Seoul Gom Tang review (Oakland)

[daveena]

Despite the restaurant's name and presumed specialty, the best dish I had here was not a soup, but the black goat stew. I’ve only had this at Casserole House and Sura, and have not tried Ohgane or Sahn Maru’s versions, but I thought this was best version I’ve tried – lots of tender, flavorful stewed goat meat, really complex flavor, lots of meaty mushrooms that soaked up the broth beautifully. They bring it out with all of the raw ingredients piled up in the middle of the hot pot, topped with an impressive-looking mound of vegetables and chilis. I liked that there wasn’t any perilla – I like perilla raw, and as kimchee, but cooked perilla reminds me of banana peels in a hot car.

The oxtail soup was ok. Not as rich as I’d like it to be, but it was satisfying. I'll go back to try some of their other soups - I've heard good things about the one with brisket and rice noodles.

The mandoo and the pajun, which I found a lot of recommendations for, were lackluster. The mandoo were large to the point of unwieldiness. Their thin skins were prone to breaking, and the filling was just ok. The "seafood" in the pajun was mostly krab, and the pancake itself lacked the crispness of better versions.

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Seoul Gom Tang
3801 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609

[augustiner]

thanks for mentioning the lack of perilla. i'm the opposite, and love perilla raw, pickled, or cooked, so i probably wouldn't order this here unless it was in demand with my other dining companions. i almost went here today on the suspicion that a place that specializes in beef broths would make a good mul naengmyon, but i opted out. any thoughts on naengmyon here? i guess i should do a search.

[daveena]

Haven't had it there, but as it gets hotter out, I'll want to try it.

Have you tried the naengmyon at Korea House? I thought it was very good. A Korean co-worker of mine who finds Korea House generally underwhelming raved about it, so I had to try it.

[DezzerSF]

I had a pretty nice version of bibim naengmyon at the Santa Clara branch, so it might be good at the Oakland one as well.

I had the non spicy one at Korea House a few years back but don't remember having good impressions on it.

[daveena]

I suspect I may not have the most discriminating taste when it comes to naengmyon - I like the stuff that comes packaged and frozen from Koreana Plaza too. I think it might be up there with mac-and-cheese and ramen, in terms of things that have to be really bad for me not to enjoy them...

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Koreana Plaza
2328 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA

[DezzerSF]

Yes, it's really hard to judge the dish in the first place, since you essentially season it to taste with the mustard and vinegar. So the quality of the toppings make it for me.