Jeff D.
Yelp
Wow. So good!
I'm kicking myself I didn't take pictures of our meal at Coredam this week. The next time we go (and there will definitely be a next time), I will add some photos to this review!
There are so many Korean restaurants popping up all over Beaverton and greater Portland area these days. This is wonderful news to my wife and I, who love Korean food! Full disclosure: my wife is from Korea, so she may be a little biased. I, however, have an "acquired taste" for Korean food. This means that there are Korean dishes I love, some I like, and some I don't, probably only because I haven't tried them enough to acquire the taste.
It's July 2025, and to my wife, summer means naengmyeon! This is a dish she grew up with and is soemthing she looks forward to every summer. What is it? Cold soup! LOL! Wait, what? "You mean like gaspacho?" Well, yes, kind of.
Naengmyeon is a noodle dish and comes with an icy cold broth and you will typically only find it offered in summer. The focus of the dish is texture, due to the chewy noodles, and flavor. Nothing is more disappointing to my wife than Naengmyeon with a boring broth! Such was not her experience this week, as the Naengmyeon was superb, according to my wife!
I, of course, ordered the Korean dish I crave the most - spicy pork bulgoki. Up to this point, I had rated the spicy pork bulgoki at Nak Won in Beaverton as the best spicy pork I've had, but after two visits to Coredam, I have to say that their spicy pork is just as good! How lucky am I, right?
Note that spicy pork bulgoki may be called, Dwaeji Bulgoki or Jeyuk Bokkeum, on the menus at different restaurants. It's all the same dish. In this case, what I had at Coredam was cooked to perfection! It always comes with a bed of onions, or at least lots thrown in, and these onions were roasted almost to the point of caramelization. Together, coated in that wonderful gochujang sauce, they combine into one terrific flavor bomb. So damn good!
The other thing we both enjoy about Coredam is the Korean side dishes they give you (banchan). They gave us a very nice assortment! This included two kimchees, one of which I was unfamiliar with. It was turnip-based, but the turnip pieces were cubed or sliced into bite-size pieces and that kimchee sauce was totally addicting! My wife says we can get this at H-mart. I'll be hunting for it! Often, the banchan we get at restaurants has 2 or 3 that I don't care for, but in this case it was all good! It did include small crab pieces, too. I love crab, but didn't partake of these because I would probably end up wearing a lot of it home. LOL! My wife is much daintier than I am, so she gobbled it down. It also included garlic stems, which is nice! I'm getting hungry again, just thinking about it.
The service was great! The waitresses are friendly and eager to help, and will replace any banchan dishes you gobble up before your main meal arrives!
I don't know who their chef is, but he or she sure knows how to cook!
We will be back!