San Ho Won

Cuisine	Korean
Price	$$$$ (51-100)
Rating	7/10
Last Visit	May 5, 2022
Location	SFBA: San Francisco: South

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General Notes

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Upscale Korean + KBBQ restaurant, situated in the area that I've started to call "restaurant quarter" (between the Mission and Potrero) b/c of all the upscale restaurants like The Morris, Ernest, Mijote, and of course San Ho Won. I went with a group of 6 and ordered the House Menu ($94pp), which contains a lot of their more popular items. Some of the food items were a bit more hit/miss, but overall the food was delicious. The standouts were the galbi (which was so tender, juicy, and well-marbled) and perhaps surprisingly, their various kimchis, salad, and side plates, which provided a wonderful refreshing contrast. Dishes are executed with precision and it's refreshing to see an upscale Korean restaurant like this. The House Menu is a great choice if this is your first time -- though if you return in the future and want to try more different types of meat, ordering a-la-carte is a good option too.

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Positives

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> The interior is really nice -- minimalist but somehow simultaneously rustic and modern vibes

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Negatives

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> Not sure if this is a negative, but for some reason the servers were REALLY aggressive about taking away plates / bowls from us. Which is normally not a concern but it felt like they were coming by all the time, even if we didn't have a dish coming up. In fairness to them, there were a lot of dishes in the house menu and they needed to push things along. The pace at the beginning felt a bit fast, though.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★☆☆☆ Buckwheat Soft Serve -- Meh, I've heard great things about their ice cream but it was mediocre at best. The flavor is nice, but the addition of popcorn really throws it off for me. The texture is all wrong.
• ★★★★ Chonggak Kimchi -- Apparently also a radish kimchi, but has a shape of a tiny squash. I really enjoyed this; it felt like an upgraded version of the first radish kimchi. Really refreshing after a couple of heavier dishes, too.
• ★★★☆ Chicken and Ginseng Jook with Abalone -- served with abalone liver sauce. First time trying it; I loved it! The porridge had the perfect thick consistency. The rice, chicken, and abalone were cooked well. The flavor was lovely, especially with some abalone liver sauce (I'm biased, as I love liver sauces/pates). Surprisingly filling too, despite the small-ish container.
• ★★★★ House Double-Cut Galbi -- Hands down the highlight of the show. These are SO GOOD. Perfectly seasoned and "glazed", giving it a very slightly sticky texture on the exterior. It's so tender and well marbled. There is very little connective tissue and the fat just melts in your mouth. I'm so glad that they give a pretty hefty portion of this in the house menu.
• ★★☆☆ Western Mushrooms -- According to the server, the liquid in the mushrooms is very hot. Not sure what exactly the liquid was, but the mushrooms were solid.
• ★★★☆ Jebi Churi -- prime beef neck filet. So tender, the distinct but subtle smoky flavor is so good. There isn't a whole lot of fat content, unlike the galbi (it's like filet vs ribeye)
• ★★★★ Scallion Salad -- This was so good -- we kept asking for extras for this. Lightly acidic and so refreshing. Great in a wrap or just on its own.
• ★★★☆ Egg Souffle -- rock seaweed sauce, spicy anchovy broth. The texture of the egg was amazing -- you could just see how fluffy they were. They serve it table-side too, which is pretty cool. The broth and the seaweed sauce complement the egg nicely. I'd add around 2 spoonfuls of sauce per bowl.
• ★★★★ SHW Baechu Kimchi -- This is so good. Amazing flavor, perfectly crisp. A delightful way to refresh the palate in between meat-heavy dishes.
• ★★☆☆ Galbi Mandu -- Griddled beef dumplings. They tasted nice (honestly, pretty similar to the bibigo dumplings). But they were slightly frustrating to eat -- they were really long, making it difficult to dip into the accompanying sauce, and because many were griddled together, it was easy to accidentally puncture one, which would let the juices run out.
• ★★☆☆ Radish Kimchi -- Good but not my favorite -- had a slightly bitter aftertaste and a slightly unplesant texture.
• ★★★★ Potato Salad -- Not sure where exactly this is on the menu but it's DELIGHTFUL. Refreshing, perfectly cooked, and so delicious
• ★★☆☆ Tofu Appetizer -- Not really sure what this is; it was the first thing that came up. It had an interesting sauce with it; decent but not spectacular