Just Lunch: Kickin’ Korean

Part of the novelty of eating Korean food is the act of barbecuing at the table. When you walk into a Korean restaurant and observe the sizzle of food being cooked by guests at the tables, it always looks like it would be fun. Trust me when I say, as the oft-designated table barbecuer for my family, that far from being fun, you can definitely get sweaty from the work and you will leave the restaurant with your hair and clothes smelling like your food.

Enter Seoul House on Bellaire Blvd., a no-frills Korean family restaurant where the food is cooked in the kitchen. I don’t ever have to smell like my food, and I can enjoy the meal without worrying about overcooking the meat.

It’s the only Korean place I know where the pickled Korean side dishes are self-serve and all-you-can-eat. The well-made assortment of kimchi, pickled cucumbers, sesame-marinated bean sprouts, spicy cold tofu and caramelized potatoes are excellent and made fresh daily.

At lunch, many of the dinner menu items are discounted $1 to $2, and the restaurant offers a bento box lunch service that usually includes soup, salad, appetizer, entree. The bento boxes are pretty good, but my favorite lunch item menu is the dolsot bibimbap, a Korean rice dish served sizzling in a stone hot pot and topped with a fried egg, shitake mushrooms, spinach, bean sprouts, seaweed, zucchini, carrots and bulgogi Korean barbecue beef.

When it arrives sizzling at your table, the key is to let the sizzling simmer down before you mix up all the ingredients. This ensures that the rice adhering to the side of the blistering hot bowl will cook to a crisp.  When it’s ready, you mix everything up and eat it almost like a fried rice. For additional seasoning, grab the red ketchup bottle filled with a spicy, sweet and smoky barbecue-type sauce that you can add to taste.

Salty, sweet and smoky flavors blend together to make this fantastic fried rice-like dish —  hearty, satisfying, tasty and one of my favorites in the city for the bargain price of $7.95 at lunch.  Other Seoul House recommendations include the galbi tang soup, a short rib soup with egg and rice cakes; the Korean seafood pancake, a great appetizer that’s a cross between an omelet and a quiche; and the kalbi Korean barbecue short ribs.

Seoul House is easy to find in the left hand corner of the Saigon Houston Radio shopping center, adjacent to the ever-popular Crawfish and Noodles and the Kim Son Buffet.  The atmosphere is casual, and you will often see families happily munching on the Korean side dishes while they wait for their entrees to be served.  On Wednesdays, children eat for free, one for each adult who buys an entree.

SEOUL HOUSE, 10603 Bellaire Blvd Ste. B-107, at Wilcrest, 281-575-8077