Midtown Lunch

Rice and Mix opened last week, a “fast food” type Korean restaurant with a few customizable menu items; tofu stew (soondubu), glass noodles (jap chae), and stuff over rice (bibimbop).  I wanted to do an experiment to see if there was a huge difference between getting the bibimbop in the traditional hot stone bowl, which costs $10.50 and up here, and getting it regz, which is all under $10.

For the regular, non stone bowl bibimbop I did a “build your own bowl”.  As I went down the assembly line, I picked  the pork, mushroom, hard boiled egg, carrot, and bok choy with the Korean savory sauce ($8).  The cold veggie ingredients and warm pork were placed on top of hot rice. I had to mix it all up to to even out the  temperatures, because I don’t like my mushrooms and bok choy cold. I was pleased with the serving size, though there could have been a higher pork ratio. The signature sauce was very very good. I made the mistake of having them add the sauce in, rather than getting it on the side so I could put a ton more on.

If you are in a rush, the stone bowl is NOT the way to go. While the regular bibimbap is ready in an instant, this takes a few minutes. The hot stone bowl comes out steaming. The “signature” comes with radish, carrot, cucumber, broccoli, egg, mixed greens for $11.50. For our protein we picked beef this time. The main draw for bibimbop, for me at least, is cracking that raw egg on top and mixing it all together as the heat inside the bowl cooks it. There was no egg. So… I suggest bringing your own. BYOE. The stone bowl may have offered a bit more, but the sizes were pretty comparable. The only real difference is that your rice will get that traditional burnt rice on the bottom. I don’t know if that alone is worth the extra few bucks.

So here are the rules I learned from my visit:

1. Pick the Savory Korean Sauce and get it on the side
2. No stone pot if you are in a rush and/or want to be cost efficient
3. Pick pork over the beef
4. Bring your own egg if choosing the stone pot

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Healthy, tasty, fast

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I need more meat
• Where’s the egg?