Jang Soo BBQ

(415)831-8282
6314 Geary Blvd.
(near 27th Ave.)
San Francisco, CA
(Outer Richmond district)

Price: $-$$
Rating: 6 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 09/15/05

I finally got around to trying this place after driving by it hundreds of times and, for a place close to home, it's pretty good. Brother's it is not, however, but then again the wait should be correspondingly shorter. Set in a generic-asian-decorated, but fairly capacious dining room, the tables along the wall have grills in the middle for grilling your own meat (dinner only, I assume, as nobody was using them on my lunch visit).

After perusing the large menu, which features many items I have not previously seen at Korean places (especially their long list of soups and hot pots), I decided on the o jing au bok-kum (broiled calamari, $7.95) lunch, and Ed got the bul go gi (bbq beef, $7.95).

Soon after ordering, our waitress delivered the usual myraid side dishes, all of which I liked pretty well. On our visit, these included gelatin in soy sauce, tiny pickled anchovies (one of my favorites), seaweed in spicy sauce, fish cake, cabbage kim chee, and pickled cucumber slices, among others. We were also served a salty brothy soup (mostly broth, with just a few bits of meat and seaweed in it), rice, and some tasty onion? cakes.

Although the side dishes were uniformly to my liking, both Ed's and my meats arrived overcooked (particularly bothersome with calamari, as it quickly turns to hard rubber!). Despite the chewiness, my dish was otherwise flavorful, and I liked the vegetables and sesame sauce that accompanied it. Ed's beef was so-so - I wouldn't order it again based on the bites I had.

Service was nothing to write home about, neither friendly nor un-friendly. I will probably return just to try some new dishes, but wouldn't go here for the BBQ.