Saturday, March 22, 2008

Restaurants - Ikki

Location - Urasoe, on the 251 south of the 38. Once past the 38, there is a post office, then a gas station on the right, then your pass over a canal, then Ikki is on your left, across from another gas station
Hours: 11:30 to late every day, menu has pictures, our waitstaff did not speak English
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/f049100/
This is a yakiniku joint done up with a diner-esque spin. We heard they have better-than-average bimibob. Unfortunately, this was not true. The bimibob (880Y) had some of the correct elements - stone bowl, raw egg, mountain flower, greens. However, the kimchee on it was neither particularly tasty nor spicy, and the entire dish lacked the rich sesame flavour found in a good bimibob. And, the rice was not allowed to crust sufficiently on the bottom of the bowl before it was brought to the table. And there was no accompanying hot sauce. The sauce on the side was a strange sweet and tart concoction, which wasn't bad but has no place in real bimibob. We also had a yakiniku don (780Y), which wasn't bad but was unimpressive. It was several slices on tender marinated beef on rice, with a large fresh lettuce leaf and some shreds of something. The best part of the meal was the soup, which was a nice meat and sesame broth with a few pieces of kelp, and was delicious with the rice from the yakiniku don. Drip coffee costs an additional 150Y with lunch. So, we will have to keep looking for good korean, and may just end up in Korea in order to find it.