Village Yokocho

A while back, I treated Joe to a night at the theater; in return, he treated me to dinner at Village Yokocho. I’d never been there before, but he promised it would be fast and really good (we were both quite hungry and didn’t know where to go for a quick bite to eat). Village Yokocho also shares space with Angel’s Share, a great bar Joe likes to take girls he really likes (he claims the bar is a “closer” bar because he’s had a 100% success rate). We ate at the bar and I let Joe order since he goes there quite a lot.

We started with some sake:

Joe likes the cold sakes they have at Village Yokocho, but it was too strong for me. I waited for the food we we ordered, which arrived pretty soon after the sake came.

We started with the octopus balls (takoyaki):

They were prepared with a light batter and topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, pickled radishes, and fish shavings (katsuobushi). I love the fried batter with the mayo and fish shavings and apparently the dish is easy enough to make at home, so I might try recreating this some day.

Next, some dried fish with lots of kewpie mayo:

These were a little too chewy, but dipping them in lots of mayonnaise and lemon juice made them a little easier to eat.

We shared a small order of the yakitori sampler:

Not as good as Sake Bar Hagi‘s yakitori sampler, but the pork belly was pretty delicious.

Joe’s favorite dish is the kimchi pork stir-fry:

It’s definitely a comfort dish that is paired with lots of rice, but the kimchi wasn’t flavorful enough. If I could do a kimchi stirfry with pork, I’d take Natural Tofu/Seoul Garden‘s kimchi because I think they have the best in K-town (although the radishes at Gahm Ni Oak is the best I’ve ever eaten!)

My favorite dish of the night was the fried squid legs:

The squid legs are deep fried and served with a side of mayonnaise – definitely nothing healthy, but it’s slightly crispy, chewy, and sweet. Village Yokocho is usually packed because they serve decently priced drinks and food; the service isn’t anything great (I think our waitress left halfway through our dinner), but the food is good enough that you put up with their mediocre service.