Bow Bulgogi

I am so full right now! I just went to Bow Bulgogi with a co-worker who loves food as much as I do and we basically ordered the whole menu!

We had talked for a while about going out for some Bip Bam Boop. Bibimbap, that is. I just can never get it right. Basically it is a Korean dish featuring a variety of vegetables and some meat over rice, with a soft fried egg on top and some sort of tangy red sauce. You mix it all together so that the egg yolk and sauce coat everything and then you scoop it in your mouth. 

My familiarity with Korean food has been lacking. In Halifax we just had the place in the food court with the chicken everyone liked. (Now, to my excitement, there is at least one new Korean restaurant in Halifax and it looks promising!) Here in Calgary, I had been to Seoul and found it rather bland. I've also felt relatively uninspired by Korean BBQ restaurants. Bow Bulgogi is a little hole in the wall in the SW that is quite small, and became quite busy shortly after we arrived, with streams of local residents in the know. Little did I know, this was to be my first positive Korean eating experience.

Okay, so bulgugi and "Korean BBQ" are the same thing. Generally Korean BBQ implies that you cook marinated meat on a grill in the middle of your table. At Bow Bulgogi they do the cooking for you, and it is delish. We ordered the chicken, beef, and squid. They come to table loudly sizzling, which incites salivation. The flavour of each dish carried its own identity, yet all were compatible with the accompanying dipping sauce and lettuce leaf wraps. Our server actually took a pair of scissors and snipped up the meat into smaller bite sized bits. We played with the scissors a little ourselves as well. Fun!

I should mention the bulgogi comes with rice, kimchi, bean sprout salad, and pickled radish as well as a nice looking and tasting platter of deep fried tofu. This was all quite good. The kimchi was much better than at Seoul; it had some heat, depth, and a spectrum of flavour. The pickled radish was a good palate cleanser, particularly helpful with some of the spiciness. 

Particularly, and delightfully, spicy, was the bulgogi squid. Sold at "market price" ($25), it was well worth it. A whole squid in a spicy sauce with various vegetables, and black char marks we could taste. This was fantastic on top of some steamed rice, or in the lettuce wraps. I would go back just for this!

And the bip bam boop? It was awesome too. I don't usually like eggs thrown on top of my meals, but this worked. The sauce was sweet and tangy. It is a perfect one bowl meal. It would be better if it came to the table sizzling in a stone bowl, as I know it often does. But it was still lovely. What a meal! I am definitely eating more Korean food from now on.

Bow Bulgogi
3515 17th Ave SW
Calgary, AB
403-686-6826
Urbanspoon