BAANCHAN - ATT4FUN MAll

Address: ATT4FUN 5th Floor. Taipei Taiwan.

Eating in a department store is always so confusing.  For some reason, everything always seems so appetizing to me.  I really don't know if other people feel the same way, but there is something about all these restaurants and food options being piled together that excites the heck out of my taste buds.  The downside is that eating in such a place is typically a very hit or miss proposition.
My mother and I found ourselves in the relatively new ATT4FUN for lunch on a random Friday.  I think we walked by each restaurant twice, traversed multiple floors before we decided to test our luck at BAANCHAN, and give this Korean restaurant a go.

Like all Korean restaurants.  Some small dishes to get you started.

All the customary Korean fare was represented on the menu.  From savory pancakes, tofu soup, to your grilled meats and Korean style sushi.  The restaurant is nestled in one of the corners on ATT4FUN's fifth floor food pavilion, and has nice large windows overlooking the city.  The decor was simple, and the place was happily buzzing along with a good amount of patrons.  

Like any Korean restaurant, BAANCHAN provides you with some simple side dishes to start.  Some bean sprouts, kimchi and other little treats for you to nibble on as you wait.  This is somehow always my favorite thing whenever I choose Korean food as my dining option.  Who doesn't love appetizers? This is just like getting a ton of appetizers for free....... always appreciated.

 Tofu Stew.

 Meat!

 Seafood Pancake.

Mother's Bibimbap.

We opted to go with a seafood pancake to start, while my mother chose a bibimbap (mixed rice dish) as her meal.  I went with an combo that consisted of a choice of tofu stew and a choice of meat.  

Overall, I didn't think any of these dishes were particularly good.  The seafood pancake was a bit too bland and bready, without having enough of the agreed upon seafood in its DNA make up.  While my mother is notoriously hard to please, her scowl as her bibimbap was brought to her was still slightly exaggerated in my opinion.  She claimed that the dish wasn't authentic and was a bit too dry.  I had a taste myself, and it seemed fine, although definitely far from the best I've had.  

I liked the flavor of the tofu soup although it was definitely a bit on the salty side.  It went well with the rice, but when eaten on its own, the saltiness is eminently noticeable.  The beef however was tough and almost tasteless.  The marinade must have been having an off day as the flavor was definitely lacking.  I can overlook the fact that there were only four pieces since this was a part of a set meal, but the lack of flavor for Korean BBQ is unforgivable.

Some simple Korean sushi options.

Also picked a simple california roll as a topper to the meal (wasn't called a cali roll on the menu however).  It was simple yet satisfying and the thousand island-ish dipping sauce went well with it.  The prices were acceptable, but nothing that I would label cheap for Taiwan as it ran around 1200NT for everything.

Another gripe that I had was the service of the employees.  Something I have grown accustomed to while dining out in Taipei is the impeccable service that you will find in many of the restaurants, be it high end or low end.  The workers were both not attentive and seemed somehow put upon by even the simplest requests.  

As you can see, I wasn't overly pleased with the meal I had at BAANCHAN.  With that said however, the soup and sushi was good, and good Korean food seems to be difficult to find in Taiwan.  If I were to eat at ATT4FUN, there is almost no chance I would choose BAANCHAN again, unless the craving for Korean food had taken over my body.  Percentage of that happening? Slim to none.

Overall BAANCHAN receives: 

-Til Next Time-

三元韓式花園餐廳 Samwon Garden - Korean BBQ

Address: No. 45, Lane 188, RuiGuang Rd, Neihu District, Taipei City, Taiwan 台北市內湖區瑞光路18

巷45號

Telephone: (02) 8752-3222

Website: Samwon Garden Taipei

Hours: 11:30AM - 2:00PM , 5:00PM - 9:30PM

There's a lot of cuisine that I would classify under the heading 'easy to make good but very difficult to make spectacular.'  Things like sandwiches, mexican food,  and pasta would fall under this category.  On this afternoon, the sister (or better known as my food guide, food guru, food inspiration... you get the idea) and I decided to have some Korean BBQ, and wouldn't you know it, BBQ of all kinds is another type of food i would pigeon hole as tough to make great but easy to be passable.  Under the guise of needing to hit up the Costco also located in Neihu, we swung by Samwon Garden.. looking to curb the appetite before going nuts at Costco.

 Pan Chan- Small dishes.  Possibly my favorite part of any Korean dining experience.  

Grill that sucks the smoke downwards.  Prevents you from smelling like you just walked out of a smoker.

Walking around, it'll take some doing to just accidentally run into a Korean restaurant.  They simple just aren't as prevalent as say... Japanese or Italian food in Taipei.  I think there are a few reasons for this, the main point being that for the unknowledgeable, Korean food equals Korean BBQ, and that the people in Taiwan would simply prefer Yakiniku (Japanese style grilled meat) over their Korean counterparts.   There probably is also just an inherit bias that exists here between those two countries.. but this is a food blog afterall.. and we'll stick to that over anything political.  

 Nice simple salad to start. Loved the dressing, a little sweet and tart.

 Saved us the trouble of mangling the meat.

mmmmm~ Except that it wasn't cheap and as you can see.. there wasn't a ton of it.

Before coming here, my sister made the bold proclamation that she felt that this was one of the better Korean restaurants here in Taipei.  Clearly this is a good endorsement for Samwon Garden, but it's sort of a big fish in little pond thing going on here.  I found the meat to be of good quality and very flavorful.  I like the fact that the meat was a little sweet, but there are those who prefer their Korean BBQ to be a bit less flavorful, so there is that.  

Look ma! No bulky ceiling fans!

Its tough for me to judge where Samwon Garden stands in relation to other Taiwanese restaurants as I have very little experience in this regard, but what i can do is compare it to the multitude that I did get to enjoy back in the States.    We also ordered the seafood pancake as well as the spicy rice cakes, and I found both dishes to be well executed and again, full of flavor.  There are no criticisms of the food, except for the fact that once again, everything was good but nothing was great.  

Not too spicy, and full of flavor

Beads of sweat are forming just looking at this.  Again.. unlike some of the soups I find in Korean restaurants.  They were very free in their use of flavoring.... very agreeable with my palette. 

So really.. there is nothing much else to say.  It is as good if not better than many of the places in the states, and i'm a big fan of the slight sweetness to the dishes that we tried.  There is no question that I would return to Samwon Garden again, but when reeling off restaurants.. it just simply gets relegated to the back of the rolodex.  For people who love Korean BBQ more than I, they might have a different reaction, but I will give credit where credit is due.  Everything is spotless in the restaurant, and it is very spacious... the food will deliver the goods, but not blow you away.. so in this respect I would liken it to a work horse pitcher that will eat away at the innings and you can expect consistency but not those gems that you will occasionally get from the stars.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and we all need that sort of thing in our lives.

So overall, Samwon Garden receives:

Til Next time-