Mongolian BBQ in Seoul?
Hi! I have a Korean-American friend who's living in Seoul and has a hankering for American-style Mongolian BBQ. That is, the type of place where you grab meat, vegetables, and sauces from a buffet and then bring them up to a cook who stir-fries it all on a large, flat griddle.
I've found the Mongolian area in Tongdaemun, but I don't know if this type of Mongolian BBQ (which isn't truly Mongolian) can be found there. I also saw that the Navy Club in Seoul has a Mongolian BBQ night, but I don't know if civilians are allowed there?
Anyone know of a place where my friend can get a fix? Thanks! :)
By heinous
on Mar 14, 2011 05:35 PM
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Yes...as a matter of fact I just opened an American Style Mongolian BBQ restaurant. Here's the directions and information link
http://blog.naver.com/been100401
www.seoulcityfood.com
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is this open now? the site says coming soon...
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Yes it is open. Opened 10 days ago.
Sorry about the site, we haven't updated that website, it's still under construction but the restaurant is open and getting rave reviews! hope to see you here. My name is , I'm the Chef and General Manager.
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It may be hard to justify the steep price of the vast La Seine buffet at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, but it does include the kind of pick-your-own-ingredients Mongolian barbecue you seek (as well as stations that, at least at dinner, offer grilled lobster, lamb chops, roast duck, scallops in halibut sauce, sushi, made-to-order noodle dishes, tempura, several Indian specialties with great garlic naan, raw-bar items, cheeses, breads, pastries, etc., etc.)
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Just picking your own ingredients is not a Mongolian barbecue. You have to be able to pick your own sauces and the food must be grilled on a high temperature 3/4 inch thick Mongolian Grill. The Lotte Hotel Seoul is NOT Mongolian grill like the one you are seeking. Not even close.
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Seoulcityfood: The Mongolian BBQ you just opened in Seoul may have a 3/4"-thick grill, etc., but that doesn't mean any different thickness is automatically a disqualifying factor (unless you're trying to suggest that only your business defines immutable parameters of Mongolian BBQs). Nor do I think that ladling one's own sauces is necessarily the defining factor in determining whether a cooking format is or is not "Mongolian BBQ."
At the Lotte Hotel's megabuffet, I ate from almost every station except the Mongolian BBQ, but its ingredient and sauce options, cooking format and hardware nonetheless appeared "authentic" insofar as there might actually be any hard-and-fast criteria for MBBQ (which is a derivative style of cooking that is neither Mongolian nor barbecue but is known to have been popularized in Taiwan, inspired by Japanese teppanyaki, and reinterpreted variously via many different restaurant concepts).
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It's very nice that you went to Wikipedia and researched the birth of Mongolian Grill or sometimes also known as Mongolian BBQ.
I'll not argue with you about the cooking style or technique because you slearly have never actually cooked on a Mongolian Grill as opposed to other Griddles.
I've actually had 4 Mongolian Grill restaurants in the US and I can tell you that the Lotte Hotel's Mongolian BBQ is NOT anywhere near the US style, which is the original subject of this conversation. As far as "authentic" it is an "authentically" American style of Mongolian Grill that the originator of this thread was asking about. But hey if you think Lotte megabuffet is just that, then that's your perogative Riccardo...cheers and happy eating to you!!
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And just FYI, yes a 3/4 inch thick grill IS the qualifying factor for true Mongolian BBQ Grill style cooking as well as your choice of a variety of sauces that YOU get to build and choose, but of course I wouldn't expect you to know what the differences are in cooking with mixed sauces on a teppanyaki grill or any other grill besides an authentic Mongolian Grill is. Here's a clue though. If you try to cook authentic Mongolian Grill cuisine and cooking technique on a teppanyakj griddle, you'd be replacing your grill top once a week. I'm sure you can figure out why since you seem to be so very knowledgeable with this particular cuisine. As far as the term BBQ, there is a reason it's sometimes known as Mongolian BBQ versus Mongolian Grill. I'm sure you know the reason why since you seem to know everything else about this particularly unique cooking style and cuisine that seems to have offspringed quite a few unremarkable and erroneous clones as well as so many concept cooking knowledgeable sages.
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Sez you, Mr. Self-Appointed Arbiter. In any case, MBBQ is not a "cuisine."
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