Eat Drink Style Soot Bull Jeep, Koreatown - Dinner In A Chimney

Driving through Koreatown, my eyes are constantly wandering around, looking around at potential places to eat. Most are in Korean, some are in Spanish. But there's one place that will blind you with it's large sans serif typeface - as bold as the Hollywood sign. Say hello to 'Soot Bull Jeep'. For some reason, I'm always interested in this simple yet eye-catching sign. Maybe it's the fact that the korean translation actually exists in the english language. And it's just fun to say. Oh the joy. (I'm easily amused.)

A few weeks later, our good friend Colleen Cuisine and her husband told us about Soot Bull Jeep. I stopped going to Manna Korean BBQ on Olympic/Western because the meat quality is lacking, plus that stupid techno birthday song makes you want to rip your veins out. My place for Korean BBQ is either Shik Do Rak (where square rice noodles, called dok bo sam, were first appearing in Koreatown) and Tahoe Galbi. Tahoe Galbi is pretty good for the $14.99 AYCE bracket. It's pretty nice inside. I've noticed that if you sit in the patio, you can get the charcoal-style bbq grills which I love. Indoors, you're stuck with the conventional gas grills. From that point on, I only like grilling over charcoal. But the problem with the AYCE places is that they rarely marinate their meat because they are too busy sending out brigades of meat. If they do marinate, the meat would have a very light taste. You really get what you pay for at these places.

For a change, J and I decided to not gluttonize ourselves at a korean AYCE restaurant, and headed over to Soot Bull Jeep. SBJ is located on 8th and Catalina, clothed in bricks and slightly tinted windows. The restaurant looks big on the outside because it's occupying two spaces, but isn't that deep. If you remove the windows and sign, you can see that the bricks and consistent billow of smoke make SBJ look like a chimney. As a pre-dinner ritual, I rubbed my hands together in delight and opened the door for J. And WHOOOMP!

We were hit by the Korean BBQ Train. *Cough Cough* Damn, that was some garlicky, tasty meat in the air. And jesus, this place was freaking smoky. You would think there is a fire burning ablaze in here. I think I just got a preview of my lungs! The place was so smoky, that even the people looked gray.

The Interior of a Chimney/Tailpipe/Berkeley Student's Dorm/My Lungs
Notice the haze by the lights. Notice all the people coughing. Yes, good eats. *Cough Cough*

Within minutes, we were seated and the waitress slapped some menus down for us. Few minutes later, she was back with all of the korean fixings, banchan. I love banchan - I can just eat this straight as a meal. SBJ's banchan is very mediocre though, but I think it's made this way so that the main dish, beef, isn't overpowered.

SBJ has a nice selection of meats and seafood to choose from. Since this was our first time, we had to give SBJ the simple kalbi benchmark test. If they can make a nice kalbi, it's likely that the rest of their food is edible. In the case of a pho restaurant, if the pho doesn't taste good, it says a lot about the rest of things on their menu. We chose the marinated kalbi and beef tongue. My trip to Japan and frequent dining at Musha made beef tongue a hot commodity. Almost every table had the grilled squid and some sort of stew in a metal pot (chi-gae/tang). I'll try that next time. *Cough Cough*

Beef Getting A Tan
The kalbi steak was marinated beautifully and tasted delicious. I like to grill my meat on the rare side because I like tasting the beef more than the marinade. Over-marinating of meat is a common technique in restaurants used to cover up lower grade meat which makes it edible, therefore keeping food costs low. After we finished the meat, we grilled the kalbi bone for a few minutes, and the waitress came over with a pair of scissors to cut the tendon off the bone. It was chewy, but very good. As for the tongue, they were sliced a little too thick but that didn't stop me from finishing the whole plate myself. Because beef tongue is a chewier piece of meat, it's critical that you get carpaccio-thin slices to ensure that you don't dislocate your jaw from chewing. *Cough Cough*

A Beautiful Shot of Beef Beach
When eating with others, it's better to use tongs to flip the meat - not your own chopsticks. *Cough Cough*

Garlic Goodness
SBJ has no regard for the way you're going to smell after eating there, only that you're having an optimal bbq experience. So they offer garlic in a foil cup with sesame oil. It goes well very well with the beef. SBJ also does not serve the square rice noodles like Tahoe, Manna and Shik Do Rak, but instead give you romaine lettuce. I actually prefer this over the rice noodles which you fill you up faster. A tip in eating korean bbq with lettuce wraps. Dip your grilled meat in the soy/vinegar sauce, salt/pepper oil, bean paste (den jang), add some of the spiced, scallion salad and wrap all of that in your romaine lettuce for a korean-style taco. For spice, add a piece of kimchi. So good.

The minimum at SBJ is a plate per person. The meat dishes range from $15.99 to $21.99 and the portions are smaller. So you'll have to eat your beef with the romaine and devour up the soup and banchan to get your money's worth. SBJ is definitely one of our favorites. For their kalbi, it's worth the smokiness and lingering odor in your hair and clothing. We came back here a 2nd time within a month because we loved the charcoal smokiness to the meat. It's a total dark, hole-in-the-wall and that's another plus for us. Places like Chosun Galbee, although nice, rely more on atmosphere to satisfy the customers. And with korean bbq, I'd like it as rustic and authentic as possible. The employees of SBJ are really working hard for their money putting up with all that smoke. I seriously think they should a) get new vents or at least turn them on b) wear paint masks with SBJ written on it. At SBJ, the service is good. If you can tolerate a smoky place and do not plan on going to a party afterwards, check them out. I guarantee you will reek the next day if you don't take a quick shower. *Cough Cough*


Soot Bull Jeep At Primetime
Here's a photo the waitress took of J and I after we finished our meal. Thanks to the constant flow of smoke emanating from other grills - my usual task of censoring faces was taken care of. Don't we look happy? *Cough Cough*

For anyone that knows about any other korean bbq places that use charcoal, we'd love to check them out. I know SBJ isn't the only one out there that uses charcoal. *Cough Cough* Thanks for reading.

Soot Bull Jeep
3136 W 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90005-1903
(213) 387-3865

Smoke/Carcinogenic Health Clinic
4621 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045-1987
(213) 387-9964