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Welcome back food lovers and let me share with you about my dining experience at the Kim Jong Smokehouse located at 126 South West 2nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon while on my road trip.
Kim Jong Smokehouse is a Korean themed restaurant that has a focus on a rice bowl called a bibimbap which has warm rice with a variety of veggies and meat on top and a bibimbap sauce. The physical location of this food place is in a building called the Pine Market. After walking inside, I notice a massive crowd at a majority of the food places inside at the eight different food vendors with long benches for tables throughout the building. I quickly found the line for the Korean eatery and got in line while reading the menu options on the board above. The menu has a standard rice bowl and you can get a variety of protein add-ons such as honey chicken, Galbi short ribs, and many others. At the same time your rice bowl also comes with a choice of one sauce to go with the rice bowl.
I was hungry that day as I forsake breakfast so I ordered two rice bowls with one bowl having Galbi short ribs with a smokehouse Tavern Mustard BBQ sauce. Meanwhile the other bowl has pulled pork and a kimchee mayo sauce. After ordering I was given a beeper to notify me when the food is complete, so I went to find myself a seat somewhere along the benches. I was lucky that I found a bench not too far from the eatery which allows me to move quickly back and forth without worrying about my stuff. After roughly 15 minutes of waiting my beeper went off to notify me that my food is ready. I went over to the counter and hand them my beeper and they gave me a tray with two bowls of my bibimbap with the sauces on the side along with chopsticks.
After getting back to my seat I took a look at what topped on both rice bowls. Both rice bowls have the following within: rice and noodles, daikon (Radish) kimchee, napa (cabbage) kimchee, pickled apple, sprouts, fried sunny side egg, topped with sesame seeds and of course the protein I ordered which looks extremely moist and soft.
Now it time to dine on some delicious rice bowls as I was very hungry. I decided to start with the Galbi short ribs bowl. First thing I did was poke the yolk to let it ooze downwards onto the rice below. Afterwards I try to carefully mix everything up to have a nice blend. Afterwards I pour a bit of the mustard BBQ sauce onto the meat. I took my first bite into the short rib and was welcomed by a blend of smooth spicy BBQ mustard sauce with the delicate smoky sweetness of the short ribs, it was delicious. I then try a piece of the daikon kimchee which when I bite into it felt a cool spicy feeling with a crunch as well. The napa kimchee on the other hand was more soft in texture but also pleasantly spicy at the same time. The pickled apples had a very strong citrus taste that balances it out with the rice and noodles in the bowl. After finishing this rice bowl I took a quick breath for diving into my second rice bowl. The pulled pork has a sweet and mildly spicy flavor that was nice while the kimchee mayo sauce tasted like a spicier version of siracha mayo except with a more smoke like aroma.
Overall my lunch was very satisfying and this is definitely a place I would be coming back to while in Portland. My only advice I could think of sharing for those planning to eat here is mix the contents of your rice bowl carefully as this is a very compact bowl full of goodness, to reduce the chances of food being fling about.
Cheers,