Bam Bam Kitchen — Restaurant in Lower Merion Township

We stumbled across this one on OpenTable! It is a storefront near Suburban Square and we weren't quite sure what we were getting involved in. We walked in gave them our reservation and they immediately whisked us to that was set for us and had our menus ready. The cool part is a little call Button at the table. There is no more wondering where your waiter or waitress went. The remote has three buttons which are call, cancel and Bill. This place is speed on steroids as far as service but they leave you to eat and Leisure. We had the Boneless Fried Chicken with the mail and it was amazing. Even after it cooled, it was still crunchy. My friend had the Korean prime rib and it was excellent! I had what the waitress turned DIY fried rice. It was flavored rice with seven vegetables and an egg on top. You pour a little bit of their hot sauce and then mix it all up. I think this is a local winner of a restaurant because as we left there were people waiting to get in and it was not even 7 on a Saturday night.

The decor was simple but clean. You sat close to other tables but not so close that you needed to get involved in their conversations. My only complaint is that there is a table that sits near the hostess station / cash register. You actually have to scoot between the person sitting at that table and the hostess table to get to the bathroom. It's a little awkward and I think they need to reconsider that configuration. Other than this Minor Detail, we will keep going back. Great place...

First let me say that Korean food is my favorite cuisine even though I am African American. Secondly, I have eaten at numerous Korean restaurants prior to my dining experience at Bam Bam. The food at Bam Bam is hella good - AWESOME y'all! I ordered Seafood Pajeon 해물파전 as an appetizer which is my routine at every Korean restaurant. As you can see from my photo, it was a substantial portion and jam-packed with seafood and flavor. It was far better than what I've had some very popular Korean restaurants because it's not overly greasy/oily and it doesn't break if you eat it with you fingers. It has the perfect consistency for reheating leftovers in the airfryer or traditional oven - microwave not recommended. For my entre, I ordered and fell in LOVE with the spicy calamari stir fry. Most Korean restaurants Do Not offer this menu item. It was well worth my drive from DC to experience this dish. Not sure about reheating leftovers because squid easily becomes too chewy when overcooked. However, it arrived at my table sizzling and seasoned PERFECTLY and the calamari melted in my mouth. Sides that came with my oder included kimchi which was spiced for American palettes. I had a spicy tofu served cold which was okay and fish cakes with shredded onions, green & red peppers - it was served warm and DELICIOUS😋. The service was top notch and the atmosphere is simple aethetically sleek. I wish I could give Bam Bam 99 stars 🌟 deducting only 1 star from a hundred because there's no bbq at the...

Don't get me wrong: the food was decent, but the side dishes, which are an integral component of korean dining, were utterly lacking, not in terms of taste but quantity. If there is anything to take away from this place, it is that the food is good but everything else is mediocre. When it comes to the food, the flavors were there, but the kimchi didn't even seem to be fermented. No flavor profile. Just red peppers coated on cabbage. When it comes to the yukgaejang though, ironically, there was way too much red pepper, though the soup itself was flavorful and abundant in the typical ingredients one would expect in the soup.

The service was okay, with the exception that the server we had was a bit clumsy: she almost dropped a ladle on me, which was a crisis averted. The ambiance of the place is a bit Korean kitschy: neon lights, Kpop, uniform dress. That kind of vibe is okay to me, though I a not a huge fan. That being said, the space is very cramped, which made for some awkwardness when I had to cough but had nowhere to politely turn, thus having to resign myself to a cough on my napkin in front of the food. Yes...

One plus, which isn't unique to this restaurant, is the button pushing concept (typical of Korean restauarants), which ensures that servers come when called but don't linger or intrude either.

All in all, the food was delicious but the portions were a bit on the small side while the price was unjustifiably high (20% higher than what you'd expect in Koreatown...