Korean food that’s fresh, flavourful and fiery

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2009 (6008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I usually give new restaurants enough time to settle in before reviewing them but the process doesn’t always work as planned. I first found Kimbaek a few years ago but, since communication on the phone was almost non-existent, I had no way of learning how long it had been open. And when I took a chance and visited the place anyway, I discovered that organization wasn’t exactly a strong point either.

The menu was very limited, but the food itself was good — three-and-a-half stars’ worth — and I began to suspect that once the kitchen had found its footing it might be even better. A prophetic thought, apparently, since a few readers have insisted recently that Kimbaek is the best and most authentic Korean restaurant in the city. That, plus my own original impressions, began to make a return visit seem like a good idea.

Nothing about the decor has changed. It’s still a bare-bones but spotless long, narrow room, with blond wood trim on the shoji-like panels that separate the kitchen from the dining area, and a few colourful prints on the white walls. And after all these years the sign on the door still says Herb’s.

The menu hasn’t changed much either, still limited but a little longer now, expanded from 14 items to 18 — a few dishes have been dropped, a few more added. I can’t vouch for its authenticity, or that it is the best Korean food in town, but the cooking now seems surer, tastier and far more interesting than it had been. In fact, the change is significant enough to bump up my original rating from three-and-a-half stars to four.

As it had been on my original visits, there was the good omen of an entirely Asian clientele. I noticed that, no matter whatever else may have been on their tables, almost everyone was also tucking into the Haimool Pajun — an eggy, platter-sized pancake, laced with chewy bits of squid and skinny slices of carrot, onion and zucchini. And with good reason — even among a series of delicious dishes it was a standout. With it, a dipping sauce that was tangy with soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and little dice of green onions.

There are no table-top grills, but most of the dishes that emerged from the kitchen tasted fresh and flavourful, many of them brick-red and lip-tingling, to some degree or other, with Korean red chili paste. And the copious portions, priced from $7.99 to $9.99, places Kimbaek high among the city’s best buys.

The pancake is the absolute must-have, but there were several other highlights. Among them, two meats marinated in slightly sweetened soy sauce: pork kalbikui — thin slices of grilled pork; and bulgogi beef — sliced sirloin, pan-broiled with onions. Contrary to common opinion, bulgogi doesn’t always mean grilled, as I learned when we got our chicken bulgogi, which had been stir-fried with mixed veggies and was pungent with ginger and fiery with chili paste.

Don’t think of gamjatang soup as just a starter, but more as an entrée, a big bowlful of garlicky, and only slightly spicy, pork broth with a single chunk of potato and several meaty bones. The bones are intimidatingly awkward to handle, whether with spoon, chopsticks or fingers, but getting at the flavourful meat is worth the effort.

One of the most unusual dishes was the only one on which my bunch disagreed.

It left some us cold, but some of us — myself among them — loved the rice cakes, which had been cut into baton-like shapes with an intriguingly gummy-chewy texture reminiscent of jujubes, stir-fried with slices of beef and vegetables and sauced with chili paste. But we all liked the bibimbap, a soothing dish that came in a stoneware bowl, the layer of crunchy rice at the bottom piled high with beef slices and a hodge-podge of vegetables. It was topped by a fried egg, the yolk still soft, but my own preference is for a raw egg, the better to bind it with.

I found only the merest dab of chili paste, but truly tender palates would have even less trouble with the pancake. Or with the decent if rather bland rendition of jap chai — translucent glass noodles tossed with thin slices of beef and the standard house mixture of julienned onions, carrots and zucchini.

There was only one real disappointment, and that came at the beginning of the meal. Originally the number of complimentary wee panchan side dishes had run to six but now there were only a mostly perfunctory four: tasty green strips of seaweed, cabbage kimchee with not much of a kick but flavourful, bean sprouts only faintly seasoned with sesame oil, and slightly sweet chunks of potatoes. Worse luck, one of the droppees had been the best and most interesting of the lot — a salty bean paste to be dabbed on cabbage leaves.

Although communication these days is considerably better than it was, it still has a way to go. However, the staff make up for it with a warm welcome and an eager desire to please — so considerate, in fact, that they tried (unsuccessfully) to stop me from ordering too much, as I usually do.

There are grace notes in the complimentary hot tea at the beginning of the meal, and the iced cinnamon tea that comes at the end. Also reassuring, in this area, is the strip-mall parking directly in front — but get there early to be sure of finding a space.

 

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca

Restaurant Review

Kimbaek

193 Isabel St., 942-1833

Licensed

Wheelchair access

Four stars out of 5

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