Mario S.
Yelp
There come those times in life when you experience something truly tremendous. An experience so unforgettably fulfilling that you often have to take a step back and understand that in this very moment, what you're experiencing is indeed existential and is indeed happening. It took two trips to Korean Kitchen to affirm that my year of dining in Killeen was no less painful, yet ultimately as welcome as PETA's unconditional fondness for foie gras. Let me explain.
Foie gras is fattened goose or duck liver. It is without a shadow of a doubt among the world's finest delicacies. It's buttery, creamy, rich and filled with an unprecedented amount of flavor. The process in which foie gras is created, however, is far less romantic. Ducks and geese are force fed meals three times a day through a tube known as a gavage, in which they ultimately become lethargic and pray to the avian gods for a more merciful death. My dining experience in Killeen has been very-much-so identical. I've eaten at dozens of restaurants over the course of the last year, and the vast majority of them offered dishes that were not only unpalatable, but inevitably had me begging for mercy. Two weeks before my move to Denver, I open the door to Korean Kitchen.
Korean Kitchen is quaint, quiet, ran by a small staff, and offers limited seating. It is, in hopes of not setting abound any pejorative connotations, a Korean hole-in-the-wall. Its menu is vast, offering a multitude of Korean dishes that while not entirely traditional, do a pretty damn good job of replicating what can be found in many Korean-American homes. The food here caters primarily to the soldiers who have been at one point or another stationed in Seoul, and it's not hard to tell given that bulgogi is advertised at the top of the menu.
My first experience here was on par with most Korean food I've had in the area, and I wasn't particularly impressed, although I surely wasn't disappointed. The only, and I mean exclusively only reason I came back this evening was because of the Banchan. For the first time in my life, I had experienced kimchi precisely the way that it was meant to be experienced. It was clean, it was sour, it had a little bit of bite, and a whole lot of flavor. It's not that the kimchi or other banchan were so mind blowing that I just wanted to come back for small side dishes, it's that they were served in the most palatable manner I have ever experienced.
As I was leaving the restaurant, the [presumably] owner asked me how my meal was and I told him I enjoyed it, but that the banchan, and more specifically, the kimchi was exquisite, to which he told me "come back tomorrow for the kimchi soup."
I did. I went to the same restaurant twice in the same week, one day after the other. This was the best decision I've made in Killeen since I decided to leave. The kimchi soup was absolutely spectacular. It was on par with one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. I've been to Barley Swine in Austin, The French Laundry in Yountville, and countless other world renowned, absolutely amazing gastronomical establishments. I'm not saying that the kimchi soup is on par with Chef Keller's kitchen, I'm simply implying that this is a dish not to be missed.
The soup is unmistakably an eastern homage to Polish bigos. The soup was sour, flavorful, spicy, aromatic, a textural roller coaster. The cabbage was crunchy, the beef was chewy, the tofu didn't melt despite the fact that when the soup was delivered it was boiling as furiously as your failure-of-a-man high school gym teacher. And it was clean. Unmistakably clean. Not like most kimchi that's served in America - "Straight from the jar to your plate!" - a motto subscribed to by only the foulest of Korean establishments in America. No, no, Korean Kitchen was a god-send. It is a bastion for hope, gastronomical development, and unadulterated bliss in an otherwise desolate eatery hell hole surrounded by one rotting establishment to the next.
Korean Kitchen embellishes everything that makes food and dining experiences not just great, but extravagant. The staff is incredibly friendly, insightful, and understands most of their customer's pallets. If for some reason you're ever banished to the god-foresaken wasteland that is Killeen,do not, by any means, miss an opportunity to eat at Korean Kitchen.
10/10 - Would rant again.