RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER

Philly’s big food secret

Last week, a Philadelphia Weekly restaurant review for Giwa, a small new Korean place on Sansom street began:

“Don’t fear the kimchi. It’s easier said than done, perhaps.”

I found myself thinking, what? Kimchi? Weird? An object of fear? But I guess for your average non-Korean American, I grew up around a very unusual amount of Korean food. My family kept kimchi around, not constantly, but frequently. For years we’d trek out to 48th and Spruce to the (now closed) Korean restaurant and supermarket.

But anyway, my point to all this is, Korean food is excellent and this city has absolutely no shortage of amazing restaurants. Sure there’s Pastoral on 13th, Miran on Chestnut and now Giwa on Sansom. These places are just fine, but the best restaurants are well outside center city.

Mark my words, in the next year or two Korean food will be ‘discovered’ and suddenly become all the rage. At this point though, unless you’re Korean, you’ll still feel like to be the ignorant foreign speaking, ethnically distinct minority in the dining rooms of the best places. To add to the mystery, I don’t actually know the names of my two favorite Korean restaurants in the city, but I can give you a pretty good description of where they are.

First, head out to 69th Street. Take whatever road you need to get out to 69th and Market. Continue under the station and keep going straight. Soon you’ll get to a crazy ass intersection. There will be traffic coming in 6 directions or so and trolley tracks all over the place. Bear left. In the middle of all this mess is an island of concrete with a parking lot. In the corner of that lot is what looks like a White Castle. It isn’t. It’s a damn good restaurant. Inside is a very nice lady who cooks up everything right behind the diner counter.

The menus are carved into slabs of wood and in… Korean. I’m lucky enough to have a translation, but I seem to have lost the digital file for it. But it doesn’t matter, just be sure to get the seafood pancake and some soju and take recommendations for the rest. The place is surprisingly pricey and CASH ONLY. Come prepared.

69th Street has more than a few Korean restaurants, including the place with my favorite name ever: Wu Rae Kwan.

Next it’s up Broad Street… way up.

Did you know that Philly has a very large Korean neighborhood up in Olney? It’s huge. My favorite restaurant here is extremely hard to find… but here’s how to get there.

Take Broad north to Olney Avenue. Make a right and go straight to Front Street. On your left is Olney Plaza. You’ll see a big white sign. It’s square, it glows and it’s in Korean. Make a right on front, down what looks like a dead end street. When you get to the end, there’s actually a driveway there. Take it down and around into the parking lot at the bottom. Park in front of the big building. The restaurant is upstairs. Downstairs is a Karaoke joint… individual rooms with big screens and couches. It’s a surreal experience and advisable only after an enormous amount of alcohol.

But anyway, go upstairs. Once the large wait staff can track someone down who can speak a small amount of broken English, order the BBQ and feast. You’ll probably get a few free dishes, maybe even a couple extra entrees. Eat, sip plum wine and watch the video game championships on the televisions mounted in the corners of the large, comfortable dining room.

One night I showed up at close to midnight with a group of 7, ate and drank for hours and left a still bustling room. Both the restaurants I mentioned are open very late.

Here’s one other important note. If there’s a button on the table, the waiter/waitress will not come to your table until you press that button. The second you push it though, expect prompt attention. Other than that, explore and enjoy. There’s absolutely nothing scary about kimchi! That’s all for now.