New Wonjo Restaurant

I had to review a personal trainer for work on Saturday morning and asked Ken to help (I really didn’t want to suffer by myself!) The trainer really pushed us during our workout and we were super satisfied after working out for over an hour (cardio and weights) but we were also starving. I wanted to eat something healthy but also could barely move so we settled on Korean barbeque – walking distance from the gym and protein right after working out muscles that we’d never worked with before.

I never truly experienced Korean food until my senior year of college, when my roommate’s dad sent down some kimchi jigae, a simple and satisfying pork and kimchi soup that we paired with rice. Angie also introduced me to spam (who knew it was so delicious?!) but that’s for another day. I still love kimchi jigae and almost always order it when I eat Korean food:

We ordered the seafood version with shrimp, mussels, clams, and lots of pillowy tofu. The soup is very easy to make – kimchi, broth, and whatever else you’d like to add (common additions are tofu, pork, seafood, or vegetables). Another reason I love Korean food – ban chan, or the small dishes of appetizers they bring before the entrees are ready:

We ended up going with two orders of galbi (some restaurants require you to order at least two if you want to cook at the table…I’m not exactly sure why we wanted to cook at the table because our clothes always end up smelling bad!):

And the toppings and bean paste:

The meat was really good – very high quality flavored with their marinade (which includes Korean pears!) It hit the spot but the bill ended up being super high – over $80 for lunch! Quite the unexpected treat (but well deserved considering we put up with the torture of a personal trainer!) New Wonjo is one of my favorites along 32nd for Korean food – and they’re open 24/7 so you can go whenever you’re craving galbi!