Side Dish Corner

As expected, kimchi and side dishes are pricier here than at Hankook Supermarket. I can really taste the sulfur (?) in the kimchi. I can’t quite pinpoint if that’s what it is but I do recognize that flavor profile in other kimchis. The sauce is thicker which I like though.
The other side dishes were okay. The squid was a little tough. The beef in the jangjorim was pretty tough as well. The marinated gaenip and seaweed (two separate side dishes) tasted freshly made. The lotus root could’ve used more flavor. Out of the five items, my favorite was probably the marinated seaweed and julienned daikon, very fresh like straight from the ocean. I would say the quality is equivalent to Hankook’s.
When you come here, most of the items are in the self-​serve refrigerator and there are some cooked foods (mung bean pancakes, fish cakes, etc.) on the counter. We got 1 large jar of kimchi and 5 side dishes for about $ 36. The price sort of creeps up on you because there aren’t any price labels on the containers since they get weighed later.

This store has the worst business model ever! Which is to be rude to the customer. I can understand that the store lady doesn’t speak the best English, but the male owner does and he was very blunt and rude when answering my questions (no smile, and spoke in a demeaning way!). It’s a pity because this business has the potential to make so much money and cash in on the popularity that K-​pop has brought to Korean food and culture; being nice is acceptable in every culture!
As for the banchan, I’m sorry but there is nothing special about it. Any person with half a mind can google a decent recipe and make good banchan with the raw materials bought from Hankook market or Kyo-​po. Too bad the service is such a turn off because people are willing to pay a premium for these goods if it came with acceptable service. Don’t give your hard earned cash to grumpy store owners!

I order catering from Side Dish Corner at least once a month for my office.
We do a variety of spreads from regular banchans to bibimbap buffet lines, and they’ve all turned out great!
Highly recommended for catering and everyday banchan needs :)

Most amazing Fried chicken you will ever have! I would sell my children for this chicken (no children were sold in the making of this review). Also, everything else I have ever had from here is delicious as well.

korean banchan store… banchan meaning korean side dishes… locally owned and created… heavy handed in seasoning and saucing… don’t think anything would be bland or missing something… but, pricing is quite high. the case with most bay area korean markets… most items sold by weight… not much of a discount for bulk purchase… just wanting a trays of food… after back and forth about unknown price and unknown quantity… simply gave up and requested $ 60 worth of wings… for roughly 40 wings, it was very pricey, but good… very crunchy, very sweet and very flavorful… bit too sweet, but better than being bland…

This place has bad serivce! And too pricey!!! And not much selection of side dishes.

Kind of pricey, but tasty and fresh banchan.
If you get anything, get the chicken wings. Crispy, sweet, garlicky kbbq delicioso wings. Unless you get catering, they cost many pretty pennies, but they might just be my favorite wings.

Yes, as previous reviewers have mentioned, the couple that owns this store is not the friendliest one around. After perusing the selection of freshly made banchan and making my picks, I stood patiently at the front counter for one of them to get up from their meal to ring me up on the cashier. Neither of them got up. But I was prepared for the cool treatment and realized after a more experienced ajumma came in and waited to pay for her banchan, that I was supposed to go to the side counter!
After the other customer left, I was up next and I would like to say that the lady even gave me a hint of a smile as she rung up my prices. Yes, the banchan here may be more pricey than HanKook, but they also looked a lot fresher and more appetizing! My parents even commented that the squid tasted very fresh, like as if it were freshly caught from the ocean. I bought fermented squid and kimchi and the total was only $ 9.
All in all, I think that this is a great place to go for when you are in need of some tasty banchan. There are a few parking spots in front of the small store and it’s not really a dine-​in restaurant, more like a drop-​in and pick-​up store. I definitely would like to keep coming here for more!

I know this is the only place that sells all kinds of Korean side dishes, except other Korean markets. I don’t like their tastes of side dishes, I would rather go Hankook Market to go get Kimchi and Lawrence Plaza to get other side dishes. However, whenever I go there around afternoon, their side dishes are almost all gone and not much varieties are left. Also, Ahjushi is really nice and answers all the questions that I have. However, Ahjumma is so mean the way she acts and answers whenever I have a question about her side dishes.

This is a good «Banchan To Go» establishment.
Got here around 11AM today. I was greeted by the lady near the cash register as soon as I walked in. She was bringing out a huge tray of pancakes.
There were large refrigerators located to the right, filled with prepackaged banchan. Near the cash register, there was a refrigerated case of prepackaged banchan.
I selected four items: japchae ($ 5.99/lb)
wakame salad ($ 12.49/lb)
radish w/​seaweed ($ 10.50/lb)
cucumbers w/​bamboo shoots ($ 12.99/lb)
The man that was preparing fish cakes greeted me and weighed my banchan, printed out price stickers to place on my items, and rang up my purchase. He asked me twice if I wanted to buy more items, but I declined. My total for the four items was $ 18.65.
My cashier double knotted the plastic bag containing my banchan, because he didn’t want them to tip over.
According to signs in the store, they don’t use MSG. An hour later, I’m not thirsty!
I enjoyed all four dishes — plenty of flavor, but not overly salty nor sweet.

The parking lot is tiny. Shares parking with Cute Flowers and Allstate Insurance. See’s Candies is nearby.

Their fermented squid was very tasty! It’s wonderfully salty and the squid has a nice chewy texture, which I love! I also got their kimchi, it was not bad but I’ve had better ones. The owner was nice enough to sell me the kimchi in a small container (as opposed to the big jug they have in the fridge) for $ 3.50.
They also have ready made side dishes such as korean pancakes, japchae, tofu and korean wings which all look tasty! Wonderful side dishes shop run by a super friendly owner… I’ll be back, probably many times :)

We stopped buying any banchan (side dishes) from any other Korean grocery stores once we found this place. I love the fact that they do not over powering amount of sugar/​salt/​soy sauce etc etc like many Korean groceries do, yet their food tastes much better than others.
Their catering food was very good too. We got their food for our daughter’s first birthday party which had mix of Koreans and non-​Koreans, and everyone loved the food and wanted to find out where the food came from.
The owners… may not seem like the most friendly folks. It took them many visits to greet me, and probably another few visits they even greet me with some kind of smile. But they seem to have pride in their food, and they seem like nice people — if not always tired.
This is our go to place now for any banchan or marinated meat (when I don’t feel like doing my own)… highly recommended.

My wife introduced me to this place. Fantastic and have used them for both home and catering and my wife and everyone else who’s had it swear by the kimchee.

Came here pretty much on the reviews that it had. Kind of a mom and pop kind of store. When I walk in there was no one. Saw the lady in the back and she didn’t say hi or greet me. No big deal. Came here for the ban chan and wasn’t disappointed. I just wish they would at least price the little containers as I did not know how much they were until it was time to ring it up. Also there was no label to what it was. I’m not Korean and was picking up stuff up by sight. If it looks good and spicy. I’m grabbing it. 4 small containers of ban chan and it cam out to like $ 20. Holly smoke, kind of pricey but oh well. To late now, just got to suck it up and pay the lady. Didn’t get a chance to try their awesome Kim chi that everyone keep talking about cause I still have some left in the fridge but will get it next time. Over all a ok visit and would most likely be back.

This is one of the best side dish place that I know. Their food is clean (very clean), without msg and tasty. Every time I’m passing by, I go here and get some side dishes. I also love their Kimchi as well as their marinated meat.

Try it
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Kimchi palace

I swear this is the best place to get the most authentic kimchi in the Bay Area. I also heard that some of the Korean restaurants in Santa Clara serve Side Dish Corner’s kimchi with their banchan.
5 delicious fermented stars!

What is the best food? The one that your mommy makes… but what do you do when your mom is too busy and can’t make food? I go to Side Dish Corner (the name is cuter in Korean — Auntie’s Side Dishes).
I’m typically very picky when it comes to Korean food as I was spoiled by my grandma. I have tried many supermarket bought ban-​chan (side dish) and this place by far has the best kimchee around. Kimchee is really hard to make right, especially without using a boatload of MSG. Most jarred kimchee that they sell in supermarkets are so laden with MSG I have to drink a gallon of water with it but here they find the right balance (I hear they use no MSG). I really do not know how they make their kimchee so refreshing and tasty.
I read other reviews saying that the owners were mean but I think it’s just a misunderstanding. They are calm and not always smiling but they are nice — I once went and they were out of kimchee but they gave me a jar they were saving to eat themselves.
As for the other side dishes — I’ve tried a lot and they are tasty but not as good as their kimchee… It is very convenient and not as oily as other places. I like their pickled cucumbers~
Yes, it is pricey but you pay for quality. Yes, it is small and hard to find (close to See’s Candies). Yes, they only sell a limited selection of goods but really, I can’t stress how good their kimchee is. Do yourself a favor and try their kimchee :)

Living out in the boonies and with the cold chill of winter settling in, for some odd reason I’ve been craving pickled and prepared vegetables. Not the liquid-​gunk infused dill pickles that come in jars, but the lightly vinegared and sweet vegetables where the taste and crispness of the veggie makes it still recognizable as part of a food group.
This little hole-​in-​the-​wall shop, located on El Camino Real in the same mini-​strip mall space as See’s Candies, specializes only in Korean side dishes. It’s also been in business 10+years. I’m not Korean, but that it survived this long in a slow economy must mean something.
Inside the selection of side dishes is not as broad as I thought it would be. The thin elderly man behind the counter cautiously stayed his distance away from me and let me fend for myself. The stacks of little refridgerated plastic containers are not necessarily labelled or even placed on a shelf with a label in any language. There is also no pricing present, the owner has that all memorized in his head.
Seeing him enter in prices like $ 9.99/lb+ while putting those little plastic tubs on the scale freaked me out, but each tub ended up in the mid $ 3.00 range which was reasonable. I found the quality also much better and more fresh than the mass-​tub produced mixes that über-​supermarket Han Kook churns out down the street.
Clutching my precious little tubs of goodness, the last pitstop in my San Jose vsiit, I gently rode them the 2 ½ drive back home to my fridge. And each and every nibble has yielded delicious, delicate and rich tasting results. They have the seaweed-​salad commonly found in Japanese restaurants and chinese dim sum/​banquet cold-​cut selection, but wasn’t heavy-​handed with sesame oil. Nor were the bean sprouts. Rarer items like their sweet soy sauce marinated beans have been a great chewy snack to fridge-​raid upon a few beans at a time (makes my stomach rumble funny though). Everything tasted clean and fresh.
I’ll probably be sweating vinegar, soy and sugar the next couple of days.

The food was very good. I picked up some kimchi, two other salads as well as some beef stir-​fry to make at home. Everything was delicious and fresh.
The owner wasn’t very friendly and none of the items had prices on them. It was super pricey once he weighed out my little plastic boxes of salads. I thought maybe I was getting the «white girl» pricing since he didn’t speak one word to me, and just threw out a number. The pricing felt like I was at an Asian Whole Foods store.
But…hey, the food is great. But, I’ll get my stuff at one of the many asian food stores in the same hood.