Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Going beyond BBQ at Blue Korea

New dishes to feed the Korean habit

The haemul pajeun, featuring squid and a scallion pancake
The haemul pajeun, featuring squid and a scallion pancake
Place

Blue Korea House

4620 Convoy Street, San Diego

It’s easy for me to get into a rut when eating ethnic food. Once I’ve tried a couple of dishes that capture my imagination, I tend to go back to them. Especially since I usually move on to the next restaurant on my list of many yet to try in San Diego. So while I might adore the sundubu jjigae at Convoy Tofu House, chances are I’m going to be trying a new Korean restaurant next time I crave that soft tofu stew, because that’s my job.

On a recent visit to a nearby Convoy spot, Blue Korea BBQ House, I was looking to escape that rut. I’ve had plenty of tofu stew, bibimbap, and Korean BBQ dishes and keep circling back them. And since I knew fellow Feaster Ian Pike had already had a mediocre encounter with this restaurant’s BBQ and banchan, I was determined to broaden my horizon.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Plenty of seating, some of which includes table grills for BBQ-it-yourself dishes

Helping me was a friend of Korean descent, which meant I was left out of most of the interaction with our server. As planned, a few dishes were recommended to replace the usual.

The first one, yukgaejang ($10), consisted of shredded beef and vegetables in a rich and spicy beef broth with thin sweet potato noodles. The broth seemed to swim with savory chili oil that made the whole dish enjoyable, to the point that I almost missed a new-to-me vegetable amidst the onions and cabbage: dried gosari. It’s the fiddlehead of a bracken fern, said to detoxify, and it tastes like a stalky green onion crossed with chard. It didn’t contribute to the dish’s flavor, but it did make enough of an impression for me to ask what it was.

The real standout dish I tried was haemul pajeun ($20), a seafood scallion pancake featuring squid. It’s not something I would have picked off the menu on my own, and it was fantastic. Squid’s going to be chewy just about every way it’s served, a deal breaker for some. But the umami flavor of the pancake won me over, and in combination the taste and texture gave me plenty of reason to cut another slice.

Like Pike, I was underwhelmed by the banchan dishes that made our way to the table, as well as some of the beef that we shared. But when it came to breaking the routine, Blue Korea delivered a memorable visit, and there are still plenty of options on that menu yet to explore.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Next Article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
The haemul pajeun, featuring squid and a scallion pancake
The haemul pajeun, featuring squid and a scallion pancake
Place

Blue Korea House

4620 Convoy Street, San Diego

It’s easy for me to get into a rut when eating ethnic food. Once I’ve tried a couple of dishes that capture my imagination, I tend to go back to them. Especially since I usually move on to the next restaurant on my list of many yet to try in San Diego. So while I might adore the sundubu jjigae at Convoy Tofu House, chances are I’m going to be trying a new Korean restaurant next time I crave that soft tofu stew, because that’s my job.

On a recent visit to a nearby Convoy spot, Blue Korea BBQ House, I was looking to escape that rut. I’ve had plenty of tofu stew, bibimbap, and Korean BBQ dishes and keep circling back them. And since I knew fellow Feaster Ian Pike had already had a mediocre encounter with this restaurant’s BBQ and banchan, I was determined to broaden my horizon.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Plenty of seating, some of which includes table grills for BBQ-it-yourself dishes

Helping me was a friend of Korean descent, which meant I was left out of most of the interaction with our server. As planned, a few dishes were recommended to replace the usual.

The first one, yukgaejang ($10), consisted of shredded beef and vegetables in a rich and spicy beef broth with thin sweet potato noodles. The broth seemed to swim with savory chili oil that made the whole dish enjoyable, to the point that I almost missed a new-to-me vegetable amidst the onions and cabbage: dried gosari. It’s the fiddlehead of a bracken fern, said to detoxify, and it tastes like a stalky green onion crossed with chard. It didn’t contribute to the dish’s flavor, but it did make enough of an impression for me to ask what it was.

The real standout dish I tried was haemul pajeun ($20), a seafood scallion pancake featuring squid. It’s not something I would have picked off the menu on my own, and it was fantastic. Squid’s going to be chewy just about every way it’s served, a deal breaker for some. But the umami flavor of the pancake won me over, and in combination the taste and texture gave me plenty of reason to cut another slice.

Like Pike, I was underwhelmed by the banchan dishes that made our way to the table, as well as some of the beef that we shared. But when it came to breaking the routine, Blue Korea delivered a memorable visit, and there are still plenty of options on that menu yet to explore.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.