BELL86 — Restaurant in Brookline

Gave this restaurant a second try and enjoyed the food much more than last time. We saw that they had updated their menu and thought that it's worth another try. The pork rib was nicely fried and tasted good. The fried fish had a nice sweet and sour sauce which also tasted very good. The banchan had improved. The pickled daikon was a nice addition. We didn't care for the cinnamon welcome drink. Overall, a better meal than the previous one we had.

We had looked forward to trying this recently opened restaurant in the old Parlour space. This restaurant offers a more modern take on Korean cuisine, which we very much welcomed.

For the food, most of the dishes we tried were cooked fairly well. First, we were served a welcome drink, which was basically a room temperature sweet pumpkin soup. We didn't care for the it. It was too sweet and we were confused by why this drink was offered. The banchan was fair. We liked the fishies and beans but they were a tad too sweet. The kalbi jjim was tender and tasty but, again, too sweet, and the huge ladle used with the small vessel it was served in made it difficult to scope up the food. The mung bean pancakes were bland. The battered pork rib was crispy and tasted good on its own, without needing the bland gochujang like sauce served along side. The kimchi o deng fish cake stew was fine. The fishcakes were good but the broth had only a one-note sour kimchi taste. Overall, the food was fine.

The servers were very friendly and efficient. This part of the dining experience was very pleasant.

Very rarely do I mention the decor of a restaurant but I do think there was a missed opportunity here to update the interior, i.e. removing the old wall paper that Parlour had used and brightening up the space. The more modern food just doesn't seem to go with the dark Victorian like interior. I also wish the tables were larger. They were smaller than usual and we were constantly moving plates around to make room on the table.

I understand that the restaurant only recently opened. I can envision that the food will improve over time. I do very much appreciate their attempt at offering more modern Korean flavors. Overall, it's a good addition to the...

Arrived at 6:22 for a 6:15 reservation and the host told me he’d given our table to another party because we were late. I asked isn’t there typically a 15 min grace period? He gave the nonsensical answer that someone had a 6:20 reservation and arrived before we did. What? So they booked the same table for 6:15 and 6:20? He said the wait for a table would be 15-20 min. I stood at the host stand calling my husband, who was parking, to tell him we need to go somewhere else, when suddenly the host said he could seat us. First strike: irritating customers with reservations before we’d even sat down.

Table servers were sweet and friendly. Complimentary kimbap and tea. Marinated crab was excellent, and served with gloves and wet wipes for the mess. Marinated shrimp was literally cut out of a bag that had been frozen and only partially thawed. Half of it came out into the bowl liquid and the other half came out as a block of marinade ice. The server said it was supposed to be frozen and kind of slushee-ish. We tapped the ice block and it did not turn into slush. It was frozen solid. Strike two. The server brought it back to the kitchen to presumably thaw. An espresso martini that we didn’t order mistakenly came to us. The cocktails we did order weren’t really cocktails. Lemon soju was literally soju with lemon slices in it. Yogurt soju was soju with Calpico, but yummy. Drink portions were generous, we expected each drink to be a typical cocktail glass but each was served in a carafe. The marinated shrimp dish reappeared and tasted lovely but was still very firm and cold. Also served with gloves and wipes which was thoughtful. Grilled kalbi presents on a bone that the server cuts at the table, but is in fact minced beef. Flavor was decent but very sweet, and the texture was like a meatball. Probably would be better to not present it being freshly cut off the bone. Strike three.

Shrimp meets potato was great. In the end, the servers were super sweet and lovely, the host probably shouldn’t be a host, the food was fair but… there’s plenty of better Korean food around without...

Traditional Korean cuisine in a cozy yet elevated setting.

Came here for dinner on LNY. Expected the place to be busy, but there were only a handful of people. The ambiance and curated menu immediately brought to mind Somaek in Downtown, but with a stronger focus on authentic flavors. The menu was a mix of Korean classics—like hearty Kalbi Jjim and kimbap—alongside bar fares such as fried chicken gizzards and grilled conch. Their eclectic offerings made it hard to define a single theme, but Bell 86’s versatility made it equally suited for a fun night out and even a date night.

Favorites: Kalbi Jjim, Grilled Chicken Gizzard. Marinated Raw Shrimp, Honeycomb Rice Wine Solid: Yun Ja Yook, Fried Chicken Gizzard, Grilled Conch Decent: Steamed Shrimp, Mung Bean Pancake, Kimbap

From the small plates and shareables, our favorites were the grilled chicken gizzard and marinated raw shrimp. The gizzards, in particular, took us by surprise—we’ve had plenty in Seoul, but the sheer quality here was exceptional, easily some of the best we’ve ever had. With fall-apart tender beef, their signature Kalbi Jjim was another one of our favorites.

As a special LNY treat, we were served a complimentary bowl of Ddeokguk. We didn’t expect much at first, but the broth was surprisingly creamy and rich, with tender beef and dumplings that brought back nostalgic memories of the ones my grandmother used to make every year. On top of that, we also received a couple of free side dishes, which were on par with those from some of the better Korean restaurants I’ve visited in Seoul. Thoughtful touches like these made our evening more special.

For drinks, we went with the trendy honeycomb rice wine, and it was exactly what we hoped for—natural sweetness from the honey added a smooth, mellow depth.

The food menu at Bell 86 may not be overtly creative or inventive, but it offers rare and hard-to-find Korean dishes that set it apart from other restaurants in Boston. It certainly fills a niche I’ve long been searching for in the city, and I’m already looking forward to returning to try their unique...