Don Dae Gam (no website yet)
This evening Sara, Harold, and I were joined by our food friends Lauren and Courtney at Parks BBQ’s new, all-pork restaurant, Don Dae Gam. On the West side of Western Ave just north of Pico Blvd, in K-town, Don Dae Gam is extremely clean, well lit, has valet and an awesome pig logo! Knowing well the quality of Park’s we had high expectations, and for the most part they were met.
Upon entering Don Dae Gam, Sara and I were happy to be the only whiteys in the entire 80-100 seat restaurant (we knew we were in a good place!). The restaurant was busy. We, smartly, made a reservation and were promptly seated once our table was cleared and cleaned. Upon seating we were immediately greeted with our setup - silver plate and two dishes with different dipping sauces. The first was a dry rub of salt, crushed red pepper, and dried Korean spices, the second was a Korean salsa (for lack of better description) it had fresh chilies, vinegar and tomato. The later had more heat than the first and both complemented the different meats very well. Don Dae Gom opened recently and the only negative was they were not quite prepared for the non-Korean diner and our collective inability to decide what we wanted to eat. Not that big of a deal cause we were all chatting, however we stared at our empty bowls and dipping sauces for a little longer than I like.
Don Dae Gam has a great menu with all different cuts of pork. They have stews, soups, pancakes, side dishes and more. For the inexperienced they have three different priced “combos” comprising of different cuts of pork, soup and 1 bottle of beer or Soju. We couldn’t make up our mind on which combo we wanted and decided to make up our own, which may have been a bad choice…
Immediately after ordering we received our bon chon (thank god!!!). The bon chon at Don Dae Gam is not as varied or plentiful as Park’s, the true focus here is the pork. However, the few items they did bring were delicious and flavorful. The salad was pre-seasoned with rice vinegar, sesame oil and Korean spice and everyone loved it. They brought two variations of Kim Chee – regular (which is the best I’ve had in this city), spicy, pungent, yet still crunchy. And a different type of smaller, greener, fermented cabbage that was milder and less red in color than its counterpart. Sautéed spinach with sesame seeds and vinegar, wafer-thin, sliced potatoes (I can’t describe these well as I only got a small taste, needless to say, they were a big hit!). At this point you might be asking yourself “Where is the potato salad?” It was there, don’t worry, but disguised as what we thought was a pad of butter… certainly not butter, it was a perfectly cooked chunk of boiled potato with the appropriate amount of mayo based dressing painted cleanly on top. It wasn’t until Harold decided that if it was indeed butter he would take on for the team, and dove in right in, luckily it wasn’t and this preparation was a first for all of us and we were happy.
We ordered: special pork neck meat, pork galbi, thin sliced pork belly, kim chee pancake, baby octopus and pork belly stew, and tons of OB and Hite. Sara and I liked the special pork neck meat a lot. It looked liked OToro in its raw form, perfectly pink with slight striations of fat laden throughout. When grilled it turned opaque and had great grill marks. I chose to eat this cut medium rare (opposed to medium by the rest of the table) and we all agreed the dry rub complimented this best. The pork galbi was less intense in flavor than its beef brethren and we all enjoyed this very much. The meat obtained a good char and was complimented well by the Korean salsa. Sara loves the thin sliced pork belly, so this was a must. The thin sliced pork belly came out “seasoned” and by seasoned I mean bathed in a ridiculously spicy, blood red paste (if you have had the raw chili crab at Cho San, it’s the same stuff). It was a mistake on their part but we were down (at the time) and in the beginning it wasn’t too bad. Where it got real hot, was with the baby octopus and pork belly stew. Which, was not only a spicy ass stew, but once the stew was presented to us, they put rice into the pan to soak up every tiny bit of concentrated, atomic bomb spice that was crusted on the pan. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE hot stuff, and I mean REALLY hot stuff, I am not a a lil’ punk that is new to the heat game, but this was unrelenting. We had three items on the table, all of which had the same inferno sauce either on top or homogeneously mixed within and it was a bit much. Unfortunately the kim chee pancake was devoured before the heat came on full force and I think the batter of the pancake would have been a welcome cool down (although, the extra 4 large bottles of beer did help). Pushing through to the end we finished everything we ordered save the bonus fried rice from hell and we were all very pleased and will be back in the future, once the spicy pork baby in each of our bellies subsides.
All in all we liked Don Dae Gam and we will be back. We are aware of our ordering snafus and we hope you take heed when venturing off their own recommended combos. Park’s has done an excellent job in keeping with their high standards of quality meat and service in this, their second installation. Despite the small wait at the beginning and bringing us the wrong pork belly, it was just what we hoped for. Next time you are in the mood for a lot of pork seek out the pork “diary air” on western and pico and come hungry. TimB
