황가네 (Hwang’s Restaurant)
15134 S. Western Ave.
Gardena, CA 90249
310.327.7070
(located in the same area plaza as Tofu Village)
Business Hours: 10AM – 1AM
I have a dilemma. I don’t know if I should post this in Korean or English.. I guess I’ll just do it in English and add in supplemental Korean here and there. The main reason why I wanted to start a blog was to review restaurants like this place.. No website, no online menu. Only information is probably on Yelp, and luckily this place has some reviews on Yelp.. However, they’re all about the AYCE. My main purpose of this blog is to start taking photos of the menu as well as review so people have a better idea of what kind of food they sell. Except, I’m an idiot and forgot to take a photo of the very first page of the menu. I’ll go back sometime to take the remaining photo.
Atmosphere
The restaurant is not classy at all and feels like how any small Korean restaurant feels. It’s definitely a good place to drink up while ordering good food. They have everything from your stews or jjigaes, AYCE BBQ (All you can eat BBQ), Grilled Seafood, to casseroles. It’s kind of loud here, especially if you got a team of older Korean men drinking after some event. Don’t wear nice clothes to this restaurant, you’ll look ridiculous.
Food
이 곳은 무제한 고기만 파는 곳이 아닙니다. 무제한 고기도 있지만 전골, 찌개, 탕, 냉면, 만두, 돌솥밥, 생선, 기타등등 많은 음식을 팝니다. 음식들이 전체적으로 맛이 괜찮으며 맛을 낼줄 아는 식당입니다.
조개구이 (Grilled Seafood)
Okay.. I know Koreans are reading this saying the translation is incorrect.. but I decided to stay with the name the restaurant gave it in English. This dish is really just a variety of shells that you grill. According to the server, the type of shells changes daily depending on what is caught and sold that day.
There are three sizes for the Grilled Seafood (A, B, or C). We got the B size, and truthfully it wasn’t much compared to the price. It was still good though. We had topshell, oyster, I don’t remember the last type of clam, and shrimp. When the water inside the shell starts boiliing, it’s ready to eat. You use the picking tool they provide you, as well as the glove. You are given a choice of two sauces: Tabasco, or marinated chili sauce (초고추장). Both go well with the seafood.
Two things that I have to give negative feedback: Price compared to the amount of food + too much sand in the large shell due to not removing the intestines (모래 주머니). Otherwise, it was very good, fresh and refreshing. The oyster especially was admirable. Most cooked oysters I’ve had were not that good and gets kind of gritty. However, since you are grilling it from raw, and you eat as soon as it boils, you do not get that gritty or mushy texture.
흑염소전골 (Spicy Marinated Goat Casserole)
If you don’t like goat, perrilla seeds, this is not the dish for you. This is a popular dish especially with guys and it makes for a good food to go with Soju. If you’re not careful when cooking with goat, it can smell and taste funky. (염소고기는 비릴수가 있는데, 이 식당의 흑염소전골은 안 비립니다) It’s a spicy casserole (although to Koreans.. this wouldn’t be considered spicy). If you’re a beginner at Korean food (yes, even if you’ve eaten every Korean AYCE, you can still be a novice with Korean food. Koreans don’t eat barbeque only you know..) The Goat Casserole is not the best I’ve had, but it was decent. (칼칼한 맛이 없어서 개인적으로 제일 맛있는 전골은 아니었지만 맛이 아주 괜찮았다고 봅니다.) It comes with a dipping sauce for you to eat with consisting of Korean chili power, garlic, perrilla seeds (crushed), sesame oil, green onions, and mustard. The sauce is to help balance the heaviness and richness of the casserole. (The mustard helps ALOT)
삼겹살 콩나물 두루치기 (Marinated Pork Belly & Bean Sprouts)
This dish compared to the Goat Casserole was very refreshing. The bean sprouts helped keep the dish light and kept the dish was being too overpowered by the marinade. It’s another dish you cook on the stove in front of you on a large pan. The pork and veggies are cooked at once with the marinade and the bean sprouts are added a little before it is ready to eat. The dish overall was amazing. It was not salty at all, not too spicy (actually, not at all for me) but I know non-Koreans will find it spicy. If you ever had spicy pork belly at a barbeque place, it is sort of similar in taste to that, but much lighter and has ALOT more veggies which I like. This is another great dish to go with a bottle of Soju.
It is also very good with rice. You are given a choice of multi-grain rice or plain white rice. It goes really well with the multi-grain rice, but if you don’t like beans in your rice, I suggest you stick with white rice.
After you’re done, with the leftover sauce and veggies, you can ask them to make stir-fry rice (볶음밥). They mix in rice, seaweed, sesame oil and stir-fry until it is ready. Eating 볶음밥(stir-fry rice) from the leftover veggies and sauce is very common with Korean food, such as Dak Galbi (Spicy marinated chicken casserole), etc.
Overall
This is a pretty good Korean Restaurant in the South Bay area, which a variety of food. Everything I’ve had so far here was very good and fits to my pallette.
Food Lover Chronicles 