Cocobang
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Late Night
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
28 reviews
Neighborhood: Marina/Cow Hollow
"Why 5 you ask? The answer is because they deserve it! I'd compare this place to the Vietnamese restaurants on Clement Street or the places…" read more »
56 Reviews for Cocobang
Great if you are in the mood for some trashy Korean food. You might regret it the next day but it goes down great.
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I came here after eating dinner at hard knox, and most of you know the portions are hard knox are quite huge. But for some reason, my friend ordered a a whole bunch of food (Jap Chae, Bulgolgi, Duk Bok Ki, Spicy Fried Chicken Wings and another dish that i don't remember)..... once those plates came i couldn't resist! I mean can i never resist korean food, especially with the liter of OB in my hand, and the 3 soju cocktail we ordered. The food good, but they over cooked the rice cakes and the ramen in the Duk Bok Ki. I mean how do you over cook the rice cakes... they were like mush! GROSS!! Other than that... make sure you order the Jap Chae, It was soooo freakin good! It came out piping hot and the noodles were cooked to perfection!
Overall a nice hang out spot if you want to get away from the clubs and bars, and just indulge yourself in korean goodness! The place is clean, but parking can be a BIATCH!
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Mmmm, the fire chicken is actually really hot, and I really liked their calamari. Food is decent, alcohol a plenty, and open late - but I like the atmosphere at Toyose better.
I love Korean bbq, and Korean food in general - I've never been to Korea, so perhaps all I love is merely an Americanized facade of the truth.
I had the fire chicken - it was hot - no other flavor, just hot. I would say "spicy" but that would connote a "spicy" flavor, and this had no real flavor, just "hot" - and I like both "hot" and "spicy" - together.
So perhaps this place isn't for me, I don't do sochu shooters, or drink beer by the pitcher at 2:00 a.m. with blaring Korean techno-pop.
I can see this place filling a niche in the community - just not for me.
How we chose this place over late-night pizza is beyond me. The food served here was neither good nor cheap. It's like we forgot that we weren't in anywhere near k-town (LA). I'm sorry, but the only decent korean bbq in SF is Brothers (which isn't cheap either).
So disappointing.
The "small plates" served were pitiful at best- only three items. To make the start of this late-night meal worse, all we asked for was some hot tea, and our server couldn't provide any. His answer was because there wasn't any more hot water.
Um. You have a kitchen, don't you? Is it THAT impossible to use a pot to boil some water? Our three items + beer + small pitcher of soju came out to $75! Our server graciously added something like 25% to the bill for gratuity. That's just dandy.
One thing did happen that made this disaster of a post-club meal worthwhile. Coco's table/booths were plastered with korean beer ads, and one of our inebriated chums waved at the wall to the girl in the ad, thinking she might be real. Priceless.
First star: They serve beer and soju (illegally) after 2am.
Second star: Coco is located just around the corner from Le Colonial and Sugar. (This is only if you're famished and aren't able to cab it somewhere else)
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It's the awesome place to hang with friends. Nice BBQs they have. The BBQ combo serves with two kinds of BBQs, rice, kimchi, etc! I didn't need to pay to have more side dishes. The pitcher of Korean Beer, OB looks like a gallon bottle, and it's cheap(12$) and tasty! Can watch variety of music videos of famous singers on a huge wide screen. It's open till 2AM usually, but 4AM on Fri/Sat night. After clubbing, get some energy there. If you greet the chef, you will get something more-! You're supposed to open your wallet there-.
I love this place have been there numerous amount of times.
Soju is great and the beers are $2.50
The korean music videos playing on the wall is what makes this place!!
The food here was pretty tasty, but definitely not in the "healthy" category. The spicy dishes were spicy, the fried dishes fried, and everything seemed pretty authentic. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to check it out, but if you're hard up for a bite, it's not a bad choice.
We stumbled in here after small bites and drinks at Le Colonial.
We had:
Ddukbokki - I asked them to make it with cchol myun, the server said ok. It actually came out with jap chae noodles, but surprisingly, it worked, way better than ramen, I might add. The sauce wasn't your average sweetened gochujang, but more complex and savory. With plenty of perfectly chewy rice cakes, this dish was a winner.
Fried chicken (half) - A few wings, maybe some breast meat came out on a plate with shredded cabbage and salad dressing. The chicken was heavily battered and not what I was expecting. I actually thought we'd get a half of a whole chicken, intact. It was ok, but I wouldn't order it again.
Yogurt soju - Weird that there was ice in the carafe. Soju itself was too sweet.
4 stars for some good ass ddukbokki.
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Great place to start your night off before hitting the bars/lounges. They had a large flat screen playing korean music videos. It's a small and cozy little resturant. I loved their Ddukbokki !!! It was soOoo good !!! lol Also it's a great place to try different flavor of soju. The only ones i'd remember was orginal,apple, lycee, watermelon, strawberry and some few others i'd forgot lol Last night i had the strawberry soju. It was quite sweet ^ ^ Will definitely come back for some more Ddukbokki and Soju ^ ^
A disappointing experience. I honestly didn't mind sitting at a table surrounded by Korean beer girl ads, or the slow but friendly service, or having to endure Clay Aiken in concert on the big screen tv above. No, none of that really bothered me. I wouldn't be complaining if not for the food.
Two item bento box with spicy fire chicken and beef bulgogi. The bulgogi was decent, but the chicken was not very spicy? Intensely chewy strips of chicken (much of it burned), covered in an unappetizing red sauce. With a small portion of kimchee and other panchan on the side.
Bibimbap- the regular type, not in a stone bowl (dol sot, yes?). Half a bowl of lukewarm rice with what looked like the same panchan mixed in. A big ripoff, if you ask me.
Cocobang might be a nice choice for late night or for some snacks to go with your soju, but don't go in expecting a quality Korean meal.
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yay! somewhere to go after late night karaoke! Good Korean food, even better when drunk!
I used to go here often but their food began to get sketchy so I stopped. But on their good days they have good Korean food (bu-dae chi gae, duck-bock-gee, soon-dae, and chicken) and yes they keep on serving after 2am. You can even smoke in there if you're there at the right time (meaning late enough to a point where eveyone else is drinking and smoking).
But I started getting poorly made food. Bu-dae-chi-gae with too much opions and no kimchee and hard duck-bock-gee. Yes, this only happened to me when I got it delivered (yes they deliver) but still... it turned me off for good
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My girlfriend used to live in So-Cal and I guess over there, they're really big on Korean food/restaurants. So imagine our surprise when we discovered this place at around 3 in the morning! And they were still serving dinner!
Although it doesn't have the best interior in town, the place kind of grows on you. It becomes real homey as you keep going back, compared to the previous visit. I like the Fried Chicken, the Kalbi beef and the little assortment of stuff they also serve on the side. It's a very young crowd too and...they don't card for drinks like Soju which is the Korean equivalent of Sake.
My overall experience here is always good!
Word to the wise: I wouldn't recommend this for a romantic dinner date but rather, for a chillin' time with your loudest group of friends!
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Cocobang wasn't bad, but it also wasn't something that I would go out of my way to get. We got the chicken wings in the signature red spicy Korean sauce and wings that were fried. They were served with a heaping pile of cabbage doused with thousand island dressing -- sorta like coleslaw funkified. It didn't look that good and no one really touched it except for the birthday girl, but she did say she loves cabbage...
We also got this fried pancake thing with veggies in it -- that was ok. My favorite dish was the rice and fish cakes in the signature red sauce. The sides that run so plentiful in LA's K-Town (where I am used to eating my Korean red sauce covered foods) were not so great.
My vegetarian friend ordered the bibimbap and it wasn't served in those piping hot stone bowls which I think makes bibimbap taste as good as it does.
Anyway, we drank some good beer and had some tasty sake along with these "street" foods so it was good overall. I just don't think I'll go back anytime soon.
Was stoked to find late night Korean in this 'hood. Okay here's the scoop: really small joint, usually a wait. The service wasn't great, and there were only 2 waiters for the place. Our waiter was obviously irritated, and seemed quite uninterested in impressing us with his mad waiter skills. When we asked for more Daikon, he looked irritated, and then never brought it out. Also, water refills were hard to come by.
So now the good: it's open late! Also, the food was pretty damn good, and not just because it was 2 a.m., and I was hungry. We ordered a lot of food for 4 people: spicy fried chicken (yum), chap chae, kim chee chigae, and this chicken/potato dish. We had leftovers for days (okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit). There were quite a lot of Korean people there, and the "fobby" kind. So, that's a good sign. Also, they project videos on the wall, and I enjoyed watching Korean singers, American singer, and Korean t.v. shows. I'll be back, that is, if my drunk ass can find this place again.
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When I party, I usually like to party to the end. 2, I mean 1:30am doesn't do it for me. That's where Coco's comes in. 4am baby!!!
Also, they have my favy, bok boon ja joo (Korean blackberry wine).
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Perrrrrrfect place to have late night heavy delicious meaty food-- Korean BBQ! This place opens late until 4am and it starts getting really packed around 2am.
Excellent food (combo of 2 items with tofu, kimchi, and rice were only 13 dollars.) I had the beef short ribs and spicy pork. They were so delicious and flavourful! The food was so good and abundant that I had to box the leftover home. Obviously it's also not a good idea to be totally stuffed up at 3am!
Also had the pretty good pot stickers (crisp and crunchy.) And peach Shochu is way better than the plain one.
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This place is a haven for mostly korean folk who come in after a late night out
clubbing and want to wash their sorrows down w/more alcohol(soju) and some late
night korean based snacks.
Checked this place out twice in a week.
I had to come back for the chicken!
I dunno WHAT it is..but the chicken cutlet(fried chicken filets)
are so succulent, so juicy and the batter is done so crisp
and light.
They also sprinkle a ketchup like sauce as seasoning.
It just hits my pallet so right!
They're also known for their trademark "coco" chicken
w/their regular batter and their spicier batter w/sesame seeds.
Both are VERY good and they are great fast food snacks on your way out of a bar.
But their chicken katsu is something else!
Their chicken is so tasty that lots of non-korean folk come in too.
They are all treated to very dark colored amenities, wooden chairs and wooden
desk dividers, and also a projector on the top wall...displaying lots of korean
pop music videos (cheesy but fun!).
I recommend all their dishes.
DOn't expect gourmet and don't expect the best korean food you ever had.
Just expect good fast food that hits the spot when you have your late night outs
in the city!
Dinner for two can be 10 bucks! Of course if you had the soju and other alcohol,
the cost will get up significantly.
Order the chicken cutlet!
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I have to say, this place is pretty awesome. Apparently, from reading the other reviews, Koreans really know how to party.
It's unfortunate that it's located in such a small place ,but the food is pretty good! I've been there three nights in a row before - although it's only a block or so from my place. :)
The service is pretty good, and the wait isn't too bad. The times I have been there, mostly Koreans were eating there. That has to be a good sign, right? and considering that I have a major thing for Korean guys, I really enjoy going here.;)
All my friends will agree that the food is delicious!
First of all, it's probably not the best idea to review places when you're completely drunk at 3am. Having said that, this place hits the spot when you're craving for some late night munchies to cope with the binge drinking. Best of all, it's open till 4am, impeccable service, and coyly disguised water bottles filled soju served till closing (those sneaky koreans...) makes this spot a must have on everyone's late night routine albeit the dingy and cozy atmosphere.
I had Paul (great watier) help with ordering DokkBokki (chewy rice cakes marinated in hot, peppery paste) and SoonDae (traditional korean blood sausages) alone with a bottle of soju. I've had better sausages before so only order it if you never had it before want to give it a try. It's a bit bland and thicker than usual. However, the dokkbokki is definitely a good choice. Maybe macju (beer) would have been better companion to wash out the spiciness but it definitely made me gasp for air and cool off my tongue.
This place is isn't on the same league as some of the late night bars in ktown in LA but I'm definitely coming back next time!
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in a city that has few decent korean drinking places, this one comes through. they have flavored soju (i'm not a huge fan of this, but usually people i go with are, so i guess it's a pseudo plus).
the food here is decent. come on, it's a korean drinking place! the fire chicken with cheese has always been something i've ordered. but keep in mind, fire chicken now = hot magma you know what later . . .
but if you need something to eat, and something to drink in tandem . . . reasonably priced and always a good time.
My girlfriend introduced me to Korean food and, more recently, to soju. She's spent time in Korea and in LA and Seattle where there's lots of Korean food, and she always looks for good Korean eats in the city. There's not much in this neighborhood, and it's cool that Cocobang serves pretty good food in this drinking hole atmosphere (although I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Korean food).
I really like the fire chicken, the beef-and-kimchee dish, and the barbecue. All of the flavored soju choices are good, there's beer on tap too if you want that. Service is generally good (probably a little better if you speak Korean beyond "chowa heh"). The clientele is almost all-Korean, and the atmosphere is lively, with plenty of conversation and laughter mixed with the K-pop music from the videos being projected on the wall in the back.
I keep finding more and more late night eateries throughout this city. It's so unlike my home city (Boston) where there is only one or two late night food joints in the whole city. Cocobang! I live down the block from this place and I've always been afraid to walk in. It's intimidating when you walk by and you keep imagining that the 10 Korean guys smoking outside are in the Korean mafia. So to get over my fear (because I had always heard such good things about this place, and that they keep serving past 2) I got my closet Korean buddy to bring me.
I think it might have been only the second time I've eaten Korean when I came here for the first time. The first thing you notice is the K-pop that is being broadcasted onto a white sheet in front of you and the monstrous ceilings (serious, you can fit a giraffe in there.) The second thing you notice is the small amount of seating in this place. I've never had to wait, but you can pretty much hear every one's conversation (and if you know Korean, you can understand it.) If sit to close to the door, you always get an uncomfortable draft. It might be cold air, it might be cigarette smoke... depends on the night. But if you are lucky enough to get a seat closer in, you will be able to smell the kitchen. Yummmmm. Good dim sum, good fried chicken, good barbecued beef. Some of their dishes are fucking HOT. Like "ouch ouch ouch I'm dying, help... sweet merciful crap, end my life already" hot. But you can get almost every dish "less hot" or as my friend Mikal says "no spicy."
Okay, the catch with the Soju: do not buy their flavored soju. It has almost no actual soju in it. A baby couldn't get drunk off it. BUT if you just buy their regular soju (which I think is a dollar less) you can get fucking wrecked. If they don't know what you mean by regular soju, just point to the soju ads (usually the hot chick holding a green bottle) that should be next to you or within 5 feet of where you are sitting.
Most of the time when I'm dealing with a "late night" place o' eat I expect to pay a little more than I would... but this is a bit on the bullshit side. 16 bucks for some of their dishes... 12 bucks for soju? fuck me this is expensive. The service isn't anything to rant about either... or the decor. Very plain. It's cleaner than it is dirty... but I wouldn't call it clean. I guess you could call everything about average... but since the food is good, and it's open really late on the weekend, it gets that 3rd star. I wish I could give it a 3.5, but I can't (or can i?)
Open Late with some really good flavor. COCOBANG!
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The chicken in the sauce was good, but it was a little over-priced for chicken. I'd recommend this place mainly because it's open late and you get all the drunken korean dishes you crave. I would go back. Be wary of the wait as well cuz it does get packed with drunkards after hours.
Awful! The tofu tasted like it was soaked in some nasty fish sauce. We wandered into here thinking we could get a decent meal, and it was awful - bad service, bad food..I am mad that I have to give this one star..I'd give it zero if possible!
I have too many memories at this place.
I have gotten trashed here too many times.
I've gotten friends trashed here.
Soju = FUN for you and your friends.
It's expensive, yeah... but if you are tired of the normal bar atmosphere (getting HIT ON by JERKS), come here... you can eat, drink, and everyone stays at their tables unless they know someone or the owner comes out and knows you (which probably won't happen).
Having a Korean friend with you to explain the foods and drinking culture is a fun experience too.
A lot of Korean AAU students frequent and work here...
What else can I say about this place? DON'T be put off by it's sparse-looking dining areas... because when you're drunk off soju and can't see straight (it hits you like a ton of bricks when you least suspect it) what does interior really matter?
Be careful going to the bathroom after a few drinks; it's DOWN a flight of semi-steep stairs.
This is a late night gem!! When everything else is closing up, Coco's keeps it going, serving beer, soju and sake until 4AM!!
The late night crowds are always fun.
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I have been searching endlessly for a real soju place and I finally found this hidden treasure while walking to the car after the Redroom at the Clift Hotel. There it was seducing me.... a menu stating "Yogurt Soju" and the price. Then there were other flavors on the list. My mind tells me, "You must have restraint, F$%^&* will be so mad that you left the Clift hotel and stopped somewhere along the way home. You can try this next time!!" But as usual my heart says, " Oh hell no!!! How long have you been yearning for a carafe of peach-flavored yogurt soju? You haven't had it since college and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Go in!!! So what if it is completely Korean!!!" As a true Leo, there was no way that I could go against my heart.
My friends and I go in to have a yummy carafe of fruit-flavored soju. We originally order the mango yogurt soju but they ran out and so we order the peach-flavored yogurt soju. B/c I know the effects of soju on my state of mind (As I recall my slurred speech and blurred vision from years before), we order food as well. The menu is limited, but definitely filled with original Korean dishes. Since I cannot handle Korean spicy very well, I ordered the Beef Bulgogi for $10.95. My friends originally ordered the spicy chicken, but they ran out of that as well and so they order the spicy tofu. He also asked if we wanted rice and so we ordered 2 small bowls.
The restaurant is rather dark and you can't really see the people around you. You do almost feel like you are in a K-town bar in LA sans the funky decorations, fluorescent lights, and trendy clothing. THe background music is all Korean which I totally love.... How can you not love Korean pop music or hip-hop? Who cares if you can't understand a word in the song except for the occasional English catch phrase?
The carafe of Peach-yogurt soju is presented to us with the 3 shot glasses. My friend pours it for us and we all take our shots..... YUMMY!!!!! The drink is a little frothy, but WHOOOOOEEEEE!!!! I loved the taste of it again in my mouth. Though this soju is not as strong as what I had originally in K-town LA, it sufficed and conquered my every tastebud in my mouth.
Our food arrives and the Beef Bulgogi is presented in a sizzling skillet. The waiter said that the portions were small. This portion was actually pretty good-sized. We couldn't finish it and I also don't eat much rice so that says a lot. Compared to other Korean places, the Bulgogi was perfectly cooked. It was not salty at all. The spicy Tofu was pretty tasty as well. Surprisingly, it was accompanied with beef or pork in the dish (or so we think????). It had a kick to it, but I wasn't going to devour it.
In the end I was very happy and the bill wan't too much...I am definiely returning to this place because where else can I have original soju...not just cocktails....
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Not a good place for food and not very good in terms of Korean bar standards, either. The place is cramped and uncomfortable. The fried chicken had a weird herb taste and the calamari tasted like it just came out of a box in the freezer.
After my Korean friend told me about this place, I always wanted to try their fire chicken.
I finally got a chance to try it but I only could finish 1/3 of it not because it was too spicy but I didn't like it. I was very disappointed. And It was $11.95 - I think it is pricey for a dish like this at a place like this.
I didn't like the ambiance of the place. It reminded me of 80's Tokyo in a bad way.
Bottom Line - I'll not go back.
Open real late into the night, Cocobang is an excellent late night stop for Korean food. The food was excellent, very flavorful, spicy, and fresh. The atmosphere is very hip and has a very San Franciscan vibe to it. The inside has a lot of brick and a large screen towards the back playing different American & Asian videos. The place is quite small and probably doesn't have more then 12 tables so I don't recommend coming with a group larger then 6 max. The food was served pretty fast. Portions are very generous in size and flavor! I'd actually give Cocobang 5 stars but the service wasn't too friendly.
two spontaneous korean fried chicken and soju outings in 3 days? bad for the arteries and liver but fun for me.
last night, i met up with some people at cocobang and we had japchae, fire chicken, a kimchee jigae that had a lot of stuff in it, half an order of the plain fried chicken, half an order of sauced chicken and the seafood pajon. of course we also had soju (because i'm korean), apple and yogurt flavors, and pitchers of ob.
as stated by other people, you don't go here for the food. the service was good and they kept the drinks coming but there are only two things i would order again, the plain fried chicken and the pajon. everything else was just not that good and kind of weird, like cheese and weiners in stuff i would never put them in.
in the end, the bill was pretty low considering how much we got and it's open until 4am so i could see myself coming back late night if i'm downtown or in the loin and not in the mood for osha.
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Great late night find! I love korean food and they had amazing fried chicken! and Kai Bae... can never spell my Korean food names, chop chae was very flavorful! I always eat Korean food with someone who speaks Korean so I never order it, but This place is open till 4AM on Fridays and Sats. But you have to remember it is a small place, and people tend to eat and drink there all night, so they may say 20 mins, but good luck if you see a bunch of people there. I still recommend it.
Not bad for the price too!
cool place to drink and eat
i went there last night, the menu didn't have alot of choices and the service didn't pass for me. i'm easy to impress but for this place i'm not going back again. the food was OK but price wise i would have gone to a better korean bbq spot.
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Unfortunately a girl sometimes has to work the street in order to pay the rent. For similar reasons, our lovely protagonist Coco Bang has to portray herself as a Korean BBQ in order to get the migook-saram (that's basically all non-Koreans, for you non-Koreans) in the door and cough up rent money, just like many Chinese restaurants are forced to serve beef and broccoli to the gwailohs and Japanese restaurants have to flip "California rolls" and teriyaki. But Coco Bang has plans too, and she's gonna stop stripping real soon and ... ok metaphor = OFF.
So yeah, Coco Bang is a bar. This is no Brother's BBQ or My Tofu House. Your business here should be to get drunk ASAP. The bonus is that they also serve various yummy Korean snack foods.
Coco Bang is a great place to try flavored soju. Soju is a mostly flavorless clear alcohol based on rice and sometimes in combination with other grains. Personally I find the tastes of straight soju a little objectionable. Koreans like to mix it with various juices. A carafe of lemon soju later and you won't know what hit you. This is usually the drink strategy of choice for many young Asian ladies. It tastes good and packs a (potentially dangerous) punch. The canonical flavor is lemon, but Coco Bang also has other fruit flavors, all of them tasting as candy store artificially yummy. Order a few pitchers.
The fire chicken was so spicy it gave me indigestion the next day. But oh damn was it tasty. Make sure you have lots of beer and/or soju to wash this bad boy down.
One thing that I like to get at a Korean bar that Coco Bang didn't have is tongdak, this crispy roast chicken that you eat with salt.
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I have no idea what goes on here. I was the only non-Korean at this hole in the wall so the ethnic ratio can be expressed as P = K/(Y+K) where K is the count of staff and patrons other than you, and Y is a somewhere between zero and one depending on how Korean you're feeling.
Everything goes down in Korean -- sappy karaoke love songs minus the sing-along, girls telling stories, guys telling stories, guys and girls telling stories, couples making out in Korean, friends picking each other up out front, and drinking, lots of drinking. Soju of course, straight, infused, cocktails.
I had kim chee soup, a big clay pot of ramen noodles over broth that nearly burned a hole in my mouth, with a "best off the rest of the menu" trove of little treasures ahidden midst the cabbage and chili -- chewy fish cakes, meat sausage, an egg, etc. Wifi came in off the street so I spent three hours splattering broth on my keyboard. Tables are mostly four tops, with little padded barriers crammed between them for privacy. Disco lights were going off the whole time but no dance floor.
The check came to 60% of the posted menu price, a good thing because the abbreviated menu of soup and spicy chicken looked ridiculously expensive -- was that in Australian dollars or something? Open till 2 so great for night-owls and tourists staying in Union Square hotels. Great for a break when you're fed up with Redwood Room, Ruby Skye, or Swig.
I'd come back with buddies for a talk-and-drink stop, have some snacks and soju.
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this place is cocoBANGIN! hahah okay that was lame, but yeah good snacks if you're feening korean food. make sure you can handle spicy, because this place serves pretty much nothing but spicyness. great place to just drink after a long night since they open pretty late! not extremely pricy but expect to dish out a little more, but it's well worth it.
The next time I'm drunk off my ass at 3:30AM, I will definitely stop in this joint for the super spicy version of their Fire Chicken just to make completely sure that I will *completely* screw over my lower digestive tract.
There is a huge vegas-like blinky sign out front that scrolls messages like "Open till 4AM" and "Try our Fire Chicken". Not being able to resist, I came here for dinner at around 7 on a Thursday night.
The first thing you notice is the blasting Korean techno music--and a disco ball. Then you see tons of posters of YOUNG korean girls in school-girl outfits trying to sell you beer.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Our waiter got us some drinks and a little appetizer of these pickled radish things. My friend and I both tried it and grimaced almost simultaneously. He leans over and whispers "I need to eat some hot garbage to wash the taste of this out of my mouth". To me they smelled and tasted like some type of rotting fruit.
We almost left, but decided to be adventurous and give it a shot.
I'm glad we did. I got the extra spicy version of the fire chicken, and my buddy got a seafood dish. His looked pretty good, but there was definitely lots of squid and octopus and all kinds of wierd asian crap in it, so it wasn't for the squeamish.
The fire chicken came out on this sizzling hot plate. It was super flavorful and spicy. Usually these ethnic resturants don't believe me when I ask for super spicy, but these guys did. It was awesome--I love being in pain while I eat.
A word of warning. We went out to the bar a few hours later, and the surly bartender at the place we were at hands me a few mints, and says "make sure you have a few of these if you are planning on talking to any girls tonight".
I guess Korean's like garlic!
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