Korea Restaurant — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I am a Korean adoptee, and Korea Restaurant sang to my spirit. Korean food is how I connect to my roots. I don’t feel pressured to formulate words when I eat Korean food. Sitting in Korea Restaurant comforted me like an auntie. I felt like I was in her kitchen with the aromas and bustle of family all around me.

I love the vibe of Korea Restaurant – with K-pop bopping in the background as the smiley and efficient waitstaff moved from table to table. I enjoyed my Hamul Pajeon as I listened to the three patrons at the next table over speaking Korean. The seafood pancake was perfectly crispy on the outside and balanced with a fluffy interior. The chef was generous with the seafood – and the octopus and shrimp chewed just right. I alternated between several activities – listening (but not comprehending) the Koreans next to me, eating the pancake, nibbling on the kimchi, bouncing to the K-pop, and savoring the extra banchan. Moving through my meal gave me a sense of peace that can only be described as feeling at home. The banchan dishes were very fresh. I especially enjoyed the cucumber – saltiness tinged with a hint of balanced sweetness.

I love that Korean-Koreans frequent the Korea Restaurant – hearing them speak amongst themselves felt natural… Even though when I try to speak Korean (with the skills of a toddler), I am saddened by how difficult it is to get my brain to form Korean words. As a nod to Nicole Chung (author of “All You Can Ever Know”) – I also feel the same frustration when I am unable to understand the language I was “born to speak.” But I can understand the food I was born to eat.

The well-prepared food at Korea Restaurant helped to fill the language void which often reminds me I am not entirely Korean. The tang of their kimchi and the Korean flavor carousel built a cultural bridge that helped me cross from angst to belonging. I highly recommend this restaurant and will...

When I went out to eat with a friend down the road (at Kimchi Tofu House), we past this spot and she said she'd never been in there yet. So I was sent off to judge it for her.

Slightly bigger than your average hole in the wall with an attached Karaoke spot of course. A tip I would say is that if you have a car they do have a small parking lot exclusively for themselves, would say these can easily be grabbed since most people come from the campus region and probably just walk. No need to pay for side street parking.

Almost went with my staple bibimbap or some spicy pork stir fry, but then I saw something odd, knuckle bone soup. Alright you got me, getting that. Though I wasn't feeling it exactly right when I ordered, because the worker said, "It is quite bland so I'd add some salt."

You specifically make something bland? I could careless if that's the authentic way of doing it, give it some flavor.

So I waited for my food to be made and looked at the menu some more and then my heart sank, because another item up there I recently made and loved. Military stew. Sigh... another time.

Food was announced and I grabbed it and sat back down watching the cauldron bubble with its milk thin liquid. Smelled appetizing so far. While I waited for it to cool down a bit I tried all the dishes set out before me. Only the basic kimchi I thought tasted good, the others were bland. Now that the soup wouldn't burn my tongue I tried a spoonful. Yup, that's bland. Adding two tsp of salt did it finally come up to something decent. I shouldn't have to make that large of a correction. It was interesting to try but I wouldn't order it again. Rather just make it better...

Probably one of my favorite Korean restaurants in the Twin Cities, if not my favorite, because of how much their food is consistently authentically on point. One can always easily find something on their menu that they can also find in Korea at a random location, and this establishment also gets the flavor right, along with the small plates that complement the meal.

Whether it's the stone pot bibim-bap or just the bibim-bap, mixing rice with the given meat and vegetables, along with some gochujang, made it authentically delicious. The seafood pancake was more plain than the kimchi pancake, which was to be expected. It had the perfect amount of seafood to not make either the seafood or the pancakes overwhelming in terms of amount. The kimchi pancakes had the right kind of saltiness that was given by the kimchi. Once again, authentically delicious. The galbi tasted amazing, and I think I could taste a certain amount of butter based on the type of oiliness and saltiness that the meat had. I could remove the meat easily from the bones, and the meat was easy to chew as well.

I think the black bean noodle was the only item that I was more critical about, because it was a bit watery and the sauce was plain. However, it wasn't bad at all and I still finished all of it. Just comparatively, it was less tasty, and I have had better in Korea or China.

Around this area of Oak Street, if people want to look for good Korean food, there are a few very good options, and this establishment is definitely one of them. I would highly...