Jihoon Baek
Google
As a person who was born/raised in Korea, I feel insulted by this place. I came to Foxsister with high hopes, since the Mission doesn't have any places that satisfy my Korean cravings. This place does have potential, so I hope the restaurant owners read and learn from my criticism.
I ordered the "Hellfire" stew and the "sweet and spicy" fried chicken, and I have a few points to make:
1.) Decoration/ambiance: people come to a restaurant for the food, not for the aesthetic. It seems like the restaurant owners spent a large effort on just that - which, on an artistic level, is nice - but ultimately doesn't make or break the experience on any meaningful way. That effort could've been better spent on improving the recipe, for example. But maybe that's what SF hipsters want, after all.
2.) Food: the "sweet and spicy" fried chicken was an embarrassment to Korean cuisine. I apologize for sounding harsh, but the sauce recipe was absolutely lazy - it tasted like gochujang with a bit of honey...is that really it? The marinade is supposed to be complex in flavor, not one-dimensional. It's supposed to be sweet, tangy, and spicy - not taste just like gochujang. If I wanted to put gochujang on fried chicken, I could buy some Safeway chicken and do it myself. I recommend the chef take a trip down to LA and learn from the best restaurants there.
The "Hellfire" stew wasn't much better. Ok, it wasn't terrible, but tasted more like cafeteria stew than something you'd order at a restaurant. You're supposed to use more "fermented" kimchi as the base and firmer tofu. The stew came out way too sweet and was also rather one-dimensional.
3.) Price: this was the real kicker for me. At $14, the fried chicken was completely overpriced - for 6 pieces of chicken? I understand that this is the Mission (with high rent/labor costs), but that's just ridiculous. Similarly, the Hellfire stew cost $14, but to add an egg it was $2...and rice cost $3. The rice doesn't come with the stew? Come on! That's a total rip-off. You might get non-Koreans with that, but you will anger a lot of Koreans with that pricing strategy.
I love Korean food, and it is very dear to my heart. I hope you'll fix some of the issues I've mentioned - I'm willing to give it a try if you do.