A few family friends came for a visit and we decided to go to Dolpan Seoul BBQ for dinner since brother deer recommended it. Having been to Seoul over the summer, I had certain expectations as to what I expected and hoped that Dolpan Seoul BBQ would live up to them.
Dolpan Seoul BBQ menu
Compared to most Korean places, the menu here was short and concise It was only two pages long instead of the usual fifteen and consisted mostly of bbq meats and shared dishes.
Upon ordering your food, the server comes by to give you a tray of three sauces.The first one from the left being miso, then a spicy one, and then seasoning salt.
Ban chan
They also provide you with a variety of banchan and once you run out of it, you can always ask for more! They had bean sprouts, marinated potatoes, kimchi, spicy radish, salad greens, pickled pearl onions and even marinaded quail eggs here.
Cooking BBQ
The thing that differentiates Dolpan from other BBQ spots is that they cook the meat for you so you don’t have to do any of it yourself. Although personally, I rather cook it myself because I feel like that’s half the fun of going to k-bbq in the first place. They also have a unique grilling pan where the excess oil drops off into a foil container on the side.
Honey comb short rib
Apparently a must-try here are the honey comb short-ribs so we got an order of that. They also have a matcha version of them and as much as we love matcha….the sound of mixing it in meat just didn’t sound like a great idea.
Japchae
To supplement the proteins we decided to get an order of japchae to share. The sauce was a lot sweeter than I’ve had and it was a lot saucier as well. There were zucchini slices, wood ear mushrooms and napa cabbage sprinkled throughout.
Seafood pancake
We also decided to get a seafood pancake because that’s a Korean restaurant must for us. For it’s price I expected it to be packed with seafood but to be honest, it was more batter than anything. And what little seafood it had was made up of baby shrimp and squid. The base could of been crispier too.
It wasn’t the best seafood pancake we’ve had but definitely not the worst either.
Cheese volcano omelette
Last but not least we got the cheese volcano omelette. There’s something about Korean and cheese that I never quite understood but we decided to give this a shot anyway. I mean essentially it’s just a cheese omelette right?
When they say cheese volcano, it’s no joke because once we cut it open, a lava flow of cheese came out of it. A little too much cheese actually because even cheese loving lil’ bun said it was too much for her! I guess it was too savory and needed something to cut through all the creaminess?
Our visit to Dolpan was pretty pleasant after we got through the door. We actually made a reservation but they got it mixed up so we ended up having to wait an hour for our seats. They didn’t seem too apologetic about it either which takes away quite a few customer service points. I wouldn’t recommend this place for a family with kids since it’s pretty loud and busy on the inside but if you’re up for Korean food in a bar-type vibe this is the place to be!
Absolutely mouth-watering. The cheese volcano omelette looks gorgeous.