Yechon, 24-Hour Korean Barbecue in Annandale - on Hummer Road Off of Little River Turnpike

[deangold]

Its been a long time since we ahve been to Yechon. Last night, after spending 6 hours at Dino on my "day off", I picked up Kay downtown and after only taking three wrong turns we arrived at Yechon in need of food and drink. The greeting was particularly cheerful as we sat. We looked at the huge menu and finally made some decisions.... sort of. The waitress approached and was very patient as we dithered and switched our order several times, but finally we settled on a couple of soups, a pancake, man doo and cold sake. First to arrive was about 8-9 small dishes:

Almond (?) jelly with a bit of peanut and a soy based sauce

Cucumbers and assorted veggie garnish in a slightly sweet sauce with a touch of a bite (If Kraft Catalina dressing were actually food and well made and slightly spciy it would taste like this)

Potato salad- creamy, traditional American picnic style with carrots and peas

Fried tofu with spicy sauce- insanely good. The tofu has an egggy custardy consistency, incredible flavor and just the right amount of soy and spice based sauce.

Asparagus- out of season but nice

Kim Chee- very crunchy, very spicy

Mystery greens in a sesame oil based marinade- wonderful

Shredded raddish in spicy sauce- great, standard preparation

Next up was the pancake. It was maybe 14 inches across and cut into 8 slices. Korean opancakes may be an acquired taste and we like them in moderation every once in a while. This one had scallions and oyster. The batter was quite eggy and fluffy and very good. It was crispy brown on the bottom giving it more flavor interest than most versions I have had. The only problem with it was the size of the portion. It would ahve been incredible with 8 olk at the table as we could have wolfed it down and been left wanting more. As it was, we ate only half o f it and were stuffed. The oyster falvor was distinct with the creamy milky briny flavor of cooked oyster.

I had the cold buckwheat noodle with sliced beef in cold broth. The broth came with ice floating in it too keep it really cold. The beef was incredible and the other garnishes were welcome, especially the pickled mustard green. Kay had a bowl of soy miso broth, tofu, squash soup. It was superb. Many versions of this dish are too salty for my taste and this one had a distinctly miso flavor and the veggies, while well cooked, were not mush. As we ate the soups we asked for some more Kim Chee and we got 5 more dishes of the side dishes- this time we got a cabbage salad. Alas, we did not get a refil of Kimchee but were too stuffed to even dream of asking for it by then.

Dessert was a complimentary cup of watermelo and orange juice.

This feast was $56. I think it was the best Korean meal we ahve ever had (Gom Ba Woo with Grover and Escoffier would be a close second). I would love to go back with 6 other friends and have more variety. All the food was bright, clean flavored with lots of distinct tangy flavors. We were stuffed but not weighted down.

The service was warm and friendly, we were doted over by our waitress. When we asked what another table was having we were told "Fish soup". But then she went over to that table and looked at the dish, went and got us the menu and showed us which fish soup it was (clam and cod). So in ending, what stands out most in my mind is not just the food, but the warm welcome we got at Yechon. If only my local Korean restaurant would learn that lesson!

[Scott Johnston]

Sounds like a $20 dollar whatever day...lets go I am in!

[deangold]

Sounds like a $20 dollar whatever day...lets go I am in!

You know what they say.... great minds think alike or all gutters wind up in the Chesapeake!

[grover]

To tell the truth, Yechon was one of the candidates for the first Korean dinner. I chose Han Sung Oak first because they serve Bulgogi with 70's style and I would like to show.

Anyway, I realize that the time has come for another Korean dinner.

Would you want me to order food for you if I organize the dinner?

[PollyG]

We had lunch today at Yechon, greatly relieved to find tables available at 12:45pm on a Saturday. Unlike Dino's experience, the oyster and scallion pancake was the weakest of our three dishes. The pancake was a bit too thick so the center was soggy; we're used to thinner and crisper versions. And the green onions could have used a shorter cut. Some were as long as 3 inches which made for some awkward chewing. I think this dish was better on my prior visit a few months ago; perhaps the chef is off on holiday.

The nakji bokum (octopus and mixed vegetables in a red pepper sauce) was chewy but tasty. The sauce wasn't so hot that it overpowered the octopus. The jap chae was one of the better renditions of that dish we've had, with julienned strips of beef matching the vegetables in texture.

We also ordered unagi from the sushi bar but I cannot comment on it; the 6 year-old wasn't sharing. She declared it to be excellent.

My favorite of the small dishes was strips of zuchinni, agar-agar, and shitake in light sesame oil sauce.

I'm not sure why the food press hasn't discovered Yechon yet (it's by no means a dive and it sometimes seems to me that when it comes to the food press and ethnic places, they'll tout nice interiors with competent food over stellar food), but I'll be happy to continue to dine my way through the menu without having to compete with the crowds.

[deangold]

We met Grover and Escoffier at Yechon last night. Very nice meal.

We started with Bosam- oyster, pork belly, nappa cabbage, raddish and green onion salad, garlic and pepper. You dip the pork belly into a salty baby shrmop sauce and then woll everything up in the cabbage. The oysters were very milky and strong tasting yielding a nice fishiness to the whole.

Next up was BBQ #4 which was some sort of beef cut fromt he stomach and side area of the beast, grilled till somewhat crisp and served with lettuce leaves (rolled with soybean paste and onion & lettuce in pepper) or a dipping sauce of salt in sesame oil. It was good but not great. I am thinking back to other meals at Yechon and maybe it just isn't as good a BBQ as some other places.

Last dish was the seafood casserole. A huge bowl of udon noodles with really good seafood. By this time we were pretty stuffed and could not do real justice to the delicious soup. At many Korean restaurants, the seafood is low quality and in great abundance. Here the rations were reversed. Nothing had that overpoweringly frozen texture/taste I've had at Woomi or elsewhere. The noodles and broth were spectacular.

The side dishes were spectacular- several cabbage concoctions, beef slices in a sweet sauce, fried tofu, egg cake, macaroni salad that was irrestible, fried anchovies (think anchovy jerky) and more. But the main dishes were so good that the sides were just that, sides.

[goldenticket]

We decided to venture out of our Old Town comfort zone and headed west to Yechon. I think we got there just in time to beat the Saturday night dining rush and were quickly seated at a slightly drafty corner table. Fortunately it was a 4-top because there would have been no way to squeeze all of the dishes onto at 2-top - and I don't think they even have 2-tops in there. We ordered 3 dishes for the 2 of us and brought a small package of leftovers home. I enjoyed the lively ambiance, the waitresses in traditional, colorful, Korean dress, and the bright wood features around the dining room.

The panchan were similar to those described above...well, on second glance, not really . They included an eggplant dish, oyster mushrooms with beef (my favorite), kimchee, a slightly spicy seaweed dish, that crazy apple/raisin/potato salad, mung bean sprouts, marinated radish, and 3-4 others. We ordered the following:

Spicy Jap Chae - Even after asking if we were sure we wanted the spicy version, I think the waitress may have told them to not make it TOO spicy* . It was very good, with a variety of julienned vegetables (red and green pepper, zucchini, onions, black mushrooms, etc.) and shredded beef atop the stir-fried glass noodles. Good flavor but I was looking for a little more heat after some of the dishes I'd tried at Gom Ba Woo and Han Sung Oak at the dinners Grover and Escoffier have organized.

Duk Mandoo Guk - Beef Dumpling and Rice Cake Soup - This was a very hearty portion (we went for the entree size) with 4 LARGE dumplings and lots of sliced rice cake in a fairly bland broth. The dumplings were filled with a finely ground seasoned beef - a little shot of soy sauce in the broth helped.

Daeji Bulgogi - The pork version - sadly, they brought it out already cooked. We weren't seated at a table with a built-in burner, but others around us had portable burners on their tables. I guess we'll ask to have it cooked at the table next time. Don't get me wrong, the pork was tender and flavorful and we very much enjoyed this dish. It is a slight bummer to have to order a minimum of two orders, but we'll just have to go with a group next time so we can enjoy a little more variety.

* This is my one frustration with the few Korean restaurants I've tried in this area - I really do know what I want when I order a spicy dish. For some reason, the waitresses never seem to believe me and either consult with the Korean-speakers I've dined with or seem to make their own notes to the kitchen to make it 'meeguk' spicy.

[deangold]

My GM Joe Gelchion kicked me out of the restaurant tonight. Something about how dealing with two days of computer crashes had me a little on edge tongiht (or was it one of the waiters making book on if I'd kill someone tonight?). In any case, after picking up someone of the female persuasion who looked vaguely familiar, wearing a wedding ring suspiciously like my own, we decamped to VA and Yechon. We were greated like long lost family members! We ordered a couple of BBQ items: pork belly and corned beef. I am not sure we actually got the corned beef as the beef has no pickled or cured flavors, but it was sure good. The belly was incredible. Both were served with sesame, salt & black pepper dipping sauce, soy bean paste, green onion slivers in a hot & spicy sauce and lettuce leaves. The side dishes were too numerous to mention although my fav was jelley fish on a bitter green and head lettuce salad with a spicy mustard sauce. We drank two medium sake. Well I drank most of 2 meduim sake as Kay was driving home after. $60 with a generous tip. WOW!

[Antonio Burrell]

My GM Joe Gelchion kicked me out of the restaurant tonight. Something about how dealing with two days of computer crashes had me a little on edge tongiht (or was it one of the waiters making book on if I'd kill someone tonight?). In any case, after picking up someone of the female persuasion who looked vaguely familiar, wearing a wedding ring suspiciously like my own, we decamped to VA and Yechon. We were greated like long lost family members! We ordered a couple of BBQ items: pork belly and corned beef. I am not sure we actually got the corned beef as the beef has no pickled or cured flavors, but it was sure good. The belly was incredible. Both were served with sesame, salt & black pepper dipping sauce, soy bean paste, green onion slivers in a hot & spicy sauce and lettuce leaves. The side dishes were too numerous to mention although my fav was jelley fish on a bitter green and head lettuce salad with a spicy mustard sauce. We drank two medium sake. Well I drank most of 2 meduim sake as Kay was driving home after. $60 with a generous tip. WOW!

Damn!!! I gotta get out there to eat, sounds AWESOME!

[Nadya]

Cheers:

Open 24 hours a day. Sushi chefs sport a generally amenable disposition. Scallion pancake on par with other area restaurants, and I can personally consume eight a day and not lose an eyelash over it, probably single-handedly driving up scallion sales in the DC area by a quarter. Did I say it's open 24 hours a day? Kimchee keeps coming, with a nice crunch and spiciness. Pickled veggie sides can make a serviceable meal. The whole 24 hours a day thing intrigues me. Spoons come with cute little condom-like wrappers on wide parts reminiscent of "sanitized for your protection" on Motel Six bathtubs, driving up the giggle factor.

Jeers:

"Spicy" pork BBQ is feeble in spice quotient. Should have stayed home and eaten my lovely curry. Waitresses speak worse English than I at age seven. Sushi pedestrian. Don't go with anyone you fancy - playing footsie under the table results in unlovely ridged burn marks from scorchingly hot barbecue gas pipe tentacles pressing into tender thigh areas. Road leading to restaurant is one lane, therefore, cannot overtake slowpokes without endangering self.

[DonRocks]

Sushi pedestrian.

Avoid sushi at Yechon. Bulgogi, bulgogi, bulgogi.

Road leading to restaurant is one lane, therefore, cannot overtake slowpokes without endangering self.

Avoid I-395 to Route 236. Continue to Beltway and get on Route 236 that way.

[Meaghan]

Best eaten between 12:18 and 2:47 a.m.

[Meaghan]

Jeers:

Waitresses speak worse English than I at age seven.

Nadya! Just as icy as I remember.

[deangold]

We find ourselves more often heading to Yechon late at night on either Tuesdays (Kay has Wednesday off from her paying job) or Friday/Saturday (same reason). We get there after the women wait staff is winding down and the boy's unit takes over. We have finally figured out the code of what can be ordered with what and still be BBQd at your table. You can have the corned beef, tongue (in combination of 2 or more0 or pork belly on a convex grill or you can have any of the others on a concave grill with holes for the fat to drip thru.

Last night, needing to eat somewhere where Restaurant Week is not happening, we made a midnight run to Yechon. We combined shrimp with #3 "specially treated marinated beef". The beef was good sized cubes of beef, with deep scoring that indicated it came from a usually tough part of the animal in a nicely sweet sauce just a little different it seems than the KalBi sauce. It could have been brisket, plate, flanken, I am not sure. But it was good once we let it get a little crispy brown on the edges. The shrimp cooked quickly and were tasty but of a smaller size. Next time I would try the spicy pork or the chicken as a foil to the really rich beef.

As we walked in we saw the sushi and it looked better than we remembered and I think the chef was different. So we added an order of Maguro and Hamachi sashimi to the festivities. The Maguro was good: cut thick as seems to be the wont in Korean sushi bars. The Hamachi was a belly cut and quite excellent. I would not go there for a sushi dinner, the cuts aer too thick for me to make a full meal, but for an addon to a BBQ meal, go for it. I think the combo was about $15 which given the 3 slice of each serving, makes its value quotient questionable but not outrageous.

A large and a small sake, sashimi, 2 BBQ orders and $60 later we were very full and happy indeed. If we had skipped the sashimi we would have been just about as full and only set back by $45 which would have been a steal.

Kay drove home and we finished watching "The Bad Sleep Well" by Kurosawa, a perfect ending to the night!

[silentbob]

Six of us met up here for dinner last Saturday. We ordered pretty standard dishes -- short ribs and marinated pork. My Korean American friends say that there are better places for meat (Hee Been) or homestyle dishes (Gombawoo/Lighthouse), so that's probably where I will go next time.

Although the quality of meat was decent, the lettuce arrived while still covered in drops of water. The owners desperately need to invest in a salad spinner IMO. The wetness of the lettuce seriously detracted from the overall quality. We also got a much smaller portion of the kalbi sauce than expected.

[acevedo81]

3am dinner at Yechon after a long night of work was a satisfying experience. We ordered Bibimbap, kalbe and some noodle dish with fish cake and overall enjoyed our dishes, but I´m not in love. Bibimbap was awesome, but I do like my egg less cooked or maybe an extra egg will do, all around great combinations of flavors. Kalbe was not that great and a bit dried out, I get a better rendition at Lighthouse (but I just made a mental note to try the bbq place silentbob mentioned). The noodles were some kind of stir fry dish with peppers, onions, fish cake and some intense sauce (kind of like fish sauce, could it be oyster sauce?), it was good but not great. I have to highlight the kimchee as my favorite food of the night as it was both crunchy and spicy.

[Soup]

Went to Yechon last night. This has really become a dependable standby korean place for me. We were there at 6:10 and line was out the door. The economic slowdown hasn't affected their business. Wife got the Dak Gui (I believe the best korean chicken dish in Annandale). It was smoky and well season, not at all greasy or tough. Just an excellent dish. I had the haejang guk. As always, it rocked, especially on a really cold night like last night.

The waitress (service which I've thought was always the achilles heel of Yechon) was solid. Even in a very crowed resturant, we got her attention and brought a lot of banchan. The banchan was a little weak but it was passible.

BTW, not sure it the client demographics is changing at Yechon, but last night koreans were definitely in the minority at this resturant. Huge groups of chinese and vietnamese. It was good to see others discovering korean food.

After many years of being in business Yechon still cranks it out pretty good and is definitely a solid bet in Annandale.

Soup

BTW, anyone try the new tofu house next to the Giant or the new korean place where HR Ribsters used to be. Went by the tofu house last night but decided against it when we saw a nearly emtpy resturant at 6 on a friday night.

[Escoffier]

BTW, anyone try the new tofu house next to the Giant or the new korean place where HR Ribsters used to be.

Is the tofu house ARA? The restaurant behind the CVS on LR turnpike? If that's the one you're speaking of, Grover was there and she said it was good. I'm going to go and then I can give the mee-guk opinion.

[PollyG]

Is the tofu house ARA? The restaurant behind the CVS on LR turnpike? If that's the one you're speaking of, Grover was there and she said it was good. I'm going to go and then I can give the mee-guk opinion.

ARA isn't a tofu house. They're a solid restaurant with a great selection of soups and other lunch special offerings by daylight (38 lunch specials from $3.99 to $8.99, plus a few on-the-wall additions), and a far-too-cool-for-us Karaoke bar in the evenings. It advertises itself as a "Fusion Restaurant Karaoke Bar." The interior is attractive, with dark wooden tables. We noticed a few semi-private rooms with curtains.

Banchan come out on trendy little 3-part appetizer plates. Portion sizes on the main menu are large. The grilled pork belly with grilled kimchi (grilled in the kitchen, not at table) is a generous serving for $12.99, and the Seafood Okonomiyaki at $16.99, listed as a two person serving, is probably more of a 4-6 person serving in lieu of an appetizer. This came out as a large pizza-shaped concoction, totally covered in bonito shavings, which moved from the heat of the dish. If you're not familiar with this feature of bonito flakes, it could be downright disturbing. Underneath was a mix of seafood and flour pancake, with a bit too much mayo for my taste. Unlike the seafood pancakes (haemul pa jon) we often get at Korean places, this one was only crispy on the bottom; it was soft on the top, more like a pizza.

[Soup]

Is the tofu house ARA? The restaurant behind the CVS on LR turnpike? If that's the one you're speaking of, Grover was there and she said it was good. I'm going to go and then I can give the mee-guk opinion.

No the tofu house if the next to the Giant on LRT. The other resturant where HR ribster's use to be is also new but I've not been there.

[CajunJason]

I had the worst restaurant/dining experience in my life at Yechon a few weekends ago, no exaggeration. I wanted to wait a couple weeks before posting this just to let emotions calm, so I wouldn't be as F'ing pissed when I typed this summary of my experience.

A brief background, I have been a loyal customer of this restaurant for more than a decade. It has been the source of many late-night and prime-time Korean dinners through the entirety of my adult life, spanning three careers from when I used to pull up in my police cruiser, through my days in restaurant management to now. The food has always been decent and the service friendly. It was my Korean "go-to", and it was always busy- regardless of the hour.

I arrived with 4 other dining companions on a Saturday night three weeks back. Knowing this is a popular dinner spot with the Annandale community, we waited until 10:30pm to let the rush die down before showing up with a 5 top. The restaurant was packed as always, no surprise, and we were seated promptly. We waited over 10 minutes to be greeted by a waiter and offered beverages, almost to the point where I felt ignored (it wasn't that busy.) When a server finally arrived, we gave our entire order, drinks- sushi & entrees. Four of us order the same thing (Kal-Bi), and the fifth ordered a chicken dish (she doesn't eat red meat.)

After another long while, the Kal-Bi arrives, before the appetizers, and another server puts them on the hot grill at the table. Now typically, with all my experiences with Korean BBQ over the years, the meat cooking is supervised by a waiter or by what I call (please pardon the term) the BBQ Girls in ceremonial dress. Not the case on this particular evening. After explaining we prefer the meat a med-rare, the beef was left to burn, then blacken, then wither on one side. I tried to get the attention of a waiter desperately, and when I finally did, he flipped the meat just to let it burn on the other side. This process is repeated twice with the rest of the meat, even as I voice my concern to the server (the 3rd of the evening.) The chicken dish never arrived for our non-beef eater.

After finishing whatever edible pieces of kal-bi we could, and eating all the banchan, I'm concerned that one of our party still hasn't been served her entree (she insisted we eat ours.) It's been 25-30 minutes since we were served. I try to flag down an employee as he rushed past, and he gave me the raised index finger "one second". Two minutes pass, and I try flag down the same employee a second time, still got the same finger "one second". At this point, I'm incredibly frustrated, and I walked to the service station and asked to speak with a manager. I'm directed to the same employee who blew me off moments before... great.

I explain the situation with the lack of service (our drinks were empty the majority of the meal), burnt food, and that one member of our party still hasn't been served an entree, while the majority of the table is ready to leave. I also explained that I've been a regular customer for more than 10 years and that everything has been horrible tonight. His response: "What do you want?" My answer, how about the food that we ordered almost an hour ago, and service? His response: "What do you want me to do, does she still want her food, what do you want?" He said this as he looked at me like he was annoyed. At this point, we decided it wasn't worth it anymore, and just asked for the check.

Five minutes later, a bus-boy delivers the check, with everything on it minus the chicken that was never received. And we all left angry, hungry and with the taste of burnt meat in our mouth.

I understand a restaurant can have a misstep, bad food is excusable from time to time, especially when it's busy at the end of a dinner rush. But to be ignored, and then treated rudely by a hostile manager (for no reason), is inexcusable. I will never return, and make it a personal mission to tell everyone I can about this experience and get them to try one of the many other options in Annandale.

F you, Yechon. I'll be at Honey Pig.

[FunnyJohn]

"I had the worst restaurant/dining experience in my life at Yechon a few weekends ago, no exaggeration. I wanted to wait a couple weeks before posting this just to let emotions calm, so I wouldn't be as F'ing pissed when I typed this summary of my experience."

I feel your pain CajunJason, and in fact endured close to the same treatment at Yechon on a couple of occasions. I can't claim 10 years of faithful patronage, but I will never return either. Although as popular as it currently may be, and knowing that it is able to count on attracting customers because of its operating hours, I need to believe in restaurant Karma and that eventually there will be some reckoning for the management at Yechon.

"Five minutes later, a bus-boy delivers the check, with everything on it minus the chicken that was never received. And we all left angry, hungry and with the taste of burnt meat in our mouth."

I somehow feel that these last two sentences could represent a kind of Tao for an unfulfilled life.

[xdcx]

I had the worst restaurant/dining experience in my life at Yechon a few weekends ago, no exaggeration. I wanted to wait a couple weeks before posting this just to let emotions calm, so I wouldn't be as F'ing pissed when I typed this summary of my experience.

A brief background, I have been a loyal customer of this restaurant for more than a decade. It has been the source of many late-night and prime-time Korean dinners through the entirety of my adult life, spanning three careers from when I used to pull up in my police cruiser, through my days in restaurant management to now. The food has always been decent and the service friendly. It was my Korean "go-to", and it was always busy- regardless of the hour.

I arrived with 4 other dining companions on a Saturday night three weeks back. Knowing this is a popular dinner spot with the Annandale community, we waited until 10:30pm to let the rush die down before showing up with a 5 top. The restaurant was packed as always, no surprise, and we were seated promptly. We waited over 10 minutes to be greeted by a waiter and offered beverages, almost to the point where I felt ignored (it wasn't that busy.) When a server finally arrived, we gave our entire order, drinks- sushi & entrees. Four of us order the same thing (Kal-Bi), and the fifth ordered a chicken dish (she doesn't eat red meat.)

After another long while, the Kal-Bi arrives, before the appetizers, and another server puts them on the hot grill at the table. Now typically, with all my experiences with Korean BBQ over the years, the meat cooking is supervised by a waiter or by what I call (please pardon the term) the BBQ Girls in ceremonial dress. Not the case on this particular evening. After explaining we prefer the meat a med-rare, the beef was left to burn, then blacken, then wither on one side. I tried to get the attention of a waiter desperately, and when I finally did, he flipped the meat just to let it burn on the other side. This process is repeated twice with the rest of the meat, even as I voice my concern to the server (the 3rd of the evening.) The chicken dish never arrived for our non-beef eater.

After finishing whatever edible pieces of kal-bi we could, and eating all the banchan, I'm concerned that one of our party still hasn't been served her entree (she insisted we eat ours.) It's been 25-30 minutes since we were served. I try to flag down an employee as he rushed past, and he gave me the raised index finger "one second". Two minutes pass, and I try flag down the same employee a second time, still got the same finger "one second". At this point, I'm incredibly frustrated, and I walked to the service station and asked to speak with a manager. I'm directed to the same employee who blew me off moments before... great.

I explain the situation with the lack of service (our drinks were empty the majority of the meal), burnt food, and that one member of our party still hasn't been served an entree, while the majority of the table is ready to leave. I also explained that I've been a regular customer for more than 10 years and that everything has been horrible tonight. His response: "What do you want?" My answer, how about the food that we ordered almost an hour ago, and service? His response: "What do you want me to do, does she still want her food, what do you want?" He said this as he looked at me like he was annoyed. At this point, we decided it wasn't worth it anymore, and just asked for the check.

Five minutes later, a bus-boy delivers the check, with everything on it minus the chicken that was never received. And we all left angry, hungry and with the taste of burnt meat in our mouth.

I understand a restaurant can have a misstep, bad food is excusable from time to time, especially when it's busy at the end of a dinner rush. But to be ignored, and then treated rudely by a hostile manager (for no reason), is inexcusable. I will never return, and make it a personal mission to tell everyone I can about this experience and get them to try one of the many other options in Annandale.

F you, Yechon. I'll be at Honey Pig.

did you use the new "call system" that they installed to get peoples attention?

[deangold]

did you use the new "call system" that they installed to get peoples attention?

I too am a lover of Yechon and we had less than stellar service the other night. Nothing like anything posted here but it did take the shineoff a favorite place. With On Gad Jiband Honey Pig and Gamalsot, itis harder to find a spotinthe rotation for Yechon. The ban chan were still killer and so good that we will be back again to give themanother chance.

[CajunJason]

did you use the new "call system" that they installed to get peoples attention?

We tried at first to avoid the call button. Then, after increasing frustration, pressed the button. Then, pressed the button frequently. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just for show.

[JimRice]

We took my wife's aunt, my wife's cousin, and his wife to Yechon. We ordered way too much food, but it was all good. Of special note was the spicy barbeque pork which had mostly lean, but a nice amount of fat on the edges that got nice and crunchy on the grill. It was Friday night at 7:30, and we didn't have any service problems at all. The server kept stopping by to help cook our food, and we didn't have any trouble flagging her down when we needed something.

[Waitman]

My experience is that getting way more food than you can eat is far more of a problem than not being able to a server when you need one. Helps to order liquor in bulk -- soju or the large bottle of saki. And, admittedley, whatever you thought about pacing goes out the door.

[deangold]

Mixed bag after our getting summarily dismissed by Uncle Liu's. The ban chan were off the hook good. The brisket and tongue were meh at best. While our reaction at the time was to say not going back, the really incredible quality of the banchan made me reflect on it more today. Would go back to enjoy more cooked food rather than the BBQ based on the banchan, but we were doubly {well one-and-a-half-ly} disspointed last night.

The wait guys were very impressed when we ordered Chamisul Original by name without looking at the menu. Seems like we made the right choice in their view and we got rewarded with deep fried little fishies with the texture of leather and a sweet salty taste that encourage me to imbibe a wee tad more soju then I really needed. I have no memory of the drive home, lucky the sober Kay drove!

[DonRocks]

lucky the sober Kay drove!

This is oddly Shakespearean.

[grover]

Seems like we made the right choice in their view and we got rewarded with deep fried little fishies with the texture of leather and a sweet salty taste that encourage me to imbibe a wee tad more soju then I really needed.

Does it look like this?

[deangold]

yes but these were unusually small & chewy and even a bit hard.

[Escoffier]

yes but these were unusually small & chewy and even a bit hard.

Yep, the ones pictured are the ones you were served. Tiny little fishies that sure have a lot of flavor.

[grover]

Those were dried anchovies cooked in soy, sugar and chili powder reduction sauce aka Myulchi bokkum.

[weezy]

Met a friend here for dinner tonight. Enjoyable yet not outstanding. We started with steamed mandu and small seafood pancakes (2 to an order), for mains I got the galbi bibimbap and she got seafood japchae. Banchan included the jellied something... chestnut, maybe?...with a salty spicy sesame garnish, zucchini salad, cold whipped potatoes with peas, roasted potatoes in a soy sauce, kimchi more & less fermented, seaweed salad, marinated mushrooms, miso soup, and I think there were a couple more things on the table. All the banchan were obviously fresh and pleasant, but none of them kept me digging in for more. A taste was enough. I thought the seafood pancakes were very tasty and the flavor held up well as they cooled. and my friend liked the mandu more from the appetizers. We started off splitting evenly then decided to choose a favorite and stopped sharing after that point. Friend's japchae had a few large mussels (I'm guessing frozen NZ green mussels) that were a bit gritty and flabby tasting, and 3 head-on shrimp, which wouldn't be a problem except she freaks at faces on food. Once I decapitated them, she was fine. The gabli bibimbap certainly benefited from the addition of plenty of hot sauce and there were a few gristly bits in the beef. The veggies were fresh and well prepared for even cooking in the stone bowl. The rice on the bottom crisped up very nicely. Once again, perfectly pleasant but not outstanding. Friend said the seafood japchae was a little bland compared to beef japchae and she probably wouldn't order that variety again. We both had hot corn tea to drink. Overall, quite reasonable at $50 for the two of us, leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but I think we both would order a little differently next time we go. Followed dinner at Breeze Bakery next door and split a piece of cake and had some ginger tea. That tea was great -- a little sweet and intensely gingery. The cake was unremarkable in comparison.

[Ericandblueboy]

At one point I recall seeing a website for Yechon but I can't find it now. I guess some restaurants don't think the benefit of a website outweighs its maintenance cost. But the menu can be found here. In any event, I stopped in for an early lunch yesterday and ordered a shredded beef spicy soup (yukgaejang) and a hot pepper and scallion pancake (gochu panjeon). I loved the texture of the pancake, it was a little flaky and crispy on the surface (like it was battered fried) and soft in the middle. Some of the hot peppers were indeed hot. Unfortunately the pancake wasn't seasoned at all. Even after dipping the pancake in the provided sauce, I still think it was rather bland. The soup was not bland, but it didn't have any depth of flavor. It tasted like water with a flavor pack, not soup that was prepared over time and the beef was tough.

[DonRocks]

At one point I recall seeing a website for Yechon but I can't find it now.

www.yechon.com

[cheezepowder]

We went to Yechon for breakfast around 9am this morning. We received a limited breakfast to lunch menu with soups, stews, and bibimbap. The top of the menu had some items for only $6.95.

I ordered the soondubu (tofu stew), which was one of the $6.95 items. The stew had some clams and little shrimp. It was reddish orange in color, but I thought it wasn't particularly spicy. It didn't come with an egg. The pot was full of tofu, though slightly less chock full of tofu than I recall the Lighthouse Tofu version having (though it's been a while since I've been back there). I also prefer getting the egg, also like Lighthouse Tofu, but I still enjoyed it (and, it was only $6.95).

For banchan, we received kimchi, seasoned potato chunks, seaweed, radish kimchi, greens, and bean sprouts.

[MSDCX]

Wife and I ate here last night.  Quick wait times, good service, very flavorful food, reasonable prices.  The banchan was plentiful (I counted between 8-9 different small bowls) and replenished quickly.  The "on the house" miso was tasty.  Ordered a spicy pepper pancake, grilled fish, and beef ribs.  Liked everything, but wished for more heat in the the pancake (I ended up putting kimchi on top of it).  Will definitely return.

[Ericandblueboy]

We're in the neighborhood on early Saturday mornings.  This being one of few places open at the time, we've visited twice recently.  The seafood pancake has gone downhill - doughy and really lacking seafood.  There's very little squid, instead, there's scallion and even cucumbers.  The banchan varieties are limited - 5 at last count (kimchi, spicy daikon, soy marinated cucumbers, steamed egg, seaweed salad).  The rice-cake dumpling soup was ok - I don't think they make good dumplings though (thick wrapper, very black peppery filling).

It could be that the morning crew just isn't very good.

[DonRocks]

5 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

The seafood pancake has gone downhill - doughy and really lacking seafood.  

It could be that the morning crew just isn't very good.

That's probably right about the morning crew; still, there are few things more unappetizing than a doughy seafood pancake (plus, you just know that it's junk, frozen seafood).