Watch our video review of Tosokchon!
We ate at Tosokchon once before, but it was very early in our Korean food journey. It’s fair to say we didn’t really know what we were doing. This time was different, we had over 20 visits under our belts (if not a few extra pounds!)
Nestled in a small shopping center of Korean businesses, Tosokchon is within a half mile of 20 other Korean restaurants. And yet, they are always busy! The decor is more functional than it is stylish, but it is quite comfortable.
If you follow this series, you know that most of these restaurants have similar traditional Korean menus. Each also has a signature dish or two, and that’s really what you go for. It’s like ordering the chicken at a seafood restaurant. It’s on the menu, but why would you?
Tosokchon does not have a single stand-out signature dish. They have items that are hard to find elsewhere, but no one signature dish. I suppose they do stand out for being open 24 hours a day!
This left Louis and I like kids in a candy store! We usually arrive knowing from our research what we will order. We chose two dishes. The video shows, 2 entrees and a seafood pancake is enough to feed 6 people!
As always, we began with the Haemul-Pajeon, or Seafood Pancake. I balked when it was served. The seafood pancake always comes out on a sizzling skillet. You can hear it as it exits the kitchen. This one was plopped on the table on a plate. I thought it looked like cold pizza and Louis thought it looked like an omelet!
Then we tasted it and truth is that it was among the best we had ever had! Not cold at all, it was piping hot. It was thin but somehow packed with seafood and had our most prized quality, it was crispy! We get the seafood pancake at every single Korean restaurant. It is our constant, and this was as good as we’ve ever had. It was also served with a really great sauce. The seafood pancake usually comes with a sauce but it is often just a vinegary soy sauce. This one was special.
The banchan or little complimentary dishes were good, but definitely not the star of the show. Their kimchi is the perfect balance of fresh flavors and a fermented tang. There were two kinds of picked radish and they were all refreshing palate cleansers between bites.
We ordered the Galbi. It is a grilled short rib. They are cut flanken style which is a thin cut across the bone. When I say thin, a single short rib can yield 4 flanken cut ribs. They are marinated and grilled.
The result is sublime. it hits every taste bud, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. We could taste garlic, caramelized soy, onion, and more. The thin little pieces of meat attached to a small, smooth bone. The easiest way to eat them is with your thumb and forefinger.
We also got a gigantic bowl of hand-pulled noodles and dumplings. the broth was the color of chicken broth but definitely more robust than that, maybe beef bone broth or similar. At the table is a trio of chili based pastes for seasoning. the soup is delicious by itself, but adding a little chili paste really punches it up!
the noodles are long and perfectly chewy and tender. This is worth the trip all by itself!
We sat, sipping hot barley tea and feasting on this fantastic food. We both agreed this is where we would send beginners. If someone said, “OK where should I start?” I would send them to Tosokchon for this very meal. In fact, I brought my wife Alice as a test run. Alice is not the biggest fan of traditional Korean food. She likes KBBQ, and everyone like noodles. So I brought her and ordered all the same things. She agreed it was delicious and loved it!
If you are considering trying Korean food, and you’re in northern Virginia, I recommend you start here. Go to Tosokchon, and get the items described above!
ToneManblog 