The Titanic Belfast – glorious at nighttime

That wasn’t all that was new for me in Belfast. I like to eat my way around cities so while I was determined to visit old favourites, I sought out new haunts. The Barge, a former canal barge, is moored at the back of the Waterfront Hall and has been lovingly restored into a museum and a café. The food was excellent, and the sunlit, almost Scandanivian setting encouraged even the most hungover of us to start to think about beer again.

The Barge

I never need to be asked twice if I want some cake, so a friend took me to Cakes By James, a tiny cake shop that is literally hidden in a building that it shares with art shops, jewellers and galleries (you have to ring a doorbell to get in, and it’s up three flights of stairs). James Watson, a local who curated his talents at bakeries around the world before returning to Belfast, is a magic cake alchemist; when my friend recommended I try the stout and ginger cake, I looked warily at him. When I took a tiny bite, ringed by cream cheese frosting, I was forced to eat my words. Then more cake.

 Cakes By James

If you’re interested in both food AND history, St. George’s Market  is the obvious weekend destination. Built in the late 19th Century, it is frequently cited as one of the best markets in the UK and Ireland and I would not be inclined to disagree. On Saturdays in particular, there is a broad array of stalls – you can buy a pair of Lego earrings while trying to balance a coffee in one hand, and a Finn MacCool-sized breakfast bap in the other. There’s a hotly contested seating area, where you’re likely to be gutted by a mother with a pushchair before getting to actually sit down. That’s fine, though – bacon sandwiches taste just as good standing up.

St. George’s Market

I couldn’t stay and eat in Belfast forever. Northern Ireland offers much more than its alluring capital city. The Mourne Mountains lie a 45-minute drive from the city, near Newcastle, County Down. It’s a local hiking and climbing mecca; the hiking trails have all been vastly improved over the past few years but they retain a rusticity that ensures you definitely need a good pair of boots and plenty of waterproof clothing. The quixotic weather changes mean that you never know what you’re going to get up there, so ensure you are prepared. We got a hailstorm where the wind was blowing the hail into horizontal jags and just as quickly, it blew over us.

See the storm in the distance? 

On the north coast lies the Bushmills Distillery, Ireland’s second most famous whiskey makers (although they have been around longer than Jameson). £7 gets you a short but comprehensive tour and – most importantly – a dram of whiskey at the end. You can choose the basic stuff…or you can try the 1608 anniversary edition,  a spicy concoction that is only available to buy in the distillery and in duty-free.

Whiskey!

This post is the merest of whispers, as far the myriad attractions of Northern Ireland are concerned. For a small country, it packs a wallop and  hopefully, someday, it will be synonymous with Dublin whenever visitors think of Ireland’s urban centers. Visit it. Go.

Okay travelers – who else has been to Northern Ireland? What do you think of Korrena’s recommendations? Have any of your own? Let us know in the comments section or via Twitter and Facebook!

British Museum

Of all the museums in Europe, the British Museum is usually in every sightseer’s Top Five. It’s a no-brainer, and for very good reason. It’s amazing. One of my former college professors once described it as “a staggering assemblage of pillaged artifacts from all over the world.” There are too many awe-inspiring relics to even mention. One of my favorite galleries features what’s known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles and known to the rest of the world as “Pieces of the Parthenon that Greece wants back.” It’s an incredible gallery that I never tire of, no matter how much time I spend there. Truly, you can’t go wrong in the British Museum, but if you need some suggestions on where to start, check out the BBC series “History of the World in 100 Objects,” which traces the development of human society through the museum’s collection. I will leave you with one tip though. The first time I went, I completely missed the Rosetta Stone because of the crowd of people surrounding it, so if you want a decent view and are short like me, use your elbows.

Pillaged statuary in the Enlightenment Gallery

Some of the famed Elgin Marbles

National Gallery

Admittedly, this wasn’t originally on my list of must-see museums, since my “interest in paintings” threshold is relatively low. However, it was a rainy day in Trafalgar Square and I really needed a restroom so I thought, “why not?” The National Gallery features art from 1250-1900 by everyone from Da Vinci to Van Gogh. Like most major London museums, the building is incredibly beautiful, with architecture from the Late Georgian and Victorian periods. All in all, even if classical art isn’t high on your priority list, the National Gallery is a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

A rainy day in Trafalgar Square

Natural History Museum

If you want a truly impressive, awe-inspiring look at natural history, go to New York. This is not the best natural history museum, far from it. Some of the displays are dusty and dated, and despite the amazing architectural setting, the exhibits themselves can be a bit underwhelming. So why visit, you ask? The level of nerdiness that the London Natural History Museum achieves is higher and more complex than any other. What the museum (at least to me) actually illustrates is the history of the study of natural history. Some of the earliest fossils and artifacts from this academic field are stored here and that alone makes it worth the trip. You can also see their famed dinosaur skeleton, “Dippy,” and take a picture with Charles Darwin.

 Gorgeous Victorian architecture

Chucky D dropping some esoteric knowledge

Victoria & Albert Museum

If I could live in a museum, this is the one I’d choose. Sometimes called “Britain’s Attic,” the Victoria & Albert Museum is a veritable nerdgasm of decorative arts from around the world. Every inch of space is utilized to show off the impressive collection of artworks, statuary, furniture and clothing from just about every time period. The place seems to go on forever, so forming a plan of attack is probably the best way to see it, especially if your time is limited. One must-see is the Cast Courts, which is comprised of two galleries of 19th-century reproductions of major European artworks and monuments. These were initially created to make these wonders accessible to those who couldn’t travel abroad. Walking through them makes you feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland, albeit a slightly macabre Wonderland, with all the casts of tombs you’ll see. Also make sure to take a look at the Victorian Era gallery, which features actual video footage of Queen Victoria.

V&A exterior

 Victorians were nerdy too!

Queen Victoria approves this blog post

What are some of your favorite London museums? Let us know in the comments section or via our Facebook and Twitter accounts!

Two of my friends from Germany and I will start our trip here in San Francisco. I’m very excited to show them the beautiful city where I’ve spent the last four months. From here we want to rent a car and make our way to Yosemite National Park. To be honest, this is not my favorite planned destination on our itinerary. I guess I’m not so much of an outdoorsman and more a friend of the big city. “Big trees…? Big deal…!” However, maybe we’ll get to see some bears…yes…I would definitely like that!

After Yosemite we want to come back to San Francisco, just to be able to take scenic Highway 1 to Los Angeles the next day. We’ve been told it is one of the most beautiful roads to travel by car. Also, many people I’ve met have had lots of things to say about LA and I must also admit that I’m quite excited to see it. Venice Beach, Downtown, Hollywood–so many places to see in so little time! Most of all I’m excited to go to Universal Studios, as well as checking out some of the fancy LA nightclubs.

Then the time will come again for us to view more beautiful nature…fun times. But honestly, I’m really looking forward to visiting the Grand Canyon National Park, where we are going to stay one night and enjoy the wonderful views. Originally, our plan from here was to then drive all the way through New Mexico and Texas in order to get to New Orleans. But we came to an agreement to save time and fly directly over these states, from Phoenix to New Orleans.

Bogle Vineyards is a family-owned and operated group of vineyards, a winery and a tasting room that is located on the Sacramento River delta in Clarksburg, California. With over ten vineyards along the delta and nine more throughout the rest of the state, Bogle is indeed a California wine maker to be reckoned with.

However, the good thing about most family-run vineyards is that their wines tend to take on a flavor and substance that reflects, in some cases, several generations of honing the family’s own unique wine making craft. Truly, in the wine trade, age and tradition are of the utmost importance when producing wine of tremendous quality. Bogle Vineyards exemplifies this traditional ideal in wine making, at a price that most can afford.

This time we will explore two wines of both the zinfandel and chardonnay variety:

The first is Bogle’s 2009 “Old Vine” Zinfandel (ABV: 14.5%), which was, at only $9.99, quite a pleasant surprise. I loved the wine’s smooth, velvety texture and how it perfectly complemented my own personal palate for wine. The flavor, too, was rich and substantive–the taste of berries added a nice hint of sweetness without overpowering the wine’s other, more spicy flavors. Overall, this was a delicious wine that I will not think twice about buying again or bringing with me to a social event.

Label: 4/5 (Artistic and sophisticated if not a little underwhelming)

Aroma: 4/5 (Very nice aroma; rather normal)

Flavor: 5/5 (This is where the wine shines; excellent texture and flavor)

Next up we have Bogle Vineyard’s 2010 Chardonnay (ABV: 13.5%)–another impressive wine selection from this up-and-coming wine maker that is sure to tantalize even the most discerning taste buds. Also, at only $8.99, the price is more than right. Like the “Old Vine” Zin, the highlight of this Bogle wine is the gloriously rich and complex flavor that runs the gamut of your run-of-the-mill chardonnay flavors–apple and citrus, for example–while ingeniously adding hints of vanilla and spice to liven things up. Also, the wine showcases a certain buttery texture that seemed all at once foreign to me and my previous experiences with chardonnay, but also quite natural and enticing. Overall, like the “Old Vine” Zinfandel, this Bogle creation is truly mind-boggling, and a winner in my book.

Label: 3/5 (Nice, but relatively uninspired)

Aroma: 4/5 (Captivating citrus essence, but nothing too special for a chard)

Flavor: 5/5 (The flavor is what this wine is all about)

Relatively unknown only a few short years ago, Bogle Vineyards has since, and quite deservedly so, grown to become quite a successful player in the budget-to-mid-level wine market. While the wines I’ve tried from their vineyards might be experiencing a few growing pains where creativity on a more superficial level is concerned (e.g., the label and aroma), Bogle has more than made up for these tiny shortcomings with the awesome flavor and texture that is simply astounding–boggling, if you will. Take it from me and many others blogging this wine’s praises–you most certainly can’t go wrong with these Bogle selections.

Have you tried the wines reviewed this week? What did you think? Let us know via the comments section, and don’t forget to follow cityseekr on Facebook orTwitter! 

So far, I’ve spent four months as an editorial intern for cityseekr. When my parents decided to fly into the city a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to make sure the time we spent here together was worthwhile. I also wanted to show them everything this beautiful city has to offer.

So, what to do? Instead of walking to every major sight on our own, my parents convinced me to go on one of those super touristy hop-on, hop-off bus city tours. At first, thinking about boarding one of those buses and being degraded to a bloody tourist once again didn’t really appeal to me. I very much wanted to think of myself as a “local” during my last month here. Ultimately though, I decided to leave those silly resentments behind, and, since my parents were buying the $35 ticket, I agreed to become a real tourist once more and jumped onto the open-top bus.

Photo courtesy of Open Top Sightseeing

And what can I say, it was actually a great experience! You can hop on the Open Top Sightseeing tour buses at any of the 20 stops that are spread out all over downtown and west San Francisco. With the ticket, which you can buy at any stop, you earn a 24-hour pass to get on and off the buses that come by every 20 minutes. Also, on each bus there is a tour guide that will supply you with entertaining stories and information concerning the area and the surrounding sights.

We entered a bus at the stop in Union Square, so the first area we went through was the Tenderloin district. Here I learned how this seedy part of the city actually got its name. This was something I’ve always been curious about and no local San Francisco resident had been able to explain it to me until then. I’m not going to tell you the meaning behind the name, but if you want to find out: hop on!

Photo courtesy of Open Top Sightseeing

After passing the impressive Civic Center and the Opera House we entered the Haight-Ashbury district. I convinced my parents to get off the bus and we walked up Haight Street for a while. But since I could easily see they were a both bit “alienated” by all the surrounding smoke, head and tattoo shops, not to mention all the eccentric people standing on the street smoking weed in plain sight, we decided to jump back on the next bus and continue our ride. But hey, when you come to San Francisco, be prepared to experience ALL walks of life, not just your own!

After a ride through Golden Gate Park it was time to see what is considered to be the city’s most famous sight: the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather in San Francisco that day was unseasonably beautiful and we had a wonderful ride over the bridge. In hindsight, our decision to get off the bus on the other side and walk back over the bridge wasn’t the best idea. When I reached the middle of the bridge I realized I wasn’t quite over my acrophobia like I always thought I was. Desperately clutching the rail, soaked in sweat, I somehow managed to “crawl” all the way over the bridge so we could board the next bus there.

The tour then took us back to downtown SF, passing through Russian Hill, Nob Hill and Chinatown. Our tour guide provided us with interesting and funny information about these areas, from both the past and present. After we made our way through downtown, we took the Embarcadero all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we got off the bus and could finally mingle with our equals: all the other tourists this place is usually crowded with.

Photo courtesy of Open Top Sightseeing

Some funny aspects of the tour were the different kinds of reactions we got from people towards our bus in the different parts of the city. For example, in the Haight there were many people kindly waving to us or shouting: “Yeah! San Francisco rocks!” However, a homeless guy in the Tenderloin actually gave us “the finger.” I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen every time but it kind of made the ride seem authentic. So essentially, what I took home from this tour were a bunch of great impressions of San Francisco, and on top of that, a sunburned face! Success!

I never really thought I would make it all the way to Glasgow, but we embarked on this trip with no real plans, expectations, research or reservations—so I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that we would be spending Halloween in Glasgow. The weather had been rather gray since we arrived and it had begun to drizzle as we descended from the bus and onto the damp Glasgow street. We had found a hostel (generically called the Euro Hostel) about two blocks from the train station, on the corner of Jamaica and Clyde Streets.  Compared to the hostel where we stayed in Edinburgh (which still ranks as my worst hostelling experience ever—rampant theft, filth and fleas), the Euro Hostel was a breath of fresh air with a clean, modern design and maple wood bunk beds. After settling in, we started walking. With no map in hand and no real idea about the layout of the city, we wandered. I had caught a nasty cold in Edinburgh (probably from that nasty hostel) so I quickly found a drug store and bought cold medicine and cough drops.  We were still trying to accustom ourselves to British business hours. Popping a cherry-flavored drop in my mouth and relishing the immediate effect, we continued walking, this time away from the busy shopping district.

We did a lot of walking in Glasgow, something that I really didn’t mind. I rather like walking around a city knowing that I don’t know anyone and nobody knows me, where I am from or what I am doing. I like seeing families out shopping, students hurrying to class, buses taking passengers to and from the city center. The entire city was going about its business while I felt as if my own life was on pause—and it was fantastic. When first arriving to a city, nothing makes sense. Streets lead to more streets which lead to squares, back to more streets. It’s not until after walking for a few hours that you being to construct a mental map of the area. We came across a park with the greenest grass that I had ever seen; it was only later that we found out that it was appropriately named Glasgow Green. Within the park we found an enormous, elegant greenhouse.

Winter Gardens

The cloudy early evening sky cast a cool blue light inside the greenhouse, making all the lush plants appear a brilliant deep turquoise.  We didn’t stay long. Stepping out into the cold again, we left the park. We came across a street market that was just wrapping up. Unlike the rest of the markets we had seen in Europe, this one was decidedly not geared towards tourists. There were no lovely displays of produce, enticing glass cases of handmade candies—not much of anything at all, really. I got the distinct feeling we had just walked into the remnants of a great party and all that was left was a dirty mess and a few grumpy blokes to clean up the mess. I remember Matt asking someone a question about the market, but because of his heavy accent, not being understood at all. He tried again to no avail; what’s worse is that he also didn’t understand what the grumpy Glaswegian was saying to him because of his heavy accent. So I stood there watching these two people speaking to each other in English but not understanding at all. Things got so heated at one point I had to drag Matt away before he became offensive.

Matt had just finished architecture school and wanted to go see all of the buildings designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. While traveling together, he would often express an urgent need to go visit a particular building. More often than not, this meant taking a bus to the outskirts of town to see a stadium, or venturing to the abandoned business district of a city on a weekend. Glasgow was different; it was clear that the city took great pride in being the birthplace of the famed art nouveau designer and architect. Bookstores prominently displayed books  on Mackintosh and art nouveau design in their windows. In fact, the city pleasantly surprised us with little art nouveau flourishes on buildings, windows and shops. We visited the Glasgow School of Art, the Scotland Street School and the Lighthouse, all designed by Mackintosh. Matt played tour guide for a bit, pointing out specific design features to me and making a few remarks about Mackintosh’s personal life.  Apparently he struggled as a designer most of his life and even briefly moved to the south of France to flee the high cost of living in the UK (we should all be so lucky to be forced to moved to France to save money!). To me his designs seem artful, creative yet restrained. The long clean lines in some of his furniture designs are a nice and unexpected contrast to the graceful curves of some of his stained glass patterns. Matt took hundreds of  photos for his own personal archives and as late afternoon died, we returned to the hostel to rest.

On Halloween night before going out for the evening, we stopped at a phone booth to make a quick call home.  I spoke to my dad for about five minutes but Matt was taking his time chatting with every single person that happened to be at home.  Seeing that I had time to spare, I walked into KFC and bought an ice cream cone. I didn’t really care that it was cold and wet outside or that it was about 9 o’clock at night. I walked out with my ice cream cone and watched Matt talk to his grandpa on the phone. His grandpa was an Auschwitz survivor and was hard of hearing, forcing Matt to basically yell the most mundane statements into the phone—in Spanish. He got a few stares from people passing by—but I was the one who seemed to receive the most unwanted attention from creepy old men delighting in the fact that I was eating ice cream out on the street on a cold day. After talking with his family, Matt looked bright and re-energized and decided to get an ice cream cone as well. Earlier we had seen a few families out with costumed kids, but besides that and a few pumpkin cut-outs in shop windows, there were no obvious signs of the holiday. That was a bit disappointing, but I quickly got over it as we walked out into the inky Glasgow night and headed to the pub.

St George Square

Going out drinking in the UK feels a bit as if you are participating in a drinking game with everybody else in the pub.  Since bars close at around 11pm, everyone seems to be in a big rush to order and consume as many drinks as possible before last call is announced. I suppose the early closing time is to prevent foolish drunken behavior, but I don’t think it was all that effective considering everyone probably drank the same amount of alcohol as they normally would on a night out, only in a shorter time period. However we were in no hurry, in fact, I had introduced Matt to the idea of bar-hopping and he seemed quite keen on the concept. In all practicality, it made sense for us to go from one pub to another—why drink at one pub in Glasgow when you can drink at five? By the end of the night we were exhausted and really had nowhere else to go except McDonald’s, which was of course still open to entice the crowds milling out of the pubs with Big Macs and French fries. We sat at a plastic booth, squinting at the harsh fluorescent lights and planned out trek to the airport. Our flight to Dublin was at 6am the next morning. The problem for us was that there was no public transportation that would take us to the airport in time for our flight. So that meant either taking a taxi—we couldn’t even imagine how much that would cost—or spending the night at the airport. We chose the airport. We picked up our luggage at the hostel and headed to the train station where we caught the last train. It actually was not as bad as it sounds, and we were definitely not the only people spending the night there. Happy but tired, I pulled a blanket out of my bag and curled up in a little ball on top of my suitcase.

Night Views 
San Francisco has the most beautiful scenery in the world! The view from Twin Peaks is my favorite.

Freedom to be Yourself
I love the atmosphere in SF, where it feels like people are respected regardless of their national origin, gender or creed. In the Bay Area, people don’t really care what other people are doing. They accept them as they are. In Korea, people care too much about others and judge people by their appearance. Everyone wants to be pretty. Plastic surgery is not just for celebrities anymore; in Korea it’s the most popular birthday present. But if you are in San Francisco, no one judges you! Be yourself and enjoy your freedom.

The Disney Store, Sony Angel and Vinylmation: Heaven
I have no curfew, but my parents put a limit on me buying toys. How can I stop buying my favorite characters? My luggage is already full of toys.

The Food
Blue Bottle Coffee – it’s the best in San Francisco, I can’t live without it! And In-N-Out Burger – isn’t it good? I fell in love with American food and In-N-Out’s secret menu. Animal style!

Relax
Hurry, hurry – you hear this all the time in Korea, where cities don’t have parks for you to catch your breath. In San Francisco there are lots of beautiful places where you can rest and take a moment to relax.

Hope
I experienced lots of things in San Francisco. There are no bad memories! Luckily, I met a good teacher at the school, a kind and humorous supervisor, and great co-workers.  This experience has given me hope that my life will be good when I go back to Korea. Goodbye, my SF.

Bye Ayeon! We’ll miss you! If anyone has any parting thoughts or advice for our lovely intern, let us know in the comments section or via our Facebook and Twitter pages!

Long gone are the days when great bottle of wine would run no less than $15. Unfortunately, this was a time when the average wine enthusiast related the actual cost of the wine with its resulting taste–i.e., the more expensive the wine, the better it will taste. This correlation was, and still is, certainly false. Many wine producers, distributors and sellers took advantage of the economic “miracle” of the last decade and over-charged for wine that would most definitely turn the noses of even the least experienced of wine connoisseurs. Today, market forces have driven down the cost of wine to something more manageable for the 99% of us who have barely $10 a week to spend on such beverages.

The proposed format of my reviews will include one red and one white wine selection, chosen mostly at random, or by label (if I find the label to be particularly captivating). Every now and then, I may review an apéritif or a beverage best enjoyed after dinner or during dessert. In the end, my goal with this series is to bring to your attention several affordable but delicious wines available at your local grocery store, my thoughts on how they taste, and whether or not I recommend that you buy a bottle.

This week I’ll be reviewing two wines showcased by Trader Joe’s: Comique Révolution Blanc (Central Coast) and Three Knights Pinot Noir (Los Caneros).

Beginning with the white wine selection, Comique Révolution Blanc Wine (Blend: Roussanne, Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Marsanne; ABV: 14.5%), at $4.99, is one of Trader Joe’s more popular budget wines. What drew me immediately to the bottle was the wine’s fascinating Baroque label, which showcased two illustrations of two comically bewigged 17th-century figures. Indeed, the label seemed to promise a decadent oenological experience–highlighting the wine’s aroma of apple blossoms and juniper berries as well as flavors of white peach and custard–a combination of sensations that would be right at home in the dining halls of Versailles during the reign of the Sun King. However, tasting the wine proved to fall short of the complexity promised by the label. The aroma did pass muster, and I must say the wine’s fragrance was quite fresh and appetizing. However, I found the flavor to be a bit too tart for my tastes. The more subdued and almost savory tastes of white peach and custard were instead replaced by a more biting, citrusy flavor. Overall, the wine was good for the price, but somewhat forgettable. Props, however, go to the wine’s ingenious label and delicious aroma.

Label: 4/5 (fun label; a little too wordy)

Aroma: 5/5 (smells great!)

Flavor: 3/5 (taste differs from description; a little too tart and uninteresting for me)

The red wine selection I sampled (and drank in its entirety) is an $8.99 Pinot Noir from the Los Carneros wine region of Sonoma County called Three Knights (Blend: Pinot Noir, Syrah, ???; ABV: 13.5%).  The label for this wine was much simpler, with silver lettering and a coat of arms set against a black background that lent a sort of Medieval Spanish vibe to the bottle–which I found to be appealing. Once opened, the wine let out a very interesting fragrance of pepper, vanilla and oak, which was nice, if not a bit predictable. The taste, however, blew me away. I’m a sucker for more robust reds such as Syrahs and Cabernets, but tend to avoid them when I am unable to fork over a decent amount for a label I trust. However, the Three Nights Pinot not only captured the savory, almost buttery, essence of the Syrah, but managed to almost perfectly fuse that with the fruity/floral overtones of the Pinot Noir. Unfortunately, we’re not privy to the ingredients of the proprietary blend that completes the concoction, but I must say that this wine is truly a bargain for the quality.

Label: 4/5 (a little too minimalist for me, but very tasteful nonetheless)

Aroma: 4/5 (nice aroma; nothing new, though)

Flavor: 5/5 (you’ll be surprised you didn’t pay at least $20 for the bottle)

So there you have it. Hopefully this will be the first in a long series of reviews about budget wines you can find on your weekly grocery trip. The rating system is basic, and that may expand or change over time–or I may just keep it the same. Feel free to comment or send me an email if there is anything different you’d like to see with these reviews or if you have any suggestions for wines or how we can make this series better overall.

Have you tried the wines reviewed this week? What did you think? Let us know via the comments section, and don’t forget to follow cityseekr on Facebook orTwitter! 

]]> http://blog.cityseekr.com/2012/03/life-at-cityseekr-office-the-long-wait/feed/ 0 http://blog.cityseekr.com/2012/03/restaurant-review-muguboka/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=restaurant-review-muguboka http://blog.cityseekr.com/2012/03/restaurant-review-muguboka/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:06:26 +0000 Korrena Bailie http://blog.cityseekr.com/?p=1510 Yes yes, another Korean restaurant. I fully intended to venture into the Inner Sunset and stuff my face with crack chicken (that’s for another day) but, well, I was tired. It was cold. And Muguboka has the misfortune of being so close to my apartment that I can literally spit on it.

Muguboka is very plain outside and in; its name isn’t even written on the awning and instead, is on a tiny sign hidden on the side of the building.

It specializes in what I qualify as home-style Korean cooking – lots of classics, cooked competently. The flavors have definitely been Americanized somewhat – the gochujang for the bibimbap tastes like it has been watered down, the kimchi jiggae lacks a certain edge (that edge, as amply demonstrated at restaurants in Korea, often left me gasping for water).

But Muguboka definitely hits plenty of right notes. The banchan is plenty and varied. The staff eagerly brings you thoughtful freebies (sometimes this is a seafood pancake; sometimes a steaming bowl of soup) and will fill your side dishes happily – once you catch their attention. We ordered their fried chicken for the first time, and it was nicely seasoned, with just the right note of sweetness. Their décor is a touch quirky; it’s not often you see a framed bible quote juxtaposed with a photo of a topless woman advertising alcohol positioned directly below (and best of all, I think it’s entirely accidental).

I wouldn’t recommend Muguboka to any stern-faced SF foodies, looking for the Most. Authentic. Korean Food. Ever. But that’s okay, really – I would like to keep Muguboka hidden from them, where I can walk the three meters from my apartment to their door, and enjoy my soup and bottomless side dishes free from reproach.

Muguboka
401 Balboa Street, San Francisco, 94118
Phone: 415-668-6007

Do you agree with this review? Let us know in the comments section, or via our Facebook and Twitter accounts!