fort Lee.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I put together a group of 10 to check out Gam Mee Ok in Palisades Park, a branch of the popular, 24-hour restaurant in Fort Lee with a unique kimchi service.

The stylish restaurant, hidden away on the second floor of a building on Broad Avenue, opened without fanfare early this year. 

The original Gam Mee Ok (pronounced GAM-yo) is in Manhattan.

A server brings cabbage and radish kimchis to the table in what looks like a small vase, cuts the long pieces of cabbage with a scissor and places them in a dish, adding more red-pepper sauce from a metal tea pot.

The cabbage kimchi, in particular, combines a pleasant sweetness with the usual spicy notes, adding an unusual accent to the meal.

The restaurant doesn't serve the variety of free side dishes found at most other Korean places, but does put out cabbage leaves and hot green peppers.

During our meal, we also got shredded radish kimchi and bowls of the restaurant's signature beef-bone soup, a bland, milky white broth you season with salt and chopped scallions from containers on the table.

Dumplings, kalbi

Other members of the group tried a variety of dishes from the open kitchen, including steamed pork-and-vegetable dumplings ($7.95) and barbecued kalbi or short ribs ($16.95), which they ate out of hand or wrapped in the tender cabbage leaves, instead of the usual red-leaf lettuce.

I ordered a seafood pancake ($12.95), as well as dolsot bibimbap ($13.95), a one-dish meal of rice, vegetables and egg served in a hot stone bowl, asking the kitchen to hold the ground beef and cook the raw egg that usually come with it.

You add a mildly spicy red-pepper sauce call gochujang and mix up all the ingredients before eating it with a spoon. True comfort food.

My wife and son tried a spicier version of bibimbap with kimchi and pork, and loved it (also $13.95).

I also tried a ring from a large squid served on a hot metal plate, but found it too chewy ($19.95). We brought our own wine and beer to this BYO.

We paid about $23 each, including tax and a 20% tip. I also took home a large container of Gam Mee Ok's delicious cabbage kimchi ($7.44).

There is seating for about 40 between wood-beam walls that display modern art. The sound system played jazz from WBGO-FM in Newark. Cool.

Details

Gam Mee Ok, 110 Broad Ave., Second Floor, next to Chinese Mandarin Restaurant; 201-945-6300.

BYO, free parking on side streets.