Mmmmmmm, 2nd visit to Chogajip in 2 weeks and I like it better and better each time I go. For the uninitiated, Chogajip is a quiet little Korean restaurant on Essex St, next door to the belly dancing restaurant! The food is full of flavor and light, yet very filling.
This time we started with the dumplings, small parcels of meat and vegetables with a soy dipping sauce, and the mixed vegetables seafood pancake. Now this is not like a western style pancake - it consisted of a flat layer of chopped greens and small pieces of seafood lightly bound together by a small amount of batter, then fried. Very tasty!
For mains we chose two stir fried dishes - marinated beef and spicy squid. The marinated beef was to die for, bursting with flavor that was almost sweet. Now be warned.. When they say spicy squid (or spicy chicken) they DO mean spicy. These dishes are not for the faint hearted! Over the years I have developed a taste for the more spicy foods, and I found this just at my limit of "enjoyable". It left a pleasant tingle on the lips that lingered for quite a while and needless to say was a very intensely flavored dish.
What they don't state on the menu is that the stir fry dishes come automatically with a small bowl of steamed rice plus three standard accompaniments. There is a marinated cabbage (try as I might, I just cannot enjoy this one - it tastes like cold sea water to me), small cubes of potato in a mild sweetish sauce and bean sprouts with spices (not hot). The potato is particularly good at offsetting the spicy dishes.
The restaurant is licenced with a small but acceptable wine list, but they are also boy with corkage at about $5 per bottle. Our meal, with corckage, came to $61, a very affordable night out. The staff are also very friendly and attentive, without having to hang around and be annoying.
The only disappointing thing about this restaurant is that there aren't more customers on a regular basis. Friday night saw the owner giving away taste samples outside which worked very well to entice diners inside for a table. It's a pity that on other nights more people don't venture in, it would be a shame if this little gem suffered through lack of customers.
Well its top marks from me Chogajip!!
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