Description:

A great big thanks to Korean House for negating my need to drive to the other side of town, Hendersonville Road to be exact, where their sister store, Stonebowl, is nestled in a strip center. Korean House is the 2nd of its kind in Asheville, now conveniently located on College Street in our downtown food mecca. We chose the coldest night in January thus far to explore this restaurant blowing in rather than walking in the door. The decor, minimalist in nature but thoroughly economic in function and clean I noted before my interest was perfectly piqued by the simply mesmerizing aromas wafting through the air as we entered. In approaching our table, I took note of electrical cords dangling from the ceilings. These serve as plug in devices for the grills neatly incorporated into the guest tables enabling diners to “do it themselves” if they choose the table top grill option.

Should you decide to make use of the grill top option you may enjoy chicken, beef, pork, pork belly, pork tenderloin, and other options. Many are locally sourced from Hickory Nut Gap Farm located right in Fairview. It doesn’t get more local than that save the procurement of all the vegetables they can locate regionally sourced from our local farm sources. The meat arrives at the table perfectly marinated and wait staff offers a brief but sufficiently detailed rendition of grill operation and best placement to achieve the desired results protocol. The meats are paired with lovely artisan lettuce perfect for wrapping, 5 side dishes and also rice. I am sure this varies by season but our experience included onions, zucchini, fresh slices of red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, kimchi, potato. You will absolutely not leave this place hungry.

If not feeling the need or desire to “do it yourself” no worries. Every kind of culinary option you might need exists at Korean House. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free all can be accommodated easily.

It would be unthinkable when talking about Korean food in failing to mention Stonebowls, AKA, Bibimbab so much a fixture of this cuisine. For those of you less familiar to Korean cuisine and looking for your maiden foray- try this dish. The bowl is served at 425 degrees with warm, steamed rice on the bottom. Various meat, vegetables (raw, cooked or both together) are placed concentrically on the top but each is kept as a separate entity. A fried egg can be placed on top. Many of these were served to those around us during our cook-a-thon event at the grill. Heavenly aromas rising from each bowl proved a constant distraction from my job at the grill on my own table. One thing I am sure of, on my next sojourn to Korean House, I will be trying out the Stonebowl option. This is completely necessary. To do less would surely result in my continuing to burn the meat to cinders on the grill at my own table. My complete inattention to the task at hand would only continue as I hyper-extended my neck in full voyeuristic throttle hoping to get a glimpse of the passing stone bowls.