After checking out some live music, while walking to the car, I saw a small sign in korean. Then I realized that this was the restaurant a friend had told me about years ago. The one that’s in a parking lot. The one behind other restaurants. So this is where it is! It’s Koreana, and it’s pretty much a fast-food korean joint.
You order at the register and get a number. Then they bring the food to you. You get your own water or drink and your own utencils. It’s somewhat cafeteria style. One of the most popular dishes here seems to be the dolsot bibimbap. I forced K to get it since he’s never eaten korean food before. And because he can’t do spicy, he didn’t even put the kochujang in it. But he still liked it. They give you a big thing of kochujang and I actually took it home with me. It was awesome. And I used it to make my own ghetto bibimbap at home for three meals.
It wasn’t a particularly warm day so I got the jjamppong. The flavor of the soup and the fixins were all fine, but the bowl did not have nearly enough noodles in it. Seriously, it was like mostly stuff and very little noodles. It should be the other way around. So that was disappointing. Add more noodles and I would have been beyond happy. It’s a nice and affordable option for those in University City.

The last time we tried to go to Village Whiskey to get a burger, there was a ridiculous wait. And I hate waiting for food. This time, we somehow lucked out with one of the counters in the back, even though we only got one chair. It was the last non-table space and we snagged it! So who the hell cares if one of us had to stand? So I guess this place is mostly for boozing, but as far as food goes, everyone raves about the burgers, so that’s what we got.
I got the village burger with caramelized onions, done medium well. It comes on a good sized sesame roll with tomato, boston bibb lettuce, and a house-made thousand island dressing. I was a bit wary of the dressing so I asked for it on the side. Once I tasted it, I really liked it, so onto the burger it went! So the patty is pretty thick and mine was cooked the way I like it, not at all bloody. And the caramelized onions were plentiful and also delicious. In all, this was a good burger! The meat wasn’t chewy and it just melted. J got his burger medium so it was pretty bloody on the inside. Seeing as how thick the patty is, it seems pretty easy to keep it bloody. He thinks it doesn’t have to be such a thick patty. And he dug the thousand island sauce as well.

Oh, it also comes with a pickle. So people rave about the duck fat fries too, so we split a share of those. These fries are not plentiful at all. In fact, we think they line that silver cup thing with paper so that they can put even less fries in there than they can actually fit. They were good, but nothing amazing or life-changing. And we got the sly fox cheddar cheese sauce. It was melted cheese. There wasn’t anything sly foxy about it. It just tasted like a mild melted cheese. Don’t get me wrong, it was a tasty mild melted cheese, but is it really worth it? Meh. Overall, I enjoyed my burger a lot, but do I think it’s the best burger in all of philadelphia? I don’t quite think so. But that’s just me!

Ever since my first visit to Dim Sum Garden, I’d been wanting to come back. And man, come back I did… by ordering way too much food for two people to eat. Maybe even for four. What was I thinking? The server suggested the pan fried soup dumplings, which are new. And how could I possibly say no? They’re just like they sound. Except they didn’t have much soup in them. But they were still pretty awesome. There’s the sweet and savory dumpling sauce and the vinegary ginger sauce. They’re both good, so just go with what you like.
The regular soup dumplings are still good and very soupy. But you can’t let them sit too long or it’ll be hard to get them off the paper. You’re bound to rip the dumpling and lose valuable soup that way.
The vegetable steamed buns are the flour based bread type buns and are filled with a mix of greens, black mushrooms, and tofu. We tried to get the meat filled ones but they were out. These did not seem too fresh. They weren’t particularly warm and they weren’t particularly soft. I think these had been sitting around a bit too long. And let’s face it, the veggies didn’t taste all that great to me.
Here are the pan fried pork and chive dumplings. I really liked these but J did not like the chive part. He is crazy. And we took the leftovers to go and they began to stink a strange stink. My suggestion is to just eat it all while hot and steamy.
Seriously though, there was way too much food even before the noodles came out. We could have probably done with two less dumpling dishes. But there was no way I was not going to order these, because I just love them so. The beef brisket noodles. These are thicker flour noodles and the hunks of beef are sweet, savory, and quite chinese five spicified. They come with some steamed baby bok choy and sprouts and I just can’t get enough of these. Service is ok here. The food just comes out as it’s ready. The flourescent lights can be a bit blinding but you can also entertain yourself watching the people go in and out of the Chinatown bus. But you just can’t beat the food here!