Midtown Lunch

I’ve been curious to try the Seoul Food Truck ever since Anna and Donny both tried it earlier this year. I’m surprisingly not tired of the Korean taco phenomenon yet, but when I saw they’re offering bibimbap from a truck, my curiosity really peaked.

I ordered the chicken bibimbap (9.95) with brown rich (not for health reasons — I actually like the crunch), bean sprouts, kimchi, mushrooms, cilantro lime onions and romaine with gochujang (Korean chili paste) on the side. The menu said there should have been carrots in my bowl, but I didn’t get any. The chicken was all dark meat, which I always appreciate, although it wasn’t strongly flavored. Like any bibimbap, I mixed everything together with the gochujang, and chowed down. Although I enjoyed the dish, I definitely missed having a soft-cooked egg to mix with the rest of the ingredients. The dish lacked that bit of silky moisture. Donny’s right, the kimchi’s very good here, and it really helped bring flavor to the whole dish. It came in the large-sized, flat-ish salad bowl you get at some delis (which I’m not convinced is any bigger than the regular size, in terms of volume, by the way). I found this to be a good amount of food, but definitely not the best bibimbap I’ve had in Midtown.

Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would go here and not post to Twitter, Facebook or check in on Foursquare. I’m all for freebies and checked in on Foursquare to get a free taco with my meal.

I got the kalbi taco (one usually costs $3.25), hoping that the meat improved since Donny tried it. Unfortunately, I agree with his assessment of the beef — it tasted beefy and slightly sweet, but lacked seasoning (much like the chicken). I got spicy mayo on my taco, which helped with the lack of bite. The taco itself is a 6-inch flour tortilla, stuffed with cilantro lime onions, romaine, sesame seeds, kimchi aioli and the short rib. Although I didn’t notice the kimchi aioli at all, I really liked that these tacos used flour tortillas — I prefer them to corn. My taco was not as sad and lifeless as the Donny wrote about, but looked more like the one Anna had in January. As far as I’m concerned, the reason to eat here is to check in on social media and get freebies, not because they’re the best Korean truck in town.

Last Monday the Seoul Food Truck parked on 51st and Park, but check their Twitter or the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out to make sure.