Volcano Island — Restaurant in Hayward

A hidden gem for sure. If you aren't actively looking for it, you can easily pass it by.

Almost a hole in the wall, this restaurant makes food with deeply satisfying flavors and in portions that easily satisfy most appetites. Great choice for first time (or 50th time) ordering Korean.

The bulgogi plate is great for people trying to expand their orders passed the atabdard but not too far. Juicy, savory beef with pickled daikon radish, steamed (I think) carrots and broccoli, and white rice, its the type of dish you could find almost anywhere, but done very very well. The Kimbap is also a great choice. Kind of like a cooked beef sushi roll.

If you are willing to step a bit further out of your comfort zone to try something similar but more complex, the Bibimbap may be what you're looking for. An assortment of pickled and fresh vegetables, with a portion of beef, over a bed of rice, topped by a sunny side up eggand seasoned seaweed bits. Theoretically, if you would prefer a more cooked egg, you could always try cutting into it and letting the heat of the rice cook it a bit more, or just microwave it a touch. I do recommend leaving the yolk a bit soft to really enrich the dish.

The wings have flaky crisp breading, the kind that you can hear crunching with each bite. My favorite are the soy garlic flavor; fragrant with a tough of sweetness.

There are still more dishes to try, one I did not take a picture of was the japchae. Honestly hard for me to not order this every time! I love noodles and these are incredibly good. A very different experience to egg or flour noodles, these are chewier and much thinner. An order of this could be a meal on its own, but with so many options, why not...

My favorite spot for Korean fried chicken in the Bay Area! I love getting their small boneless combo: half sweet-and-spicy and half soy-garlic for flavors. That soy garlic sauce is seriously BOMB. Moreover, the combo comes with a container of rice, coleslaw, and some pickled daikon for banchan (and theirs tastes really delicious- not too tart or acidic, but tasty with plenty of crisp texture!). The small combo is enough food for both me and my husband (2 average Asians) to share for a filling dinner. :)

I've tried some of their other stuff but wasn't as fond of many other dishes (their tofu soup lacks some flavor, their bulgogi and galbi were lackluster in taste and quantity). However, their kimbap is filling and pretty good! I also love their bunggeopang (fried pastry with red bean filling)! They make these fresh!

I've coordinated with them for catering before, and they also do a great job. Easy communication process over the phone, and they were timely when I went to pickup my large orders. Everyone loved their food, totally recommend!

They also appear to be a small, family-run hole-in-the-wall. Come by and support this wonderful...

Really great food, and of the Korean chicken places I have explored around the Hayward area really captures pretty authentic KFC flavors in both sauces this establishment has. The soy garlic has that nice bit of added flavor and the Korean spicy sauce is sweet and closer to a Thai chili with something like an added gochujang influence. They both have a pretty solid crunch. Also the bulgogi kimbap is really great, with that perfect marinated bulgogi flavor on big cuts of kimbap. I like the radish they serve on the side it tastes much like BHC type of radish, syrupy and sweet almost like 7up or an equivalent was used to soak it. The service is really friendly, nice folks working here. I like this place a lot, thanks for...