LA samgyetang review & request

[melonpan]

we went out to a samgyetang place last night.

the name is samga dak gomtang (literally "3rd street chicken gomtang"). the english name of their place is much less descriptive: 3rd street restaurant. ive lost my camera so no photos... this is all from memory so things might not be exact, but ill still try to give a good idea of whats what.

its a tiny hole in the wall; there are about 10 small tables, seating maybe 4 each? i noticed two wall menus, one with about 5 items, and the other on the far back wall, near the register, was probably the complete menu, with 15 or so items. prices generally ran from around $6-$30. some things that i remember are: dak doritang, dak gomtang, something with duck (maybe it was ori doritang?) and of course samgyetang.

we got two samgyetangs. they are around $10.50 a bowl.

banchan was simple, tasty and sparse. nothing bad, but nothing brilliant. some anchovies (myeolchi bokkeum), ggakdugi (radish), nappa kimchi and gyeran jjim (an egg dish which i quite liked). 4, maybe 5 dishes. nothing was off and the kimchi and ggakdugi were both refreshing.

with the samgyetang you also get spiced up salt (sea salt with some black pepper and a little bit of sesame seeds) as well as some plain sea salt for the broth (which comes unsalted).

then you get a ddukbaegi (small clay pot) with the samgyetang. we had two orders, so i am able to describe the standard samgyetang at this place: a bowl of very hot broth, lots of freshly chopped scallions and a whole, tasty bird stuffed with glutinous rice, a single date, a single sprig of insam (ginseng) and a single chunk of ginger. it was delicious, but disappointing. a single sprig of insam... well, okay, if youre going to cut costs, i suppose thats the place to begin, seeing how expensive and precious insam (even the low quality stuff, which im sure this was) can be. but wow, to stuff each little bird with a single, lonely looking date? whats up with that? and, i was also sad to note that they did not provide chestnuts (not even a single one. )

that they were so stingy with the stuffing was the single reason for my disappointment. all other things, the broth, the banchan, etc, were reasonably decent. samgyetang is really not that hard to make. but, like any other decent soup, it takes time. and sometimes you just want to pop over somewhere to satisfy a craving. unfortunately for now, we will try to find other places that serve or specialise in samgyetang and we wont go back to samga. well, at least we wont go back for their overpriced samgyetang. maybe we will try their cheaper chicken gomtang (about $6) and see how that is.

but as we are new to the area, we dont know of any places. anyone have any recommendations?

thanks so much in advance!

samga dak gomtang (3rd street chicken gomtang)

3rd street restaurant

4254 1/2 west 3rd street

los angeles ca 90020

213 386 1135

[melonpan]

so we went on an unexpected, last minute trip to san diego this weekend. we were driving back home at about 6:30 pm, when i realised i was hungry and that i didnt feel much like cooking...

i remembered some place called "mi ho sam gye tang" from the yellow pages which was of course, most appealing because "samgyetang" was right in the name! but miho is waaaaay over in garden grove. i had planned to eat there with another person but had no way to reach her in like half an hour to see if she was free or what. but we decide to go there anyway, since samgyetang sounded soooo good.

we arrive there and we see a surprise!

to the left of miho, theres some place called gohyang sancheon, which means "hometown mountain and stream" (it could be "mountain stream", but its kind of debatable what the exact meaning is). that may not exactly be very telling, but in bright red neon were the magic words "(original) samgyetang"!

"original samgyetang" is to the left of "budweiser"

in the red banner below (white writing), it says "sam gye tang / squid bulgogi / budae jjigae / shinDangDong quick ddeokbokki". budae jjigae is an amazing stew made from spam, hot dogs, bacon and ramen (or any combo thereof) and its very spicy. hubby was very excited when he saw the shindangdong ddeokbokki. he wants to try that next time, even though he doesnt know what makes this different from other ddeokbokkis. shindangdong is a district in seoul that apparently has a ddeokbokki alley...

i felt really bad about going to miho because i wanted to go there with someone else, so my husband and i thought it was a good chance to try this go hyang place. besides, their specialty is samgyetang! we will try miho next time.

inside, it was kind of crowded, as there were only about 35 seats (6 tables). there was only one 4 person table left and there we sat. the waiter (we think he is the owner) was extremely pleasant and friendly. we ordered without even checking out the menus: two bowls of samgyetang, please!

while we sat and talked and looked through a korean yellow pages we had grabbed from the outside. we found that there is another go hyang san cheon in la... when we had the chance we asked the owner if the gohyang sancheon in la was the same and if they served up samgyetang there.... he said it was the same ownership, but that that place was a "suljib" or a place to get drinks and snacks, and that they did not have any chicken soup there. bummer... we asked if he knew of any places in la to get samgyetang... he said "yeah, i heard that there were lots of places to get some good bowls in l.a., but im really sorry, i dont know where!" we felt pretty good about him. hes a mensch.

our banchan arrived. six banchan dishes, plus three additional dishes per person for the samgyetang. in the far upper left corner to the left of the spoon, youll see a plate of scallions and a plate of sea salt for the soup. theres also an empty larger plate for the chicken bones. the banchan from the top left corner, then going towards the right: hobak namul (stir fried zucchini and onions), gamja namul (stir fried julienned potato), dotori muk (acorn jelly), oi sobagi (cucumber pickles), kong namul (steamed and seasoned soybean sprouts) and kimchi (cabbage pickles). all decent and good. between the two of us, we managed to eat about 90% of it by meals end. not mindblowing, but it was all fresh and tasty. very good for a diner.

(click on pic for larger image)

then the soup arrived!

throwing in all scallions, a little salt, and cracking the chicken open... (click on pic for larger image)

they did not stuff the chicken here with anything but sweet rice, but they were much more generous with the extras, unlike at samga chicken... here, each bowl of soup comes with maybe 20 pine seeds, about a dozen or more of whole garlic cloves, two chestnut halves and 4-5 dates. yumms!

the yellow round thing is the chestnut half, the white thingy is a garlic clove, the two small yellow pieces are pine nuts and the dark red thingy is the date. you can see the sprig of insam (ginseng) floating in my bowl of soup. i took that photo after i had demolished my poor bird... none left!

in the end, our soup bowls were both empty, the banchan cleared out... oh, and the price: $11.99 a bowl. MUCH better deal than at samga. for the hour that we were there, i only saw koreans and i have no idea how well they speak english there. but their menu has extensive explanations in english, so it shouldnt be too difficult if you dont know any korean. besides, the owner there is a really really straight up guy. friendly and personable. hes also young enough (late 30s?) that i dont think he would give non koreans a hard time.

we took another peek at miho before we left and saw this sign:

it says

MiHo

Mi Ho Restaurant

Chinese Medicinal Deer Horn Chicken Soup (Samgyetang)

Old Style Hand Cut Noodles (Kal Guksu)

Black Goat Stew (Boshintang)

Open 10 am - 10 pm

(714) 539-5064

9735 Garden Grove Blvd. #B Garden Grove, CA 92844 (G.G. and Galway)

hmmm "Chinese Medicinal Deer Horn Chicken Soup"? doesnt that sound positively interesting?

i cant wait to try it!

go hyang san chon

9735 Garden Grove Blvd # A

Garden Grove, CA 92844

(714) 638-2047

(i tried looking up miho in the online yellowpages, for a link, but i cant seem to find it. but the address is included above anyway. :D)

[jschyun]

Hehe, well I was out of town anyway.

I've only been to Gohyangsanchun once, for the Shindangdong ddeokbokki. The service was very good. The deokkbokki was decent, but I wanted more ddeok (rice cakes) in there. The one I had contained a lot of cabbage and I ran out of ddeok too early (maybe it was my fault).

Yeah, the owner is really eager to please (he helped me that one time I was there), but I suspect his English is limited.

-- I have been thinking about getting my mom to eat some goat boshintang at Miho, but I don't know if she believes that it will really give her strength (stamina?)

Edited August 16, 2004 by jschyun (log)

[Chris Cognac]

Great pics and report, makes me want to go out and get some!

[Muffin210]

Thanks for the great gohyang sancheon review (and photos); it's right near my boyfriend's parents' house, so we'll definitely check it out soon! (Actually, I have the flu right now, so some of that chicken soup would be sooooooo good...)

[mongo_jones]

melonpan, see entry 4 in the "one-time onlys" list in post 1 in this thread

Edited August 25, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[melonpan]

(<a href="http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44609&hl=chung+kiwa">original thread link</a>)

myung-dong: this is our favorite place for samgye-tang (a large steaming bowl of goodness that contains chicken, huge chunks of garlic, ginseng, chestnuts, mushrooms, noodles etc in a clear broth--add appropriate seasonings and ignore jonathon gold related generalizations about koreans and bland soups). in fact we're not sure why they serve anything other than samgye-tang. every time we've visited every single diner has had a bowl of it in front of them. this place is hard to find, however, for those who can't read korean. while their bi-lingual menu has their name on it, the sign outside is only in korean. however, interested parties should not let this stop them, should take irolo north from olympic (it starts out as normandie but stay on the main part which becomes irolo) and turn right into the strip immediately after the light at 7th street (if you hit wilshire you've gone too far). they are between the cleaners and the hair-salon and a few doors away from what may be the only moroccan restaurant in koreatown.

first off, id like to thank mongo for the excellent directions. shoot straight up normandie. its in a plaza named "7th & Irolo SHOPPING CENTER". in english you will find a 20/20 cleaners and a felafel corner in the same minimall.

so we went a couple days ago. excellent. its where we will go until we start finding some time to drive around to look for other rival places. but i am sure it will be hard to beat...

<center>front of myung dong late at night

("myung dong" was dark. maybe broken?)

<img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong01.jpg"></center>

<center>their sign in neon says that they<br>specialise in kalguksu (hand cut noodles)<br>and samgyetang

<img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong02.jpg"></center>

we were seated and we ordered two bowls of samgyetang. a few minutes later six dishes of banchan were set in front of us. the broccoli was meh but maybe thats unfair since i never liked broccoli much.

the ggakddugi (center top row) and the water kimchi (bottom right) were very good, the chapchae (center bottom) was good, but the standouts were the kimchi (top left) and the jangatchi (top right).<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong03.jpg"></center>

we got seconds of the very fresh kimchi and the excellent jangatchi. the waitress called the jangatchi "cho-jorim" [vinegar jorim]. it contained pickles, cukes, jalapenos, celery and daikon bits.<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong05.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong06.jpg"></center>

for every bowl of samgyetang, you get four accessories with your order. seasoned salt, a ladle (no spoons anywhere to be seen here!), a bowl for your chicken, and a plate for bones.<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong07.jpg"></center>

our bubbling bowls of myungdong samgyetang have arrived! a nice touch with the scallions, the enoki bunch, pinenuts and the touch of pepper... very appetizingly presented.<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong08.jpg"></center>

the sweet rice is served ladled into the serving bowls. the chicken here is split. found, maybe 4 cloves of garlic, half a dozen pinenuts, 2 dates and 2 chestnuts. it is also worth noting that the chicken broth at myung dong is served seasoned with salt. (at most other places, the broth has no salt whatsoever; you add it yourself.) this could have been a bad thing, but luckily, they watch the broth and it was NOT salty.<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong09.jpg"></center>

heres the bowl and the plate in action!<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/040927myeongdong10.jpg"></center>

a place i can go to thats local. thank you mr mongo.

other notes

myungdong serves about 35 other dishes. lots of soups, kalguksu (their other specialty), jjolmyeon (spicy chewy goodness), kong guksu and many jorims and guis (braised dishes and grilled dishes). i dont know that ill ever get around to trying anything other than the samgyetang though. maybe the kalguksu....

samgyetang goes for $10.99 a bowl.

<a href="http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=9007085&ck=1023214192&tab=B2C&tcat=8903827&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&uzip=90012&country=us&msa=4480&cs=4&ed=PAu9GK1o2TyIMUuoIy1O7Ju6tZHwXrRmkVnuywNVU7w8OA--&stat=:pos:2:regular:regT:3:fbT:0">Myung Dong Noodle House</a>

698 Irolo St # 105

Los Angeles, CA 90005

(213) 251-1066

hours: 9:00 am - 9:30 pm

[mongo_jones]

a place i can go to thats local.    thank you mr mongo.

←

glad you liked it--but thanks go to mrs. jones. let me know if there's anything else you've been looking for in koreatown and i'll see if i can get her to be of help for a change.