GIWA

[Vadouvan]

GIWA....Simple good Korean Food.

1608 Sansom street

Essentially the Korean version of Tampopo.

Just had another bim bim bap.

As Lundstrom would say.........The shizzy

[Andrew Fenton]

Yum.

Is it mostly bi bim bap/ kal bi/ bulgogi sorts of dishes, or do they also have the full-on Korean dishes?

[Vadouvan]

Yes ...Professor but they take it up a few notches..... like there is an EAT IN ONLY bim bim bap that comes sizzling like fajitas at chili's

Soft tofu with seafood, Rice Pancackes with stuffings, kimchee stew.....

Nothing super heavy duty but Korean none the less.......grilled short ribs are a winner too.

[Andrew Fenton]

Well, if it's as good as the fajitas at Chili's, it's gotta be worth a try! I'll check it out.

[KatieLoeb]

V:

I almost went to GIWA today but ended up at Bootsie's instead, mostly because I wasn't certain they were definitely open yet. Glad to hear they are, and even more so that it's good.

Will mos def meet you over there soon for some good Korean. Sounds excellent!

[katbert]

Yes ...Professor but they take it up a few notches..... like there is an EAT IN ONLY bim bim bap that comes sizzling like fajitas at chili's

Soft tofu with seafood, Rice Pancackes with stuffings, kimchee stew.....

Nothing super heavy duty but Korean none the less.......grilled short ribs are a winner too.

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the eat in only is dol sot bibim bap, you know, the sizzling stone bowl kind where the rice in the bottom of the bowl almost gets fried from the heat of the bowl into a delicious crunchy brown crust. I ALMOST went there tonight, but only got to pick up the menu b/c of a picky friend. Sad. The menu has 6 apps including the seafood pancake, 4 soups including the stew mentioned above, 4 bap options, and then bulgogi (moo, cluck, oink) and the short ribs.

Is there any seating past the kitchen? I saw maybe 8 or 10 counter seats and only four tables in the front.

hours = M-F 11am-8:30, Sat 11:30-7:30 closed Sun

ph 215.557.9830 and they take reservations b/c all the tables in the front were reserved when we passed by....

[herbacidal]

It's the second week of September, isn't it?

Cool, I can stop by this week.

[wkl]

for shizzle, vadavizzle!

[herbacidal]

Popped in for a quick dinner of kimchi stew. Tasty enough, sort of sparse on the pork, nice spiciness, which I liked.

Doesn't fully make up for the (temporary) loss of Minar, but it helps.

[KatieLoeb]

philadining and I tried to have dinner here tonight but sadly found it CLOSED at 7:45 PM.

How do you close at 7:30 on SATURDAY night??!!??

We ended up having dinner at Miran instead and satified the kimchee jones nonetheless. I'll wait for the pictures and post to comment on that.

We also had dessert at Naked Chocolate Cafe ( :wub: ) afterward and are both feeling a bit like Mr. & Ms. Creosote as a result.

I'm going to bed soon to seesaw on my rice and chocolate stuffed belly....

[mrbigjas]

we stopped by giwa for lunch yesterday, and man oh man, if i worked downtown i would be there all the time. we had the dolsot bibimbap and a haemul pajun, which were good if a little sanitized.

the dolsot bibimbap tasted great, but where was the raw egg? i'm going to ask for it next time; i didn't realize i would have to. when i say sanitized that's what i mean--also i recognized every vegetable in there; when i go to the kind of restaurants where they don't speak english there are always piles of unknown (to me) shredded vegetables on there. mountain this, root of that, things that you have to call by their latin name because there aren't english words for them.... but anyway it was good!

the haemul pajun was also solid, gummy from the rice flour, crisp around the edges from being pressed in the pan, with some squid and some krab and whatnot in it.

(but as always i'd like to state for the record that i think every korean restaurant in town needs to go up to pojangmacha in upper darby and get a taste of the ultimate version of haemul pajun. if you do you'll always be disappointed with any normal version.)

anyway, good korean food, quick, not expensive, open for lunch--i'm gonna have to get a job downtown, i think.

[katbert]

I ended up at Giwa for dinner a few weeks back, and I was underwhelmed. I tried the dol sot bbb and my friend had the bulgogi, and while both were fine for a quick Korean fix, it's not on my list of places I have to go back to. The rice in the bottom of my stone bowl sizzled, but didn't get hot enough to brown and just a stuck together with a slightly chewy texture. In contrast, the last time I had the dol sot at Miran, the rice at the bottom of the bowl fried itself into a thick well browned crunchy crust. I liked the balance of items in the bbb and the julienned egg (which I prefer over the more authentic raw that jas wants or the sunny side up that sometimes shows up), but I would probably go to Miran in the future for bbb (even though it's more expensive) or Chinatown or the now defunct Minar. Aww, Minar Palace.

[mrbigjas]

miran's bibimbap has been really good every time i've had it.

[mrbigjas]

we were in the neighborhood today and it was cold out, so we stopped in for lunch again at giwa. things to report:

1. no kimbap on saturdays.

2. mool mandu are delicious--the mixed pork and vegetable are packed with spinach as well as pork. spinach! i don't think i've had that in a dumpling before.

3. kimchi chigae tastes great, although it's kind of a small bowl and not packed with pork and tofu as it could be for like eight bucks. served in a stone bowl so it comes to your table boiling, it's a perfect sinus-clearing bowl of soup for a cold and blustery day like today.

what giwa may lack in some of the quality aspects (the aformentioned issues with pajun and dolsot) it more than makes up for in being a nice place to have lunch, and being run by really nice people--and by being right on my saturday shopping route...

[kretch]

Speaking of Korean, does anyone ever go to Pastoral, ever?

I used to really like it there. And if I ever had to do a clandestine document swap in Center City, it'd probably be there.

[mrbigjas]

i haven't been to pastoral in probably a year. it was fine the last time i went there, but as you mention, empty...

[dagordon]

So far we've had the Dol Sot Bibim Bob, Kimchi Pa Jun, Haemul Pa Jun, Mool Mandu, and Yook Gae Jang (spicy beef soup) It's all been quite good, although the beef soup didn't do much for me. The Kimchi stew was particularly excellent, though, and as mrbigjas said, it's only going to get better as the weather gets colder. This place is a major asset.

Oh, and the Aloe Vera juice w/ Peach canned beverage is pretty addictive (it's got chewy aloe pulp bits in it), though I did give my girlfriend a look of disgust when she first ordered it.

[herbacidal]

i haven't been to pastoral in probably a year.  it was fine the last time i went there, but as you mention, empty...

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Tried to go there some weekday (probably Thursday but not sure) earlier this year, but it was closed.

[mrbigjas]

stopped in giwa again on saturday for a bowl of soon doo boo tofu. it's not jong ka jib, as we were discussing in the other thread, but it does the trick on a saturday afternoon. they've introduced a buy-10-get-one-free card there, which is nice.