We are always trying to find good Korean food around Boston, but unfortunately there aren’t that many places to choose from. Bibim is a new-ish Korean restaurant in Allston that had a pretty glowing review in the Boston Globe a few months ago, so it immediately went on the ‘must try’ list. It was freezing the other night and we really felt like eating some hearty food, so we headed out to Allston to try out Bibim. The restaurant is located right on Harvard Ave. This means the area has tons of traffic but parking wasn’t too difficult since there are tons of meters around. On first glance, the restaurant doesn’t quite look like a Korean restaurant, it has more of a French Country feel to it.
We were a little apprehensive, but it smelled delicious when we walked in. The menu had a lot of options that looked great, but we decided to start with a kimchi pancake appetizer. This was tasty, though it had been marked as one chili pepper on the menu and had no real spice to it at all, just more of the normal fermented funk that goes along with kimchi. I liked it, but I think I’d probably try one of the other options next time. For our main dishes we ordered the kalguksoo (knife-cut wheat flour noodles in a hot broth with chicken and veggies) and gopdol bibimbap (rice topped with seasoned veggies, beef, and a fried egg in a sizzling stone pot, served with chili sauce on the side). The noodles in the kalguksoo were really good and tasted handmade. The flavors were really mellow, but I think it worked.
The bibimbap was also quite tasty. I could have used more toppings and less rice, but the meat and veggies were seasoned nicely and the rice got a nice crust from the bottom of the pot.
Overall, I definitely liked this restaurant. It’s not the place to go if you want Korean barbeque (I’d recommend New Jang Su in Burlington for that), and they don’t serve alcohol, but if you’re looking for more of a Korean home cooked meal restaurant, I would definitely check out Bibim (166 Harvard Ave in Allston).*
*Neither of these restaurants have a website (yet) but I imagine Bibim will have one eventually
