TBA
Bud Namu
Busy day for fooding. Brought in the famous Jenny Bakery cookies from Hong Kong into the office, then we had pizza brought in from Fat Tomato (good choice, Madison!).
Dinner with Dr. Cheng at Bud Namu Korean BBQ that night. Bud Namu has been around forever (since 2011!), but finally went for the first time. Service was excellent, they have limited underground parking (!), but they clearly mid-tier at best in both price (yes, for AYCE) and quality. Ban chan buffet was decent enough, beef tongue and beef brisket were good, rest of the meats were a bit more uneven. Pork jowl was good but not much meat once you trimmed all the fat, the rib finger was a bit tough, and the marinated galbi, while full of potential, was not up to their competitors. The "LA Galbi" which is marinated shortrib with the bone attached was pretty variable, one normal strip of shortrib, one runt-sized strip.
Overall, I could see enjoying Bud Namu (as a tour bus did that pulled up halfway through our meal), but in today's all you can eat kbbq scene I would not be a repeat customer.
The newly opened Tu Cha after for dessert. Parking was a total nightmare, gave up and paid an exhorbitant $2.50 per 10 minutes amount at a nearby high-rise that had retail parking less than two blocks away. Drinks were delicious, both milk tea and lemonade, although the latter was too much ice. They were sold out of most desserts so late, but the chocolate cake (chocolate mousse cake?) was very pretty and quite good.