Address: | 17 E 32nd St, New York, NY 10016, USA |
Phone: | +1 212-683-2200 |
Site: | donsbogam.com |
Rating: | 4.2 |
Working: | 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM 11:30AM–12AM |
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Jesse Lubinsky
On a recent trip to K-Town, I decided to check out Don Bogam rather than go to one of the usual spots we hit up. We were dining with a couple of people who rarely venture out for Korean BBQ and had heard some pretty good things about the place. The look and feel of the restaurant is definitely a step above some of the BBQ joints nearby. When combined with the prices on the menu, my expectations were a bit higher than they probably should have been. Dont get me wrong, our dining experience was not terrible. But every dish seemed to have some flaw and there were constant little misses in terms of attention to detail. We started off with two variations of the Pa Jun (Korean Pancakes): One with wild sesame seeds and chives and another more standard version with scallions and green peppers. The sesame seed version felt a little flat taste-wise and both were a little thicker than I normally prefer (some at our table actually liked that better) which made the pancake doughier. For our main dishes we all split two orders of the Dak Bulgogi (marinated beef) and one order of of the chicken version. Now, bulgogi is one of the reasons I love Korean BBQ so much. Some of my fondest childhood food memories are of grilling bulgogi tableside with my parents. And it might be those same memories that made it difficult to enjoy the rest of the meal. Traditionally, the cooking technique used to cook bulgogi is more akin to grilling where the meat is placed onto a griddle with open spots where the fire can directly cook the meat. Now this is an important point because that direct-heat grilling allows the meat to develop "personality" and gain all of those nice charry bits of flavor when the marinade infuses itself directly onto the meat. At Don Bogam, the meat was in a bowl with the marinade, rice noodles, and vegetables and placed on top of a heating plate which essentially gave us boiled meat. Flavor-wise it was just OK but what really shocked me was that the broth used with the chicken was WAY more flavorful than the beef one. Ive had both chicken and beef at numerous Korean BBQ restaurants and have never found this to be the case. Odd. My last issue with the meal was that the rice served was badly undercooked. Everyone at our table took issue with it. On the whole, even if I factor in that my expectations may be different than others, Don Bogam was just...well....fine. But when you also add in that their prices are pretty high for Korean BBQ in the area, you could do much better elsewhere.
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Dianna Chou
Really more 3.5 - 4 for bbq meat 3 for missing? food / service Food: - Prime Meat BBQ Platter - very good meat, simple - no marinade, just use a little of the salt and that sauce on it. I actually liked the 3rd meat best (medium cut rectangle), then the thin sliced, then the prime rib. - Jap Chae - good, somewhat smaller portion than I expected - Rice cakes - very simple, just rice cakes, fish cake slices and spicy red sauce (slightly spicier than I expected, but to bad); and 1 hard boiled egg. Slightly less variety of the ban chan apps than I expected, but they were all good. Service: - they were very good about cooking the meat well, we didnt need to do a thing - for some reason they kept on giving up only small tea cups of very small lettuces, instead of the usual bamboo tray which usually holds twice as much; we kept on needing to request for more. - we didnt get any rice by default, which all other places I find do and I saw the table next to us had rice (not sure if it was because we ordered jap chae and rice cakes so they thought we wouldnt want more carbs?); I didnt realize until the end when I felt like I was missing something. I requested a bowl and it was promptly brought over, and we were not additionally charged which is good, but still curious why we didnt get it at the beginning like expected. - we didnt get one of those steamed eggy bowls either (I think my friend said she got it last time, so not sure if it just depends on the day, as I didnt see it on the table next to us with it)
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Natalie Kosel
This was last summer so it is possible they changed their ways. But here is my experience. I went with about 8 people and they were all non Koreans except for me. First of all, they were extremely cheap with lettuce ssam and sauces that I had to constantly ask for more every 10 minutes. We were not louder than anyone else at the restaurant and it was a packed weekend night that the restaurant was already loud. For a table of 8, i assume that the combined noise level is louder than a table of 2. Anyway, the waiter came up to me since I was the only one that spoke Korean and told me that we were too loud and that we were inconveniencing other guests and to quiet down. And the tone was condescending and rude. This was 8 people including my in laws and my in law uncle and aunt. I doubt we were loud. And even if they thought we were loud, he handled it wrong. Now I go to either jonro, miss korea, baekjung. They actually have louder guests than me all the time but no one cares bc its bbq time and its supposed to be fun and loud. Will never return to don bogam
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Kevin Lo
I am one of the lucky ones to be working within steps from Korea Town (Ktown) in midtown Manhattan. Lucky because Korean food is one of my favorite cuisines, especially the stew (ji gae). Located a block away from the busier side of 32nd St, this restaurant has a modern feel with an emphasis on wine, sake and soju. Their liquor menu has to be on the larger side of these Korean restaurants in the area. The Bo Special is my favorite but is only available during lunch time. It consists of a kimchi stew with pork and a side of shirt ribs. Served in a stone bowl and plate, respectively, they both come out sizzling so take caution. The flavors are excellent with the stew having a good tanginess to the kimchi and not being too spicy. The short ribs have subtle sweetness and a good char flavor. Accompany that with a chilled bottle of soju and the usual 7-8 banchan and youll leave with a happy tummy. My word of advice, is to not go there for Korean BBQ because the tables with the pits can be difficult to get in and out of.
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Maria Wang
We wont be returning to the restaurant again unfortunately. We usually do not write a negative review because we know it is very hard to run a restaurant. However, we wanted to let the restaurant know what we experienced. We were entertaining our guests from Japanese company tonight. We have ordered a few bottles of wines and dishes of food. However, we were completely ignored all thought the night. It took us an hour to get a glass of ice water. To make the night worse, one of the waitress/ host told one of our friends to move over to make a room for the next guest very rudely. We felt like we were getting attacked. Only person who made the night better was this one waiter who actually took his time to apologize to us for the lack of service. We understand that its hard to run a restaurant but we wont be returning to the restaurant ever again to spend another 300 or 400 bucks without a glass of water.