October 2016 – Eat Now Run Later

We were in the mood for Korean food last weekend so we ate two different styles: Korean noodles and Korean BBQ. Here are our thoughts on Da Rae Won and Kogiya, combined into one review.

DA RAE WON

We worked up quite an appetite after going hiking in Greenbelt Park, so we headed for Da Rae Won. Da Rae Won is a popular Korean restaurant in a strip-mall along Route 1 in Beltsvile. They specialize in handmade noodles, which are made fresh throughout the day.

The restaurant has been open since 2003. It’s an attractive space that shows few signs of wear, despite its age. The menu, mostly in Korean, has short English descriptions below. This can make it a little tricky to get a full understanding of what you are ordering based solely off the description. We found the staff tremendously helpful and eager to explain the dishes, though. For example, there were two “Noodles with Black Bean Sauce” on the menu, items “1” and” 2” in the numeric listing, so I asked our server to explain the difference. One was more like a soup, she said, and the other had more onions and was saltier. Plus, they both contained pork unless you tell them otherwise. I chose the latter, while Marnay went for the Spicy Seafood and Vegetable Soup.

The selection of panchan, or free side dishes, was a little small but the quality was high. The four dishes included radish kimchi, daikon, raw onion and an umami-packed black bean paste. Marnay described the thick, slightly sweet paste as tasting a bit like dark chocolate, almost like a mole sauce.

We also ordered four huge pork dumplings, or mandu, crispy from their brief swim in the deep-fryer but not greasy.

If you go to Da Rae Won, you may notice a constant “wapping” noise coming from the kitchen. This is the sound of the noodle dough being constantly worked and stretched. It is a welcome reminder of the freshness of the noodles you are about to enjoy.

The best part of our dishes was the texture and chew from the handmade noodles. For Marnay, next best was the tender squid in her soup. On the other hand, the octopus was so chewy it was nearly inedible. The spicy soup’s broth had a burn but it did not set our mouths on fire.

The noodles and the black bean sauce were served in separate bowls. (Check out the before picture above and the after picture below). I mixed in the bean paste, onions and pork on top of the noodles, creating something that looked like an oil slick. The mole-like sauce and the snap of the noodles combined to make a delectable dish.

Da Rae Won is a friendly strip-mall restaurant with a dedication to the art of making noodles by hand. It is well worth a drive or an Uber trip from the Greenbelt Metro.

Best Bite
Paul: Noodles with Black Bean Sauce
Marnay: Spicy Seafood and Vegetable Soup

Address
Da Rae Won: 5013 Garrett Ave Beltsville, MD 20705
Closest Metro: Greenbelt, 3.5 miles away

KOGIYA

The day after Da Rae Won, we still had not had our fill of Korean food. So, we headed to Annandale, the DC area’s unofficial Koreatown. The first thing you will notice at Kogiya is the massive amount of panchan that awaits you at your communal table. It reminded me of the free snacks that were part of aperitvo in Milan.

Kogiya is a Korean BBQ restaurant with tabletop grills, which are manned by your server. The panchan selection was so vast that we only had to order two kinds of meats, and you could still do well with one meat between two people. We chose soy-garlic ribeye and miso pork belly.

We grazed on the panchan and sipped on some Korean beer as our server cooked the thin slices of ribeye in front of us. In about five minutes, it was done and we attacked it with our chopsticks with reckless abandon. The ribeye was sweet from the marinade but still meaty. Of the three dipping sauces available, my favorite was the gochujang, a spicy fermented bean paste.

There was a bit of an execution problem with the pork belly. Our server came over to start cooking while we were still eating the ribeye. The only thing is, he walked away and never told us when it was done. Almost 20 minutes later, we flagged down another server and asked him if our food was finished cooking. He took a look at the pork belly, fiddled with the grill and poked at the meat a few times and then declared it done. By now, though, the pork wasn’t that hot. We liked the sweet and nutty flavor from the miso, but a few pieces were so chewy as to be inedible.

Pork belly confusion aside, we would be willing to go back to Kogiya. We may go to another Korean BBQ restaurant first, though, and then compare.

Best Bite
Paul and Marnay: Soy-garlic ribeye

Address
Kogiya: 4220-A Annandale Road, Annandale, VA 22003
Closest Metro: East Falls Church, 5.5 miles away

Being back in DC means that we get to check out some of the newer restaurants that we’ve been too busy to get to over the last few weeks (see the previous post). On a dreary Thursday night during one of the rainiest weeks of 2016, we checked out Hazel in Shaw. Hazel is an Asian-accented restaurant from Neighborhood Restaurant Group (Partisan, Rustico, Sovereign, plus many others) and Chef Rob Rubba. It is located in a brand new mixed-use building across V Street from the 930 Club.

The first thing that one notices upon entering at night is that the space is dark and moody. From our perch at the bar there were spotlights above us that illuminated the otherwise dark space. We spent the evening watching the rain through the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the restaurant.

As with any Neighborhood Restaurant Group restaurant, the beer list was stellar. But Hazel also has a strong focus on cocktails. I enjoyed the Too Short a Season, which was basically a spritz, my cocktail obsession of the moment. The sweet yet bitter taste of the Cappelletti, also known as Specialino in its home of Brescia, really shined through the rest of the ingredients. Marnay got a saison, her favorite style of beer, from Oxbow.

Chef Rubba’s menu is entirely small plates, with two family-style “huge” plates: a whole snapper and a roasted duck. I am seeing this trend of having family-style portions pop up more and more on menus and I am a huge fan. It takes dining from a semi-solitary activity and turns it into an experience, where interaction among others is required.

But on to our food. English muffins slathered with whipped nduja, a spicy spreadable salami, Greek yogurt and olive oil jam were a striking example of the way hot and cool play off of each other. The nduja, yogurt and jam were layered in a ramekin so that it resembled a sunny-side up egg.

We liked the littleneck clams in a brown butter miso broth, but would not be inclined to order them again. After we finished the chewy clams, we took the small bowl of steamed rice and let it soak up the umami-packed broth. An above average dish but not a repeater.

My favorite was their Korean fried chicken style ribs, which is quickly becoming their quintessential dish. The ribs are crunchy, sweet, spicy and meaty, pretty much the four adjectives that make up an optimal dish. The heat was noticeable, and my sinuses would confirm this, but it didn’t overwhelm the other flavors.

We were very fond of the food at Hazel. What set it apart from all of the other new restaurants with great food, though, was the atmosphere. We felt like we spent a few hours after work hanging out in an exclusive club with superb food.

Best Bite
Paul: Korean fried chicken style ribs
Marnay: English muffins with nduja, Greek yogurt and olive oil jam

Address
Hazel: 808 V Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: U Street