Annyeong! Experience Korea With Bulgogi Brothers

Bulgogi Brothers SM Lanang Branch

Bulgogi Brothers first arrived in the Philippines last 2011 with 3 branches in Metro Manila. Last year, Bulgogi Brothers opened its first branch outside the metro in Harbor Point, an Ayala Mall in Subic.

When I heard that Bulgogi Brothers will open here at SM Lanang Premier in Davao, I was excited to see what they can offer and I'm sure this will be a big hit in Davao considering the residents are adventurous when it comes to new flavors and taste. And as a foodie, I'm excited to try their food and experience Korean cuisine! :D

Last January 10 2013, I was invited by my friend and at the same time, a fellow blogger Tere to a taste test event. We were warmly welcomed by the staff with a Korean greeting "Annyeonghaseyo!" which means 'hello'! We were ushered by their staff and guided us to our reserved table.

These are the interior pictures of the restaurant.

As you've noticed, the space still looks empty. It's because they're still waiting for the furniture to fill up the restaurant. Once it's operational, they can now accommodate more customers.

Usually, their tables are installed with induction stove. But in our case, it's still an ordinary table but it doesn't matter anyway. :D

This is the menu that we can order for the taste test event.

Just like in Asian restaurants, they serve with a tea. In Bulgogi Brothers, they served us with Corn Tea which was quite different from what I'm used to. 

You may not see any difference between the Green Tea and Corn Tea, it differs from the aroma. You can really smell the corn and just like any hot tea, it may taste bland to some but as a tea drinker, I love it! In fact, I was the one who finished the Corn Tea and I regret for finishing it. :D

As part of the taste event, they served us with Lemon Iced Tea which was the only available drink for us.

In a Korean restaurant, appetizers are always served first and kimchi will always be present as part of the appetizers. In our lunch, we were served with Pickled Kangkong, Kimchi and Sauteed Eggplant as our appetizers.

The spicy ones were Kimchi and Sauteed Eggplant but one thing is common, you can taste different flavors in it. It is the Pickled Kangkong that I find really delicious. We didn't finish the appetizers as we ordered a lot of food for us to taste. 

For our salad, Tere ordered Chicken Naengchae (Honey Chicken with Fresh Salad) and I ordered Sogogi Naengchae (Grilled Beef with Fresh Salad) combined in one plate. It consists of fresh vegetables such as salad tomato, onion, bean sprouts, etc.

The dish is somehow sweet because of the sugar that they've added. It also gave wonderful taste to other ingredients as well. The beef was not chewy which is a big plus to me and it's packed with flavors too! I've tasted the honey chicken too and it was sweet! Overall, I love this dish! The presentation was beautiful and the ingredients were carefully arranged.

For our Rice & Noodles, we ordered Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew). It is hot and spicy but this soup contains lots of ingredients especially vegetables (I can't remember all of them). Kimchi Stew also has tofu and rice cakes. 

Even though it was really hot and spicy, this delicious soup made me eat more and which means, I love it! If you love spicy food like this, I'm sure you'll get more of this soup. The rice cakes were chewy and it has to be chewy. They also served us sticky rice. Why sticky? So that it will be easily picked with the chopstick.

This is Haemul Gungjung Mandu. It is a fried dumpling with seafood (shrimp, mussels and squid) served with spicy sauce. Again, it's spicy folks!

The thing is, we didn't dip the dumplings in the spicy sauce. I dipped it instead in other sauce called Ssamjjang. It's delicious though. :D

For our barbecue, we chose Un-yang Style Bulgogi (Heart-shaped marinated beef). It is one of the most popular dish and they use choice cuts of beef for this dish. Since our table has no induction stove, instead, we watched the chef cooking our barbecue dish. 

This is how the heart-shaped beef looks like when it's cooked.

The beef itself is already tasty and when I poured the spicy sauce, it's even more delicious especially when I dipped it in Ssamjjang. I had like 3 or 4 pieces of heart-shaped beef that I ate. :D

This is what you'll expect when you eat in a Korean restaurant. Lots of food for just the two of us! Whew!

What can I say! Their food was so good! They were accommodating especially to our needs. I hope they will be consistent to their service and I do hope that in my second visit, I expect good service and good food to eat. Thanks Tere for the invitation!

Till next time! :D