Korean eateries to try for takeout, delivery
We all have that place, right?
You know the place I’m talking about. The restaurant that doesn’t even need to be named when you make plans. The one that’s there for birthdays, celebrations, welcomes and farewells, feasts with friends the night before family holidays and anytime you’re tired and ragged and in need of good food and good company.
I lost mine when Café Ga Hyang — the underappreciated little west side Korean joint run by a charming culinary odd couple — suddenly disappeared without a trace. A year and a half later, I still miss it desperately.
There’s plenty of loss to go around these days, most of it far more consequential. But consider this a reminder to support the places you’d still like to have around when we emerge from the other side.
These Korean restaurants weren’t my place. But they’re all great, they all offer curbside or delivery and they’re all
place.
Hodori
Hodori is an institution — the Valley’s bastion of traditional Korean cuisine dating back to a time before soondubu,
● gochujang and naengmyeon had worked their way into the Arizona mainstream.
Not to overstate our progress. That same Arizona mainstream maintains a blinkered focus on grilled meat to the exclusion of most Korean fare, but here’s a pro tip: Korean stews travel a lot better than Korean barbecue, and stews are Hodori’s specialty. They don’t do curbside, but you can order over the phone for carryout, and they’re also working with most of the delivery services.
Soondubu — tofu soup — is the essential app, its chile heat tailored to your preference, bolstered with options like shrimp, kimchi, spam or mushrooms to round out a hearty bowl. The house special — with beef, prawns, clams and oysters — is a mighty fine intro to the genre,
rich and fragrant and bubbling hot.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Hodori’s dogani tang, a milky elixir built on beef knuckles and brisket, a gentle, restorative broth with a hint of allium and ginger. Or, if you’re looking to feed an army, there’s the budae jungol — “Army Stew” — a Korean-American crossover product of the Korean War, stuffed with tofu, rice cakes, hot dogs, ramen noodles and spam.
Of course, not everything at Hodori comes in liquid format. They make a sizzling kimchi jun, a spicy griddled pancake stuffed with fermented cabbage and chunks of pork. Their jap chae bathes translucent noodles in a light sesame sweetness.
And yes, if you want, there’s plenty of grilled meat to go around.
Details: 1116 S. Dobson Road, Mesa. 480-668-7979, hodoriaz.com.
Ohya
I don’t expect these months have been any easier for Korean restaurants where the focus is soju-infused nightlife. But among our late-night Korean party destinations, Ohya is one of the few that still stands tall if you take away the dine-in experience and focus on the food.
Ohya is up and running on most delivery apps, and though they don’t advertise it as policy, they’re amiable folks who are happy to run out a curbside drop.
They feature the sushi, but that’s not why you’re here. You’ll want to focus instead on dishes like the dduk bokk e — chewy tubular rice cakes smothered in a thick chile sauce infused with onions and garlic.
Similarly fiery is their Korean fried chicken, encased in crunchy armor slicked with a gochujang-heavy sauce. And while it isn’t a house specialty like Hodori, Ohya makes a solid soondubu as well.
Grilled meats are also great, but it isn’t all sizzle and fire. One of my favorites at Ohya is the dduk mandoo gook — a thick but delicately seasoned beef broth, stuffed with rice cakes and dumplings and ribbons of swirled egg. A little touch of scallion and a light peppery punch and this is some excellent comfort food.
Details: 4920 W. Thunderbird Road, Glendale. 602-298-0110, goohya.com.
Seoul BBQ & Sushi
If you spy this joint while cruising down I-17, you might mistake it for one of the corporate monstrosities that line the freeway. But its hulking size notwithstanding, Seoul BBQ & Sushi plays like a quality independent when the food’s in front of you.
Whether you get it via delivery or curbside, this is the best restaurant banchan in town since Café Ga Hyang shut down. It’s a plentiful patchwork of pickled and fermented little nibbles, prepared with much more care than most local Korean restaurants muster.
Seoul BBQ’s haemul pajeon is a winner — a thin, eggy seafood and scallion pancake with lacy edges and a zippy soy and vinegar dip — and they sling some formidable Korean fried chicken wings as well.
The soups can get showy. The galbi tang would be a familiar, if above average, helping of vegetable-stuffed beef broth if not for the Flintstones-esque dinosaur rib sticking out of the pot. And this is the only spot in town where I’ve found samgyettang, a milky, ginsengrich pot of broth that contains a whole Cornish hen.
Seoul BBQ also makes an excellent tangsuyuk, a Korean-Chinese crossover dish that resembles American sweet sour pork. But the weather being what it is, I’m making a beeline for the mul naengmyeon — chewy, fine sweet potato noodles swimming in a pickly-tart, icy-cold beef broth with a little sharp, mustardy sting.
Details: 11025 N. Black Canyon Hwy., Phoenix. 602-441-0900, seoulphx.com.
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