San Diego - Arirang House

The Arirang house, located at 4681 Convoy St. in Claremont is one of my favorite Korean restaurants in San Diego. I've been there three or four times and the reason is it reminds me the most of actual barbecue places in Korea.

It is not Westernized, if you order two or more barbecue platters, you can sit at a table where you barbecue it yourself, the side dishes are fresh, and the Kun Mandu is probably the best I've had in this country. To top it all off, the service is top rate.

It doesn't have the frills of a lot of the other Korean places but the ambiance is unmistakably Korean, for better or for worse. I've always thought that ambience takes a far back seat to the quality of food (not a concept that my dates have always agreed with) so this place is right down my alley. It is the Darband of Korean food - plain surroundings/damn good food.

The Kalbi is delicious and the Kim-Chi is fresh. They have about four or five different types of Soju, which never hurts. To top it all off, there is an adjoining neure-bang where you can work off the barbecue by singing Michael Bolton while drinking a Cass.