Last Lunch of 2012 - Return to Buga

Our last lunch of 2012 was spent with our good friends, our neighbors across the street.

They've never had Korean food so off to Buga we went!

It's been awhile since we were last here. Buga is located conveniently right off the 805 and Clairemont Mesa exit.

There were seven of us, so instead of being seated out here...

and definitely not here....

we were seated in a larger private room, which was cool because we hadn't sat here before. There were two big tables in the back, each seating ten and with two grills per table.

From what I remember, service here has always been very good and attentive. It was the same with this recent visit.

They let me do the ordering and soon enough, our pan chan and drinks arrived...

The pan chan is always different everytime we've gone, which is cool. I like variety.

Bert and our neighbor (the husband) shared a 40 oz. Hite, a very light Korean beer.

For some reason, we were not given soup. I didn't even notice until the meal was practically over. But they did give us a salad. No radish wraps either (for our meat), which was kind of disappointing. As I mentioned, it had been awhile since we were last here so maybe they've changed things?

A quick rundown on the pan chan - pickled cucumber.

Lotus root marinated in a sweet soy based sauce:

Bean sprouts:

Peppers with tiny salty fish:

Kimchi:

Gonyak (or in Japanese "konyaku") - a jelly made from the corm of the Konjac plant:

Pickled spicy radish:

The sauces for our meat - salty and spicy:

I ordered three types of meat - this was the bulgogi...

The pork belly was grilled first,

after it was snipped up by our server who first rubbed the grill with the onion and giant mushroom piece.

The other meat was Joomuluck (I probably spelled that totally wrong), but this is the ribeye. All the beef is hormone free and from Niman Ranch.

The meat dishes were supplemented by chapchae (also spelled as "Japchae", but I always feel guilty typing in "Jap")...

and Goon Mandoo (grilled dumplings). There were also three rice bowls distributed amongs us.

The pork belly was my favorite. It got all nice and crispy. Tasted so good dipped into the chili sauce,then the salty dip.

TC and the neighbor girls liked the bulgogi while the men liked the rib eye the best. Everyone also enjoyed the noodles and the mandoo.

The aftermath...

Our dessert was a sweet cinnamon soup with floating pine nuts.

In all, a fun experience had by all, especially our neighbors who liked the grilling aspect and the variety of the different side dishes and meats.

Previous visits to Buga:
Two visits back in September 2006 - here andfor Bert's bday, December 2006with MFH and La Ley, and April 2007. Wow, it's really been that long, eh!

Plus numerous posts from Kirk (2005, 2007, 2008, and more recently in 2012) as well as Clayfu .(2008)

Buga
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

www.bugabbq.com

That dessert didn't really cut it for any of us so we went somewhere else for that, of course. That post coming right up...