hapa bento

Update: This restaurant has closed.

Another entry for our “Bibimbap Battle” and yes, it’s from another Hwy 99/Aurora Ave restaurant!

This dolsot bibimbap is the creation of  “The Green Garden”  which used to be the “Four Seasons” (not related AT ALL with the famous hotel).  It’s the same building but different owner, etc.

In fact, they cleaned up the place too.   Which is a good thing because Saba Man and I had stopped eating at  the “Four Seasons” because of ah… questionable hygiene.

When we  saw the scrubbed-cleaned fascade and new signs we were elated then made a mental note to return at the peak of our  next Korean- food phase.

Like most of the area’s Korean places they don’t feature a “vegetarian bibimbap”  on the menu but like the others, they were happy to make substitutions.  As you can see they did a good job of adding  large cubes of pan fried tofu.  Extra points!

Other than that everything else about their dolsot is ordinary… the pot was hot enough to toast the rice, the veggies were plentiful and full of flavor, and the kochujang was spicy-sweet delicious.  No surprises here.

Eight items offered for banchan. but points off because of the dreaded “steamed broccoli”.  Folks, steamed broccoli as banchan, in my opinion, is just plain laziness or cheapness or both!

*sigh*

But check out the normal bibimbap below.  Isn’t it lovely?  Saba Man ordered it instead of his usual mackeral!

He rarely eats bibimbab and NEVER orders the dolsot variety as he doesn’t like the crispy rice!

Okay, so  here’s a little Saba Man  factlet… *whispering*  he doesn’t like arare (kakimochi) or senbei either…something about his childhood and his  rice cooking duties at home.  I dunno.

And on the flip-side he’s amazed when I go on-and-on about the crispy-crunch-crust of  dolsot rice!

Now Saba Man and I agree on most things in life,  love and food, but this “crunchy rice thing” is a line we’ve drawn in the sand!  LOL

But back to this  bibimbap, it’s gorgeous in it’s de-contructed way!  Egg over-easy, toppings and rice all served separately.  The rice is missing from the photo  because there was only one server in the entire place and she was running her butt off. (“someone called in sick” was her answer to the customers’ complaints)

The post photo-op rice was delivered with apologies and I felt bad for her as she was the  sole worker in a very busy dining room.  The cook eventually but  ineffectively came out to lend a hand.  But that just caused a delay with production.

Anyway, I like this style of bibimbap as it’s fun to assemble then mix in the large bowl.   A winner in the “regular bibimbap” catagory for sure!   But I’m deviating from the main topic.

The dolsot bibimbap.

And that’s what this battle  is  all about!  The Green Garden’s  was adequate but not spectacular with the usual toppings of beansprouts, carrots and the like.   Maybe I was distracted by the obvious lack of workers so to be fair, we’ll have to visit again with hopes that  the staffing  as been addressed.

Green Garden

(206) 361-7478