Today was our anniversary, so we decided to go out for dinner. Nicole did a search on metromix and thought Hae Woon Dae sounded like a good choice. It's a Korean Barbecue place at 6240 N. California. The reviews sounded good. (with the exception of someone who clearly was unprepared for eating food from another culture... who orders chicken at a korean restraunt... and too many pickled veggies? Does she complain about German restruants serving too much sausage?) Nicole's Korean co-worker was not familiar with this place, but after our experience, he'll probably have to check it out. Yup. It was good.

If you're unfamiliar with Korean Barbeque, it's one where you cook the meat over a charcoal brazier that they place in the center of your table. The restaurant has several tables in the main seating area, as well as a few "private" rooms on the sides with low tables and cushions. When we arrived, there was only one other table of customers. We were given hot tea, and we ordered bulgogi (marinated beef) and shrimp. We were given 14 different small dishes of assorted sides, including a few different kimchee dishes, tofu, mushrooms, a seaweed salad (fantastic, seemed to be roasted seaweed rather than the kind we get at thai places) potato salad (with rasins), broccoli with carrots (raw!), and several others. The worst of those was "pretty good". Nothing was bad, and nothing was left behind. Shortly after the sides came, a charcoal braizer was brought out and set in the center of the table. The meat came out just after that and was sizeable portions (at least 1 lb of beef and 14-16 large shrimp). We were also given steamed rice and a fantastic miso soup. When the soup came to the table, it was served in small crocks, and was at a rolling boil.

The beef was quite good, fattier than Nicole usually perfers, but between the grilling and the marinade, she was quite happy with it. I'm not nearly as big a fan of shrimp as she is, but I still found them quite good. We would probably not order the shrimp again, simply because of the effort required to cook and eat them. There are plenty of other great things on the menu, so not getting the shrimp is hardly a loss.

The food was great, and there was lots of it, probably more than we really needed. The service was decent, although we did have some communication issues about getting the check, but that was very minor. If you want water, be sure to ask for it.

Hae Woon Dae is highly recommended.