皇帝雞

*Vegetarian-​friendly. Cash ONLY.
Ironically, I had just returned from Seoul a week before coming here, but after walking through the entire food court, I somehow found myself standing in line waiting for bibimbap. At first I was a bit worried, because it seemed that I was the only one waiting at this particular food stall… but then twenty minutes in, a horde of people began lining up behind me. I guess I beat the dinner rush hour?
There is one cook and I don’t know how she manages it, but she somehow gets through each and every order on her own. She is so nice and gracious. I asked if I could get my bibimbap without pork and she kindly offered to give me an extra egg. There is a bit of a wait seeing as how she is the only one running the entire food stand, but she tries to serve everyone as quickly as possible.
Of course, there is also the issue of hygiene but then again… this is Asia. If you eat at a food stand, don’t expect the cook to clean the pots and pans every time they’re cooking up a new dish. They just reuse the same pan, with the same old sauces left over from cooking the previous order, and the same spatula. There’s nothing unusual about this. Regardless, pushing this thought to the back of my mind, my bibimbap turned out to be delicious. The hot sauce, the fried egg (s), the vegetables — everything was put together nicely. Unlike the one I had in Seoul, this one had a Cantonese twist to it. Instead of providing kimchi, the cook added some picked squash and radishes. Still had that tangy spicy flavor, but just different texture. Comparably, I’d still have to say that the one I had in Korea was the best bibimbap by far. However, the one I had here was satisfying enough.
4 stars for service, 3 stars for quality of food. Based upon my observations of the huge line waiting at this place AND from my own experience of eating here, this place is decent if you’re craving some Korean.