Where to eat Korean food in Portland and Beaverton
By Michael Russell | The Oregonian/OregonLive
The 2018 Winter Olympics are taking place right now in South Korea, and with them come a pair of certainties:
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NBC will air way too many melodramatic stories about American athletes (are there any other kind?) at the expense of showing, you know, sports.
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Somewhere around the third cutaway to B-roll of customers searing beautifully marbled cubes of beef in some smoky restaurant I’m going to get very hungry.
If you find yourself with a stronger-than-normal craving for Korean food over the next couple of weeks, here are 10 Portland-area (ok, mostly Beaverton-area) restaurants that are worth your time. With any luck, some of them might switch the K-pop video playlist on their TVs to an Olympics stream.
Of course, not all Korean restaurants are the same. Some specialize in soups and stews, others do-it-yourself barbecue. We’ve broken down this list with the reason to visit each. In other words, there should be something here for everyone.
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…you want the best traditional Korean food in the metro area:
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Nak Won
With two decades in business, Nak Won is the godfather restaurant of Beaverton’s unofficial Little Korea. The busy kitchen is managed by Tae Ok Lee, the dining room watched over by her son, Kon. The menu is long and rewards experimentation, though it’s hard to visit without an order of sundubu jjigae, a lava-red tofu stew with vegetables, seafood or meat. On the side, an egg for cracking into the broth. Most of Nak Won’s comforting Korean dishes are the best versions you’ll find in Portland. The mandu (Korean dumplings) are lovely when steamed, the haemul pajeon (a savory seafood pancake) is crisp and comes with a fiery soy dipping sauce while the dolsot bibimbap (rice, veggies and meat in a red-hot stoneware bowl) has a more intriguing border of toasted rice than most Portland paellas.
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Details:
4600 S.W. Watson Ave., Beaverton
503-646-9382
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…you’re right next to Nak Won, but it’s late
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Du Kuh Bee
Even at 9:30 on a weeknight, customers stream through the door and into the glorified passageway that serves as this dinner-only restaurant’s dining room. Grab a table for conversation or a stool at the counter to watch the staff in action. As you might expect, given that this was the former home of Frank’s Noodle House owner Frank Fong, you’re here for the noodles, an al dente pile of hand-pulled strands stir-fried with vegetables, pork, squid, black bean sauce and more. Also worth staying up late for: mandu soup, which features plump pork dumplings and oval rice cakes packed into a beautifully flavored broth.
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Details:
12590 S.W. First St., Beaverton
503-643-5388
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…you love Nak Won, but need a change of pace
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JCD
Between its tucked-away storefront and relatively limited hours (dinner only, Tuesday-Sunday), I don’t hit JCD as often as I might like. That’s probably a mistake. On previous visits, I’ve encountered charmingly low-brow wooden booths and cool black-and-white caligraphic wallpaper and very good banchan. The restaurant’s full name, Jang Choong Dong Wang Jok Bal, includes a reference to jokbal, the super-tender soy-braised pig’s trotters. Focus on similar Korean comfort food dishes — savory seafood pancakes, blood sausage stir-fries, chewy rice cakes blanketed in cheese — and you’ll leave happy.
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Details:
3492 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton
503-644-7378
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…you already love Korean food but want to see how it can evolve
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Han Oak
Follow the sound of Led Zeppelin or Chance the Rapper bleeding out from the parking lot at The Ocean micro restaurant complex to find this modern Korean restaurant built inside chef Peter Cho and artist Sun Young Park’s home. Friday to Monday, The Oregonian/OregonLive’s reigning Restaurant of the Year offers umami-packed military stews, super-tender pork belly and other elevated Korean drinking snacks both a la carte and in a reasonable $55 tasting menu. Han Oak’s menu changes frequently, the technique influenced by Cho’s experience at several top New York kitchens. Look out for the plump pork-and-chive dumplings, the crisp-skinned Korean fried chicken and the latest must-have noodle creation from Cho and his team.
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Details:
511 N.E. 24th Ave.
971-255-0032
hanoakpdx.com
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…you just want some no-fuss Korean barbecue
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DJK
It’s odd that Portland’s doesn’t have more places like DJK, a large restaurant with grills and industrial hoods built into tables big enough to gather a half-dozen banchan plates and several pounds of raw meat for grilling. You can find Korean barbecue-focused restaurants like it all over other West Coast cities like Seattle or Los Angeles. DJK’s menu encompasses barbecue and shabu shabu, sizzling meat platters, stews, dumplings and big, extra-puffy seafood pancakes. Go with friends and order too much marinated meat for the DIY grill. The best part might be how close DJK is to Beaverton Transit Center — go ahead and have that extra shot of soju.
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12275 S.W. Canyon Road, Beaverton
503-641-1734
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…you work downtown and only have 30 minutes for lunch
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Kim Jong Smokehouse
This Korean/American bibimbap/barbecue mashup comes from Kim Jong Grillin’ food cart at downtown food hall Pine Street Market comes food cart kingpin Han Ly Hwang, Smokehouse Tavern chef B.J. Smith and Langbaan owner Earl Ninsom. The bones of the operation are Hwang’s cart-famous bibimbap, and while you can add smoked meats from Smith’s mini Smokehouse chain, I typically get the vegetarian version, with rice and jjapchae (glass noodles), pickled and fermented veggies, lightly fried egg and gochujang sauce. And for any office workers on a time crunch, the restaurant’s online ordering system is pretty efficient.
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Details:
126 S.W. Second Ave. and 413 N.W. 21st Ave.
kimjongsmokehouse.com
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…you’ve got $25 and an insatiable appetite
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K-Town Korean BBQ
Portland’s first all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurant is kept as cool as a meat locker, the lighting provided mostly by flatscreen TVs blaring K-pop. There aren’t many options at K-Town, just a handful of prepared dishes (ignore), plus a trio of meat combos priced at $20, $25 and $30 per person. Unless you have a hankering for seafood, go for the $25 option, which beefs up the beginner’s combo with a handful of worthwhile meats, including sweet-marinated LA-style kalbi, a must. Wait for the grill to get searing hot, then fill it edge to edge with thin-sliced pork belly, spicy marinated pork and selections from the surprisingly diverse list of vegetables including three different types of mushrooms, kalbi-style eggplant and rice cakes.
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Details:
5450 S.E. 82nd Ave.
503-444-7700
ktownkoreanbbq.com
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…it’s your first time eating Korean food
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Toji Korean Grill
If I had to guess, I’d say this Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard institution has introduced more Portlanders to Korean food than any other restaurant. As you’ve probably gathered, most of the metro area’s best Korean food is still on the other side of the West Hills, but for beginners, there’s nothing wrong with this restaurant with the big parking lot next to Por Que No. Most people come for the barbecue, and it’s fine, maybe even a step above K-Town. Although it’s not very heavily advertised, they also offer an all-you-can-eat option. After visiting South Korea in 2016, I thought my next meal at Toji would be disappointing. Instead, I appreciated the fact that it offered an easy entry point for Korean food (and I had a blast).
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4615 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
503-232-8998
tojikoreangrillhouse.com
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…you like an adventure
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Spring
The best part about this restaurant inside Korean market G Mart is finding it in the first place. First get to the market, which is just off Southwest Canyon Road near Oregon 217, walk past the dried seaweed and instant ramen until you reach the back, turn left at the meat counter and climb the wooden staircase, often partially obscured by a stack of cardboard boxes. Being winter, you’ll probably want to order some sizzling kalbi (sweet-marinated short rib) or a roiling red sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) as you gaze out on the colorful aisles from Spring’s mezzanine. But I sometimes think Spring shines best in summer, when you’ll find most customers with their heads halfway down toward stainless steel bowls of naengmyeon, the cucumber-scented beef and buckwheat noodle soup.
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3975 S.W. 114th Ave., Beaverton
503-641-3670
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…you can handle a hangover tomorrow
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Ara
This Murray Crossing Korean restaurant is really two in one. The first, downstairs, keeps regular hours and serves a straightforward menu of bibimbap, bulgogi and other well-known Korean dishes. The second, upstairs, has a separate menu and name – Ddonggojib, roughly translating to “stubborn as a mule.” It’s the reason you’re here. The food is like some Seoul University student’s 1:30 a.m. fantasy: fried chicken, sweet corn tucked under broiled mozzarella and a “military stew” of Spam, bacon and ramen noodles topped with a pair of slowly melting American cheese singles.
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6159 S.W. Murray Blvd., Beaverton
503-747-4823
koreanrestaurantinbeavertonor.com
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Amy Wang contributed to this report
— Michael Russell
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Michael Russell | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Read more
Don’t miss our guide to Portland’s 40 best restaurants, our top 10 newcomers of 2017 and our reigning Restaurant of the Year (which, as careful readers already know, happens to be a Korean restaurant).
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