Robert H.
Yelp
Kim Jong Grillin' has attained brick and mortar level!
Han Ly Hwang has been creating Korean comfort food based on his family recipes in Portland from food carts we love for many years.
The Happy Valley restaurant is informal, place your order at the counter, they will bring it, ceramic bowls, chopsticks and metal utensils, and then it is self-busing. What is new is a much larger brand new kitchen.
I had the classic bibimbap with bulgogi. My latest discovery is bulgogi is based on pear flavoring! It is a big bowl, you could split it, or take home leftovers. It had cabbage and daikon kim chi, grated carrot, rice noodles, rice, lettuce, sprouts, the sunny side up egg, and your choice of meat or vegetarian protein.
The Happy Valley menu is bigger than the Portland Park Blocks menu, and includes kid-pleasers like individualistic K-burgers and potato fries. While I was there some good friends arrived with their excited 8 and 9 year olds!
I had previously reviewed their hot dog https://www.yelp.com/user_details_reviews_self?userid=vhrp6p6I8FgwfW1FFnOMsA&search=kim+jong+grillin, and I heard several people ask about it at the new Happy Valley location, but it is not on the menu.
They are just opening, so they need to work on their beverages and we hope brown rice comes back. The larger kitchen makes specials possible, and they do catering.
Happy Valley is one of those housing development miracles with homes carved from the Mt Hood foothills surrounding Happy Valley Center. The Center has several buildings, you should be able to navigate on your handheld device. There is ample parking.
Over Kim Jong Grillin's time Han has supported our little food ecosystem, feeding out-of-work restaurant workers, promoting better restaurant practices, and bringing his food cart downtown to the Park Blocks near Powells to contribute to our central city recovery.
I'm looking forward to tasting more of the new incarnation of solid state brick and mortar Kim Jong Grillin' unfolding!