Yong’s KalBi

Korean Restaurant

Mon-Sat 10am-9pm

KTA Shopping Center, Waimea

{written June of 2008}

Yong’s is my favorite plate lunch place in Waimai. You can get all the typical plate lunch dishes here: breaded fish, chicken katsu, short ribs, and of course Korean Chicken ($8.25), which is what I recommend. Along with about three boneless skinless chicken thighs lightly marinated and grilled--as they say, to perfection-- you also get the tradition two scoops of rice and your choice of three vegetables: corn, cabbage, pickled seaweed, sweet yams, bean sprouts, or kimchee (a spicy hot pickled coleslaw, well worth trying).

It’s odd what I like best about Yong’s. I mean, the food is top notch, but there are plenty of other places in town that can grill up a piece of chicken. Some of them actually give a better selection of vegetables (the place in the Parker Ranch Center food court across the way comes to mind), but one thing these other places won’t give you is a sharp knife. Having a weapon in my hand as I eat makes me feel like a pirate, an outlaw, or some sort of barbarian throwback. Don’t ask me why, but just sitting down with a real set of silverware in lieu of the usual plastic fork or pull apart chopsticks, really rocks my boat. Needless to say, since they give you a knife, they also give you a real plate as well--unbreakable plastic to be sure, but it’s a plate, and that’s a lot more than most other plate lunch places provide.

Like I said, it’s odd what it takes to be my favorite lunch place in town, but in Waimea, it is Yong’s KalBi. If eating with a knife doesn’t convince you, I suppose I could mention that they serve up Mondoo Soup and Youk Kae Jang for the more adventurous types, but take my word for it, it’s hard to beat the chicken, and it comes with an honest to goodness knife. Did I mention that?

{Or the Spicy Chicken -- #10 if memory serves correct. A delightful dish.}