izakaya u-baba

izakaya u-baba

종로구 수송동 30-1 (jongro-gu soosong-dong 30-1), seoul, 110-140

what was consumed: japanese fare! seafood udon, ramen, tonkatsu, etc. yum.

yummy, japanese food! when colleagues told me that staff at the japanese embassy prefer izakaya u ba ba (i don't know if that's true; i'll have to befriend a japanese diplomat or someone on their staff. in the mean time, i'll take my colleagues' word for it), who was i to argue?

i opted for a seafood udon, which also came with a shrimp tempura, a croquette, and some salad. i like that the meal resulted in some of everything. the noodles were served in a rich soup, with seafood floating all along the way (yum). the noodles were prepared well, chewy and flavorful.

the tonkatsu, though, deserves special praise. the pork was lightly covered in panko break crumbs and fried so that the batter is nice and crisp, definitely not oily, totally light. i could have eaten their tonkatsu like chips. i.e., all day long.

a colleague complained that her dish included frozen sashimi grade tuna. i'm not a stickler about this. rather, 1) i've seen this done at lots of korean restaurants. is this how the koreans like/prefer it? i dunno; 2) it was summer and it was super hot and humid outside. maybe the frozen tuna was supposed to provide a respite from the heat; and 3) we visited u ba ba during a month without an "r," so eating raw things are less recommended (is this still true?), so perhaps it was for her benefit. of course, it didn't prevent her from eating, and enjoying, her entire dish.

YUM.