Midtown Lunch

Finding good Korean food in my part of Midtown east is quite difficult. There are more than enough awesome Japanese restaurants to satisfy my Japanese food cravings but once in a while I just want to stink up the office with the smell of kimchi. At the moment, I either walk all the way down to Ktown (to eat at my favorite place, Woorijip) or I rely on the many Korean taco trucks roaming the streets. Being that I’m way too lazy to go to Ktown, I pretty much wait for any Korean taco trucks to come to me.

Most recently I had the Seoul Food truck on my radar because they offer free food and who doesn’t like free food?! Anna gave the food from Seoul Food truck a pretty positive review so I had slightly high hopes for them.

While it was tempting to get three tacos so I could try the different meats they have, I was more in the mood for rice so I went for the rice platter ($8.50). As for the meat, I got the kalbi (since it was Anna’s favorite from when she tried the truck). For the free taco (from checking in on Foursquare in front of the cashier), I got mushroom thinking that I’d try it for the curious veggie people out there.

Looking at the box, for $8.50, it wasn’t that much food and I was glad I got the free taco (the fork is there to kind of show you the size of the container). I was a little disappointed at the kalbi. It looked promising but it was a little dry and chewy. There was a hint of sweetness (probably from the fruit they used to marinate the meat in) and that was it. Yes the beef tasted beefy enough but it lacked seasoning.

The best part of the rice platter was definitely the kimchi. The pieces of fermented cabbage were crispy and really good and spicy. It definitely added the much needed flavor to the beef.

The taco in the picture looked a little sad and it was. The thin slices of mushroom didn’t add much (flavor wise) to the taco but did offer a slight meaty texture. Again it was the kimchi that saved this taco and actually it was the only thing I tasted. The single tortilla held everything together just fine even though it got a bit soggy from my walk back to the office.

The kimchi from the Seoul Food truck might be delicious but I don’t think I will be very eager to try them again. For $8.50, the rice platter was just not worth it. And if it wasn’t for the free taco, I don’t think it would’ve been enough food for me. Though I do like that they use social media to offer free items since the majority of people are on Facebook, Twitter and/or Foursquare. It makes scoring free food easy (less annoying than giving you a stamp card so you can eat ten items to get one thing free).

The Seoul Food truck says they’ll be on 51st btw. Park+Madison today, but as always, check their Twitter or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.