[Garden Grove] [Korean] Ondal Restaurant

Ondal Restaurant
9240 Garden Grove Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 636-7289
http://www.ggondal.com

Our friend Mr. E called in the afternoon and invited us to Ondal Restaurant for spicy Korean hot pot.  I have heard of Ondal in LA for their famous crab spicy hot pot.  Is it the same Ondal?  I guess we would go and find out.



We arrived at Ondal around 5:30pm on a Saturday.  The restaurant was almost full.  By 6:30pm, it was completely full.




All of the customers in the restaurant were Koreans.  We tried to ask our waitress questions about the menu, but they don't speak much English.  Good we had Dr. P with his broken Korean.  But we still had some trouble communicating with the waitresses.  They had typical Korean dishes for lunch special.  For dinner, it was all hot pot or steamed big plate (of crab, seafood, or beef).  They also have a few special combos.


Banchan

Lots of banchan, even raw spicy crab.  Our favorite was the garlicky jelly fish.  We tried to ask the waitress to refilled the banchan for us (not the big pancake nor crab, just veggies, mushroom, etc.), and she told us she could only refill it for us one time only.  Why?  I have never been to any Korean restaurant that can only refill banchan once.  Also considering we had 10 people at the table.  Hmmm....


Creamed Corn

One of their special banchan was creamed corn on a hot iron plate.  Yum!  Love it!



They gave us some apron to wear.  Stupid Dr. P also brought the googles he kept in his car.  He keeps a pair in his car just in case he goes to hot pot restaurant or noodle places so he doesn't get the hot soup splash into his eyes.  Dork!


Beef Ribs Spicy Casserole (Large) ($40.00)

Beef Ribs Spicy Casserole tasted slightly sweet.  I really like the kalbi meat, especially the tendon part near the bone.  I also like the pumpkin in the soup a lot.  Initially I thought I thought I like the beef better, but then the soup tasted a bit too sweet after a while.


Spicy Crab Soup (Medium) ($53.00)

A medium Spicy Crab Soup had 3 crabs in it.



Lots of bean sprout stuffed in the crab shell.  We ordered it medium spicy, but it was super spicy already.  The soup tasted really good.  But the crab didn't taste fresh.  The crab meat was powdery.  You know... like when shrimp is not fresh it tastes like powder-like... just like that.  Then we looked at the crab pot on the other people's table, they just looked different than ours.  Their crabs all looked fresher and better.  I mean.... is it because we are not Koreans?


Beef Casserole (Small) ($27.00)

The two teenagers at our table didn't like the spicy hot pot, so the mom ordered a small non-spicy beef casserole for them.  I didn't get to taste the beef, but it looked like bolgogi beef.  The soup, like the spicy kalbi soup, was sweet.


Noodle ($1.00/person)


After we finished about 2/3 of the hot pot, we asked the waitress to cook some noodle for us in the soup.  The "noodle" came like a dough.



Our waitress ripped out little pieces and threw them into the soup.  I surely hope she washed her hands before doing this.  But I still think she should wear gloves.



The noodle was chewy and addicting.  I was seriously about to pop at this point.


Kimchi Fried Rice ($1.00/person)

We also added kimchi fried rice at the end for $1/person.  It's rice, kimchi, seaweed, and green veggies stir fried in the spicy hot pot.



It was delicious, but I only had one bite.  I just couldn't fit anymore food in my stomach.


Sweet Soup

Some sweet soup with ice to end the meal.  I don't know what kind of sweet soup it was, but Dr. P think it was some kind of ginger syrup.



The total came to about $18.50 per person.  The spicy hot pot soup was really good, but the quality of the crabs wasn't so good.  I still think this restaurant is overpriced for what you get.  Also service would probably be better if we had a Korean speaking friend with us.  I think I want to try the K-Town Ondal next time to compare the food.

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