Midtown Lunch

There is nothing like an excursion to Olney and Elkins Park for some legit Korean food.  Today, I present you with two Korean dining reports plus a bonus report about the nearby Korean spa. It’s a tale of noodles and nudity.

At Korean Noodle House, a small, almost fast food like restaurant, banchan consists of kimchee, plus onions and radish to dip in hoisin, the traditional accompaniment of noodle focused Korean restaurants. One of the signature dishes here is the ja jung myun, a black bean noodle dish which is also one of my favorite Asian noodle dishes ever. Unfortunately, this version was lacking the pungent beany kick that I love about the dish. It was disappointingly bland. Sad face.

The other signature dish fared better. More of a guilty pleasure, due to the deep frying, the sweet and sour chicken nuggets stayed fairly crispy and the sauce managed not to tip over the line of too much sweetness.

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

• Sweet Korean chicken nuggets

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

• Subpar black bean noodle

Korean Noodle House,  401 W Cheltenham Ave, Elkins Park, 215 635-3959

Further south at Every Day Good House, the focus is more on Korean BBQ and the banchan is correspondingly more hardcore: mung beans, potato, kimchee, seaweed salad, potato and apple salad, acorn pudding.

Order the seafood pajun appetizer: it’s fluffy, welcomingly greasy, and the strips of octopus are not rubbery.

Grilled eel is another well prepared dish and paired with pretty purple rice.

Kalbi tang is a simply short rib soup I like to order at Korean restaurants. Every Day Good House was out of that, so I ordered the item directly above it on the menu “tookbaegi bulsosi” aka marinated rib eye beef soup in hot stone pot ($15), something I have never had before. A fitting name… because this soup is my new bae. I will not be going back to kalbi tang, as this is way more flavorful and chock full of veggies, noodles, and meat. The broth itself tasted like liquid Korean BBQ.

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

• New soup bae

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

• Close to impossible to pull off an under $10 mean

Every Day Good House,  5501 N Front St, 215 276-7942

OK, as promised, a bonus story involving nudity. If you are going to head to either of these places (or Kim’s/Cafe Soho/ Jong Ka Jib/Seorabol/Dubu) you should carve out a few hours and take a spa day. At Chung Dam, a $20 day pass gets you access to the gym, saunas, steam rooms, hot jade rooms, and hot pools. But $80 gets you all that plus a severe body scrub and massage. That scrub (women only, sorry boys) is the service most worth writing home about. After steaming, you lie on one of three beds in a corner of the hot pool room, fully nude, while a woman in her underwear scrubs several layers of your being off using various abrasive tools. Does it hurt? Yea it does, it hurts so good. And you walk away with skin as soft as silken tofu.

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

• A fun way to relax and refresh
• Softest skin of your life

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

• I do not want to be nude with strangers