Dinner at Mikawon

It was my mom's birthday yesterday so I took her and my dad out to dinner to celebrate. I told her she could pick wherever she wanted and being the meat loving carnivore she is, she decided on Mikawon, a Korean yakiniku restaurant. Mikawon is located at 1726 Kapiolani Blvd, right across from the Convention Center. I had actually never been there before so was really curious because I've heard great things about them from a number of people.

We got to the restaurant at around 6:30pm and it was packed! Luckily, a group of people just left when we got in so we got a booth instead of having to sit at one of the middle tables.

First of all, one of the great things about this restaurant is that they have draft beer! When I ordered 3 Bud Lights for the table, the waitress asked if we wanted bottles or draft. I was like, "Huh? You have draft beeer? Shoots!" You just don't see that too often in Korean restaurants here. When the beer came, I am pleased to say that it came in a frosted mug and it was ice cold. Yummmm!!!!We then proceeded to order. Since the restaurant is known for their wang galbi, we ordered 2 of that and also 1 order of the skirt steak. Of course, had to order a side of the seafood pancake as well!

First, they brought all of the side dishes. They were pretty good, especially the bean sprouts, but I was a little disappointed they didn't have a shoyu potato dish. But they did have "mook" the white jelly type dish so that was a plus.Then, the seafood pancake ($12.95) came. Now, I know that I may be prone to exaggeration here and there, but oh man....this was the best seafood pancake I've ever had. It was just awesome. When I ordered it, I asked the waitress to make it a little on the crispy side and it was perfect. I thought Little Seoul was good but this seafood pancake is definitely winnahs!Then came the meat. Before bringing the meat, however, they brought the hot charcoals to cook the meat. No gas here, baby!We started off with the skirt steak because the wang galbi was seasoned and whenever you cook meats yakiniku style you always start off with the least seasoned meat first, otherwise if you start with the marinated and seasoned stuff first, the subtle seasoning of everything else won't be detected and the meat will taste bland. There's a rhyme and reason to all this.

The skirt steak ($22.95) was very good. Soft and tender, and seasoned perfectly. Highly recommended. I wish we had ordered more of this.Then we grilled the wang galbi ($22.95). To be very honest, I was a little disappointed in this considering it's the house specialty. The meat contained a bit too much fat and gristle in it for my taste and the seasoning was a little too bland as well. I much preferred the seasoned galbi at Seoul Garden. Not to say that it was bad...I was just expecting something better. But overall, a very high quality meat and still delicious.

Also, note the exhaust fan directly over the grill. This is another plus for Mikawon. Having the exhause so close to the grill eliminates a lot of that meat stench on your clothes that you usually get at these yakiniku restaurants.Then they brought out the kimchee jjigae. Whenever you order yakiniku meat at these restaurants, they offer you free jjigae, usually 1 per 2 orders of meat. We opted for the kimchee jjigae (other choice was dwenjang jjigae aka miso stew) and that was very good as well. Mixing that together with hot rice was ono!Overall, the meal was highly enjoyable and I'd put Mikawon right up there with Seoul Garden as my favorite Korean restaurant. The draft beer and the perfectly made seafood pancake really helped the restaurant's score. I think next time I'll skip the wang galbi and order more skirt steak and possibly regular seasoned galbi.