Cycle 14 – Item 345

16 (Sat) December 2023

Assorted Cuts of (Crappy) Beef

1.0

at Myeongin Galbi (?) / Hoengseong Hanwoo (?)

-Bangi, Songpa, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and IZ

Myeongin Galbi (?) / Hoengseong Hanwoo (?) is a Korean restaurant.  Specializes in Korean BBQ, both beef and pork.  Might be part of a chain.

Signage says both “Myeongin Galbi,” a common name for meat restaurants, and “Hoengseong Hanwoo,” which I doubt could be a legally registered name for a restaurant as it’s a protected designation of origin, but Naver Map lists it as such.  Either way, I don’t care, because I’m never going back.

The plan had been to eat dinner at Gold Chamchi (see most recently 14.173 VIP Special Set), but they were fully booked, so we walked down the street and settled on Myeongin Galbi (?) / Hoengseong Hanwoo (?), which had a lost of customers, so it seemed okay.

In itself, the “hanwoo” label is meaningless without knowing the meat’s rating, based primarily on marbling, ranging from 3 at the lowest to 1++ at the highest (see for example 11.209 1++ Hanwoo Ribeye).

Not much of a meat eater these days, I let W do the ordering; she went with the combo platter, which appeared to include ribeye, flank, and rib fingers.

The meat was awful.  So tough that some pieces had to be spit out.  Looking back at the menu, nothing on it to indicate the beef’s rating – restaurants will proudly promote 1++ and even 1+ ratings, sometimes 1 – but never 2 or 3.  The cheap price of just 36,000 won for 130 grams was also highly suspect.  Shameful.

This restaurant is henceforth BANNED.

(See also HANSIK)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)