Janguh Si Kwanguh Dong - Korean Seafood and Sashimi in the old Annandale Seafood on Columbia Pike in Koreatown in Annandale

[pras]

This is in the former location of Annadale Seafood, located at 7123 Columbia Pike in Annandale, which is where I have one of my favorite Korean food experiences ever.  Tonight, wanted to re-live that memory and headed back.  It is now called Janguh Si Kwanguh Dong.  It doesn't look like anything on the interior was changed, perhaps it is a bit cleaner, but still much the same.  They have upgraded the menu and there are better descriptions and more English.  I wait staff spoke better English also, and were able to better describe the differences in the sashimi platters.  Basically, there are about 4 varieties, all available in a large, medium, or small.  The varieties loosely are: fish only, fish only but including a flounder that was live in the tank, fish and seafood (all the fish, but including abalone, sea cucumber, and sea squirt), and fish including the live flounder and the seafood.  We were debating the seafood vs. the fish only.  While I would have liked to try the seafood, the rest of my party is not as adventurous.   We opted for the fish only.  The waitress suggested that we not get the live flounder, but we didn't listen and opted for the live flounder.

The initial dishes included a pumpkin porage which was very tasty, a tempura style california roll, salad, spicy tuna roll, edamame, squid tempura, some other type of sushi style roll, corn with cheese (my wife and mom's favorite), sauteed mushrooms, some sort of smoky rice, scrambled eggs (my daughter went crazy on this and ate the whole portion), a whole fried tilapia (I may have left out one or two).  Next came the sashimi, which included salmon, tuna, white tuna, yellowtail, and a bunch of flounder (fillet, and a belly cut-more to follow on this later).  All of the fish was very tasty.  They gave us a little separated dish with sesame oul with salt and nori, and told us to each this with the white tuna.  It made it very tasty.  The flounder was very tough in the Korean style, with the belly being even more tough.  My dad did not like the flounder because he thought it was too tough (the waitress tried to warn us, I still liked it).

Once the sashimi was done, they brought us each a bowl of miso, again my daughter loved this (we also got her an order of shrimp tempura, which was shared and everyone really enjoyed it)(our daughter was a real trooper and really enjoyed the meal).  After the miso, there was some nappa kimchi, radish kimche, some soy sprouts, and potato salad.  This was followed by a flounder bone stew.  This was actually the highlight of the meal for me (the rest of my family was rightfully stuffed).  The soup had some flounder bones, nappa, sprouts, onion, tofu, and a spicy broth.  The broth was the star!  Meal was finished with Korean yogurt shakes.  Total meal, $110 for 4, plus $11 for the shrimp tempura.  All in all a great meal.  Although my memory is a bit hazy from the last time we were here, I think there was more offering in the dishes before the sashimi, but it was still a great meal and I will come back again.

[deangold]

Based on Pras write up, we went today after closing the Grotto down early due to a needed kitchen repair. AllI can say is we are stuffed and pretty happy for $104.  Next time we go we need at least one other couple to join.

We had the $79 Sashimi platter with the flounder.

Side dishes included a fabulous baby octopus with spicy sauce, spicy tuna roll, a marianted fish might have been flounder, a superb pick mackerel grilled perfectly, dumplings, eggy fried fish cake, steamed egg (amazing), grilled mushrooms, seasoned rice (amazing hot and fresh, even better later with a rice crust).  Misses were a tempura octopus tentacles, seafood pancake and corn with cheese.  There was more but I am too stuffed to remember.

Then came the Sashimi

This is what was let of it after a bit.  The highlights were belly salmon, escolar and hamachi.  The flounder was chewy and I loved it, Kay less so.  Salmon and tuna were standard.

Then came kimchee (ok) bean sprouts (incredible) and cukes (ok but that may have been that I was stuffed, rice and spicyfish bone soup.  All I can say is that I was sad that we were so stuffed for he soup.  It was amazing.  Last was something which may have been some sort of fish belly, torched or grilled and served with eel sauce and spicy sauce.  I am glad I didnt burst.

Their cinnamon soup was the perfect ending, strong, cold, only mildly sweet.

very good cold sake {Harushika Daijunmai ginjo} and a totally unnecessary salmon skin handroll and enough food for three for $105 before tip.  The service was incredibly friendly and they were amazed time and time at how we enjoyed the "odder" stuff.  We had a long talk with the owner's daughter.  She said come with 4 and just add a couple of dishes {she mentioned two soups altang was one} and its enough for 4.  There was a foursome across from us who seemingly did that but their sashimi platter had abalone and possibly more.

We had been wanting to try this place for a long time and we are so glad we did.  Thanks Pras!

[hillvalley]

I just lost a nice long post (not due to any fault of the software) so here is the short version: Go.

Highlights from what was lost include:

*I made a reservation for 7 on a Saturday night but it was not needed.

*Three of us shared the medium sashimi and seafood for $79 and it was plenty.  The seafood included fantastic abalone, uni, and sea squirt.  The waitress checked a few times to be sure we wanted the seafood and understood what we were ordering.

*We did not specifically ask for flounder but it came with three pieces of belly and about 18 pieces of fillet. Both were a hit.  pras, I'm curious if you were asked about the flounder before hand as I did not see it differentiated on the different sashimi choices. Unfortunately we only got two pieces of escolar. With the exception of the tuna, the fish was all of high quality, cut thicker than you would find in a Japanese restaurant.  

*A few of the panchan were different than listed above but for the most part were the same.  They came in three waves: before the sashimi we received panchan from the sushi bar, then from the kitchen.  In between the sashimi and the soup we had two types of kimchi and a sprout dish.

*The flounder bone soup comes with the meal.

*The waitresses were very attentive and concerned that we enjoyed our meal.  Every waitress in the place checked in on us at least twice, including bringing us over business cards and takeout menus.  When they weren't checking in they were watching to see if we actually ate everything, which we did.  I think they enjoyed watching us enjoy their food.  One waitress even took a few moments to try to teach us how to say the name of the restaurant, a feat we did not achieve.

*If you are trying to find the place on a dark and rainy night, it is in the same mini strip mall as Cafe Tu-Ahn.  There is a brightly lit sign with the name of the restaurant surrounded by colored lights but it is easier to find the Cafe sign.

*The only language barrier was when one of the waitresses couldn't come up with the word belly when describing the flounder.  I pointed to mine and said the word, she confirmed, and we all had a nice little laugh.

*Go

[pras]

*We did not specifically ask for flounder but it came with three pieces of belly and about 18 pieces of fillet. Both were a hit.  pras, I'm curious if you were asked about the flounder before hand as I did not see it differentiated on the different sashimi choices. Unfortunately we only got two pieces of escolar. With the exception of the tuna, the fish was all of high quality, cut thicker than you would find in a Japanese restaurant.  

*The waitresses were very attentive and concerned that we enjoyed our meal.  Every waitress in the place checked in on us at least twice, including bringing us over business cards and takeout menus.  When they weren't checking in they were watching to see if we actually ate everything, which we did.  I think they enjoyed watching us enjoy their food.  One waitress even took a few moments to try to teach us how to say the name of the restaurant, a feat we did not achieve.

*The only language barrier was when one of the waitresses couldn't come up with the word belly when describing the flounder.  I pointed to mine and said the word, she confirmed, and we all had a nice little laugh.

*Go

On the menu, in the Sashimi section there are three groups (as I remember).  The first is fish and seafood, the second is just fish and the third also fish.  The waitress explained that the difference between the two "fish" choices" is that one is with live flounder and the second with other flounder (not from their tank).  She tried to push us towards the non live (probably because it is tough and not typically enjoyed by Americans).  I enjoyed the live flounder, but the others in the group found it too tough.

Can you give a description of the seafood choices?  Pretty sure I have eaten abalone in the past (sashimi), sea cucumber in a Chinese hot pot, but never sea squirt.  I am interested in your take on flavor, texture, etc.

We also found that the service was very attentive and they were very intent on making sure we enjoyed everything.  This is more of a "special" evening for us, so I don't know how often we will be back, but we will certainly be back.