In Da Nang, especially in the part of town that I live in, you can bring your pets almost anywhere provided they are well-behaved. Well, honestly you can probably bring them there if they are not well-behaved. Businesses are just kind of hurting for customers so they will do whatever they can to get you in there.
but this isn't just a story about Nadi getting to go anywhere she wants because when I went out this particular day I didn't know I was going to Korean BBQ, it was just something that kind of happened.
She looks a bit disinterested in this pic but trust me, she is anything but. She is hyper-focused on what is going on at the table in front of her because the main feature of Korean style BBQ is that they cook all the meat right in front of you in the middle of the table.
For a meat lover, this is one of the best things you can do for yourself all over SE Asia. The Korean BBQ trend is very popular in all the places I have been and it doesn't really seem to matter where you go, it is always quality.
They try to differentiate themselves but the notion behind basically all of them is the same. You order some high quality cuts of mostly beef and pork and all the side dishes just come along with it. A main way in which these places will try to set themselves apart is by having better side dishes since all of the restaurants have basically the same cuts of meat. Some claim to have better meat but after having been to quite a few of them, I think they are all probably getting their beef and pork from the same supplier.
If you want to do it properly you also need to get a bottle of two of Soju, which is a sort of very popular Korean liquor or rice wine that has a very distinct taste. It is only about 12% alcohol so it is more like wine than whiskey, and it for whatever reason, complements the food very well.
Make no mistake though, even though you are just sipping on tiny shot glasses of what is essentially the same alcoholic content as a red wine, this can get you messed up pretty fast. We had already been drinking all day at this point because two of my friends are very big LA Dodger fans and their team had just won game 6 earlier that day.
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This particular Korean BBQ is one of the most established in the city, and I can see it from my balcony of my apartment. It is older and a bit more run down than the other, newer places, so it also is one of the better values. It is called BBQ SEOMIN and I have no idea if that means something in Korean or not.
If you are staying in Da Nang or even living here, chances are you are nearby this place by accident so I recommend giving it a try if you are in town. Here is the map location if you want to give it a try. While far more expensive than local food, it is only about $20 a person including drinks.
It was a rather exciting day for Nadi and when we got home I was surprised to see that she seemed to want to lie down in the oldest doggy bed I have in the house, which is normally reserved for just keeping all of her toys in. I don't often take her to restaurants so perhaps it brought out some nostalgia in her.
While I am not so sure about this being popular in my home country of USA, I know that this style of restaurant is popular to the point of being common over here. I would imagine there are probably a lot of regulations in USA that make it not so possible for raw meat to be served at a table in America, because it seems like everything is hyper-regulated back there. To me, I like having food cooked in front of me because you know there is no funny business going on and there certainly wouldn't be any chance of them using older meat.
At Seomin, they do use frozen meat and you can tell that some of it is when they bring it out. It's fine though and perhaps that is part of the reason why this place is a bit cheaper than the many others around it in this neighborhood.