brother's korean restaurant #1

brother's korean restaurant is a popular and well-known joint in the richmond district on geary between 5th and 6th avenues. there are apparently 2 on the same block, and this is the dingy, older, original one. it serves korean bbq, cooked at your table or in the back, as well as pan-fried dishes and stews. the draw here is the use of real wood charcoal for the in-table grill instead of the natural gas fixtures found in most modern korean bbq restaurants, high-end and hole-in-the-walls alike.

there is the age-old argument that charcoal-grilled foods, especially real wood charcoal, ultimately taste superior to gas- and propane-seared meats and veggies, an argument i tend to agree with, but one i will concede when you take into account ease of use and cleanup. in this situation, does it actually effect discernable difference in the meat? or is it all for gimmick and show?

the meat at brother's is also purpotedly one of the best in the city. well tonite scott and i put it to the test. well, maybe just me. he was just there to eat.

a few minutes after we order, the waitress brings out the panchan, 10 to be exact! it's a pretty good assortment with very pungent and ripe daikon radish kimchee, tasty dried anchovies, and good spicy fish cake. the cabbage kimchee, however, was just so so, as were the limp bean sprouts and tired-looking seaweed salad.

what was unexpected for me was that kim, rectangular sheets of dried, salted roasted seaweed, was served along with the usual lettuce leaves. nice alternative to wrapping your grilled meats in the lettuce.

we ordered 2 meats to grill at our table (minimum of 2 meat orders are required to use the grill tables. otherwise, you sit at a non-grill table). at the top of the picture is kalbi, or marinated short ribs. it was a little salty but had good flavor and was slightly sweet. unfortunately the meat got dry with cooking, due to being sliced rather thinly. at nicer bbq joints the ribeye meat is at about a 1/2" thick, which results in juicier, tender cuts of fat-rich beef when grilled. these were more like 1/8" to 1/4" and dried out too quickly. the kalbi cost 22.95 an order, which seemed to be a little skimpy to me size-wise.

the 2nd meat, daeji bulgogi, is thinly sliced pork doused in spicy red marinade, shown at the bottom of the picture. this cut is supposed to be thin, so the pork cooks quickly on the grill, the marinade keeping it moist and flavorful. however, the marinade wasn't spicy enough, was on the salty side, and seemed to turn chalky as the meat grilled. the daeji bulgogi cost 18.95 a plate.

true to form with korean restaurant hospitality, a complimentary clay pot of jigae, or stew, was provided. this was soon du bu, or soft tofu soup. the soon du bu had excellent concentrated flavor in the thickened broth, a sign of unhurried simmering, very soft tofu, lots of zucchnini, but only 1 clam. it did make me wanna go back and try their jigaes on a future visit.

i've found these restaurants tend to serve a small bowl of cold sweetened rice broth at the end of your meal. it's a great, simple palate cleanser after a heavy meal of grease and spice. brother's version was very good, concentrated in flavor and well balanced.

the wood charcoal was blazing hot and once the grate got hot, grilled the food quickly. no control of flame here though. there was no sputtering of grease landing on the charcoal, nor did it seem too smokey. hood vents above the tables seemed adequate, as there wasn't a thick haze of greasy, grey smoke hovering in the air like most korean bbq places. upon leaving the restaurant though, both scott and i had the tell-tale carnivorous odor clinging to our clothes, skin and hair, which took two days of airing out.

the service here is adequate. 45 + tip for 2 people left us completely sutffed, but oddly i felt the portion sizes were slightly smaller than typical.

so the wood charcoal definitely has the cool factor, since a waiter hauls out a tin box bulging at the seams with glowing coals from the kitchen to your table into the grill box. but i will say i can't tell a major difference between charcoal and gas grilling in this application. maybe if we allowed the meats to char longer, but being sliced so thinly, you really can't do that the way you'd let a fat ribeye steak sit on the searing grill for 8 min a side. so in this instance, i'm inclined to say the charcoal is more for show.

in summary, brother's korean restaurant does an average job of delivering on the basics of korean bbq, with the added pizazz of wood charcoal. panchan is hit and miss and meats are just ok. i would go back to try their pan-fried dishes and jigaes (stews) based on how well they developed flavors in the soon du bu. perhaps it is its popularity amongst the younger asian crowd and knowledgable non-asian diners that keep it at the top of the list for so many. while i'd go again, for lack of adequate korean food joints in sf, i'd rather save my appetite for the soulful hole-in-the-walls of LA's k-town.