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Earlier this month, my co-workers and I went to go check out Banh Shop for lunch. None of us had been but we wanted something Asian.
Banh Shop
5629 SMU Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75206
(214) 890-9776
http://banhshop.com/
Price: $-$$
We got there around noon, the place was pretty empty, which was good because we didn't have a lot of time. You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table.
I saw on Yelp that you get a Free Soup Shot or dessert if you check-in. They were out of desserts that day so I got the soup shot. It's a cute little cup of what looks like pho broth with a few stands of rice noodle. Way too sour for me, so I didn't finish it. Aside from the sourness, the rest of the flavors were not bad.
I also got the special for the day: Korean Fried Chicken Banh Mi (crispy hand dipped chicken breast in beer batter, a layer of house kimchee, a layer of house cured pickles with red pepper flakes; served with tangy Korean pepper sauce and sriracha aioli) $6.95~
I do love Korean fried chicken! And I always like trying new things. The rest of the menu items will always be there but daily specials can go away. It was a pretty big sandwich and piled quite high. The bread was toasted a bit too much in my opinion because it felt like it was going to cut the inside of my mouth. Also because the sandwich was so tall, I wasn't sure how it was going to fit in my mouth. haha. Aside from the slightly hard bread, the rest of the banh mi was great. The chicken was fried well. I loved the kimchi and pickles, and didn't have too much sauce. I hate it when things are over-sauced. It wasn't very spicy so I put sriracha on it. I quite enjoyed it. I would eat it again.
One co-worker got the Vietnamese-Style Chicken Soup (char-grilled chicken in a seasoned chicken broth with Asian spices, scallions, bean sprouts, cilantro, red onion, lime, bean thread noodles; served with a baguette) $7.50~
It was a large bowl of soup with thin, clear noodles in it. She said it was pretty good. I didn't try it, but I wondered if it tasted like my soup shot.
The other co-worker got the Banh Fire Bowl (stir fry of carrots, bean sprouts, red onion, scallion, cilantro, tossed in a spicy tamarind sauce and topped with peanuts, "Banh Fire" jalapeno pesto, and dollop of cooling sour cream. Served over white rice, choice of protein) $8.50~
He subbed rice noodles in place of the rice and chose chicken. The rice noodles were what you'd normally get in Pad Thai. I got the try a bite, the noodles were slightly overcooked and I felt there was too much sauce. But the flavors were good. i thought the addition of the pesto plus sour cream was an interesting touch. He enjoyed it.
It was a good lunch. We all liked what we got. I'm not sure if I would make a point of going back. But if I'm in the area, I wouldn't be opposed to going there. :)
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Last Friday I had a hair appointment in the H-Mart area in Carrollton. I rarely venture over there anymore so I got some of my friends to meet up for dinner in that area. There are so many new places to try!
I wanted to go check out Gang Jung Chicken Cafe. They specialized in Korean fried chicken, which I love!! I never got to try BonChon in Dallas, although I was told it wasn't good anyways. Now, I've had BonChon in Korea and it was sooooo good.
Gang Jung Chicken Cafe
2680 Old Denton Rd # 156
Carrollton, Texas 75007
(972) 306-3100
Price: $-$$
This place is pretty new. Opened in the fall of 2013. It's located in the same corner as Spa Castle. It's a cute place. Not very big. Wooden tables and benches, a very typical Korean look. You order at the counter and pick up the order at the counter.
5 of us got there around the same time so we went up to order. The guys behind the counter were very nice and tried to explain the menu to us. There were 2 sides to the menu: Gang Jung and Fried Chicken. From what I could understand, Gang Jung is still fried but the sauce on the chicken is more sweet and comes with rice cakes. Spicy Gang Jung is spicier than Crazy Spicy Chicken which confused us. Because if you call something craaazy spicy, I expect it to be hella spicy. haha. I found the menu a bit confusing but the guys were patient and gave us recommendations (despite a little lacking in English). They also let us taste the different spicy sauces. They said we should get 4 mediums to share between the 5 of us. And that comes with 4 sides.
Here are the sizes and prices:
Small (Chicken breast or wings; with 1 side) $8.99~
Medium (Chicken breast or wings; with 1 side) $13.99~
Large (Chicken breast or wings or whole chicken; with 1 side) $17.99~
So we took their recommendation and got a mix of spicy and non-spicy flavors.
Spicy Gang Jung (garlic, red chili, soy sauce, capsaicin, hot powder). We chose Chicken Breast for this.
This is supposedly the spiciest of them all. It was just spicy enough for me, but I eat pretty spicy in general. My friends that don't eat spicy couldn't handle it. I didn't think it was insanely spicy though. The chicken breast was amazingly juicy and tender. The chicken pieces were quite large. The batter was a little thick, but was crispy and partly softened by the sauce. I liked the batter but some friends didn't care for it. This also included fried rice cakes which was awesome! I loved the added texture after it's fried. The sauce flavor did have a certain spice/flavor that was interesting. The whole night I was trying to decide if I liked it.
Crazy Spicy Chicken (corn syrup, soybean sauce, garlic, hot sauce, capsaicin, hot powder). We got these in Wings.
This was my favorite. It was also spicy and sweet like the Spicy Gang Jung, but it didn't have that extra spice. The wings were pretty large and juicy. I will definitely get this again. With the different sizes, the number of chicken breast pieces and wings are different. You get fewer wings to chicken breast per order.
Soy Garlic Chicken (soybean sauce, soy sauce, potato starch, onion, garlic, garlic powder, soybean oil). We got these in Wings.
One of my friends wanted sweet, so they recommended this. This was my second favorite. It was definitely sweet, but worked very well with the garlic. Again, the wings were nicely fried and very juicy.
Green Onion Chicken (deep fried chicken with green onion in creamy green onion sauce; soybean sauce, onion, garlic, mustard, garlic powder, caramel syrup). They said this is their best seller and is very good with Chicken Breast. So we took their suggestion.
The bottom is basically regular fried chicken and topped with a ton of shredded green onions. Probably my least favorite out of the bunch. The chicken was fried well and very moist but it was lacking in flavor, especially when it's next to all these awesomely sauced other flavors. The sauce comes on the side. It's a little sweet, slightly creamy and has a mustard-y, horseradish-y flavor. The sauce is much needed for this and was able to make it more unique. I'd skip this next time. I wonder why it's their best seller?
French Fries $2.50~ We also got an order of fries. They made some extra so they gave us another order for free! How nice! :) The fries were good. Paired well with the chicken.
Sides:
Daikon Radish. Pretty standard. The radish is a little sweet, a little tangy and helps cut the spiciness and greasiness from fried chicken. It's quite refreshing.
Corn Salad. It was like coleslaw with corn in it. I liked it with the chicken. It was good to have some veggies with all this meat!
Rice. Steamed rice. Pretty standard. haha.
So while we were deciding what to order, another friend showed up and ordered before we even noticed. :P He got a medium Parmesan Chicken (deep fried chicken covered with parmesan powder). He chose Wings.
We all shared. These were quite popular at the table. I feel like it was the first to disappear. I thought it was ok. I prefer the Korean sauces and stuck to the other ones more.
OMG. We killed it all. There was nothing left. I just kept eating, and eating, and eating. Anything fried is always so addicting. It was a lot of food too... I'd actually say we'd be ok with 4 mediums among the 6 of us... I really enjoyed our meal though. I hope to go again soon. :) I'm so happy that we have good Korean fried chicken in Dallas again. Just a warning... if you don't like sweet and savory, this is not the place for you.
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
The celebration for my last day of school continues. After a yummy dinner at LA Burger, we decided to get some dessert at Cafe Brown Sugar. I've known about this place ever since it opened, just never got a chance to go. However, I didn't have high expectations for it since I've heard hit/miss reviews on the food and prices. Still, the pictures always look amazing and I wanted to check it out for myself!
Cafe Brown Sugar
2625 Old Denton Rd. Ste 406
Carrollton, TX 75007
(972) 446-6633
Price: $-$$
This place is pretty cute the inside looks like the outside of some Italian little town or something. It's a really big space too. 2 stories, so lots of seating. They open fairly late (11pm) so it's a cool place to hang out with your friends after dinner. You order at the counter, they give you a buzzer, then you go pick up your order.
They had way more stuff on the menu than I expected. This puts in a difficult place because I now want to try EVERYTHING. I was initially thinking of their epic waffles but then I saw they had Macaron Ice Cream sandwiches?!? OMG. The only time I've ever seen that was in LA (at Umami and MILK). And it was amazing. I had to try this.
Cookies n Cream Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich $4.50~
You pick the ice cream flavor and the color of the macaron. The different colors of the macarons didn't have different flavors. I was like "uh.. ok..?" But I picked blue. They ended up giving me purple. So I still don't fully understand the colors if they don't taste differently. The ice cream sandwich is very pretty. But I think they need to rethink the shape of it. It's too tall... VERY hard to bite from top to bottom. I had to eat it in sections. If only they can make wider macarons, and squish the ice cream down flatter. Kind of like a whoopie pie or something. Then it would be perfect. I love using macarons on the outside of ice cream sandwiches. I think it works way better than cookies, which usually crumble or smoosh the ice cream. The macaron holds up better, surprisingly. I enjoyed it. Not as great as the ones from LA, but it's the first I've seen in Dallas so I'll take it!
Green Tea Waffle $3.99~
I was greedy. I wasn't even hungry but I still wanted that waffle. I noticed that you can just get a waffle (comes with butter and maple syrup) for $4. Which is way better than the other ones for over $11! Geez! It certainly looks like a green tea waffle... but I couldn't taste much of it. I liked the crisp outside, but the inside was also kinda crisp. Not enough fluffy/soft center. It was ok. I wouldn't get it again..
Honey Butter Toast.
I forget how much this was.. it wasn't cheap though. I think also close to $10. My fiance was set on this from the get go. We've had honey toast in Japan before so he was excited to have it again. It definitely looked pretty epic! Almost as big as my head! Definitely a knife and fork dessert and SHARE! Actually, most of the desserts here are made for sharing. Unless you are just a super beast or your goal is to be in a sugar coma. I wish the scoop on top of the bread is ice cream, but it's a scoop of butter. TOO MUCH! Bleh... we took it off. The toast is already semi buttered on the inside. The outside was nice and crispy, the inside was fluffy. It was pretty good. A little dry... needed more honey. Luckily the maple syrup from my waffle was there to the rescue. Not as good as Asia, but then again, nothing in Dallas really is... It's worth trying. Maybe ask for a few scoops of ice cream on the side though.
My friends got some of the epic waffles...
Cookies n Cream Waffle (chocolate waffle with oreo ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, chocolate sauce) $11ish~
Coffee Lovers Waffle (coffee? waffle with coffee ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, and I think caramel sauce?) $11ish~
Both looked very impressive. I had too much myself to try theirs. They said it was pretty good. So maybe I'll try it next time. Or I'll use my waffle maker and make it myself at home for a fraction of the price. hahaha.
I'd go back again. Next time I'll try something new.
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School is finally done! Where did I go the last day of class to celebrate? LA Burger! :) I always leave happy and full there.
I love this place. It is my favorite burger spot in Dallas. All my friends love it too so I chose it to have my celebratory dinner. hehe.
LA Burger - Carrollton
1017 E Trinity Mills Rd. Ste 104
Carrollton, TX 75007
http://www.la-burger.com/
Price: $
I usually always get the LA Burger with the K-Fries. But I had hit up a happy hour earlier and wasn't too hungry. Booze first, then eat, right? :P So my fiance and I shared some stuff.
K-Fries (loaded with sauteed kimchi, onions, bulgogi, cheese and cilantro) $5.99~ Last time I was there, I asked for sweet potato fries instead, and they were even better. This time I went a step above and asked for a fried egg on top. What what?! :) Not sure if they charged extra for it but it was so worth it. Pure awesomeness. I suggest you do the same. The yolk was still runny and burst when I cut into it. And it was fantastical... as always.
My fiance got the Bulgogi Hogi, his favorite. $5.99~ Always good, but I still like the LA burger best. :)
A friend of mine got the Seoul Dog (all-beef hot dog topped with bulgogi and sauteed kimchi) $4.99~ It looks amazing. I've never had it before and I got to try it. It's absolutely loaded. I dunno if I can finish one on my own! MMmmmmmm.
I'm usually super stuffed after my food so I've never tried their shakes. One of my friends got one. Chocolate Oreo Shake. It was delicious!! Very rich and sinful.
Never disappoints. We had an amazing meal. Until next time! Tell them CHOMP! sent ya. :)
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
I had lunch with several friends about a month ago, they chose to go to Kimchi, a fairly new place in the H-mart area in Carrollton. I've heard it's good and have been wanting to try. The place is not very big, but super cute, light colored wood tables and chairs. The decor reminded me of being in Korea, very quaint.
Kimchi Stylish Korean Kitchen
2625 Old Denton Rd. #320
Carrollton, TX 75007
(972) 242-9242
http://kimchi-kitchen.com/
Price: $$
Maekombap (kimchi's spicy tomato sauce, julienne green onion, cheese, and choice of meat; with side of pickled radish) $8.95~
I wasn't sure what this is but it was indicated as spicy so I thought I'd give it a try. The waitress described it as a spicy fried rice. I chose beef as the meat. It was delicious. I was hesitant about the cheese at first but you really can't taste it. It mostly added a creaminess to the fried rice. It wasn't really spicy at all but the tomato sauce had a nice flavor. I've never had anything like this in Korean cuisine before! I loved the green onions on top for crunch and freshness. Plus it added a nice splash of color. The beef was seared nicely and went really well with the rice. The portion was pretty big too. I took half of it to go and had it for lunch the next day. :) I would totally get this again.
Side Salad (mixed greens; picture seen above) $2.95~? Since the fried rice didn't have much veggies in it, I got a salad. It wasn't on the menu but the waitress said they had it. I think it was only $3... and it was in a fairly big bowl. I really liked the dressing, I think it was ginger vinaigrette.
Bulgogi Bokkeumbap (bulgogi fried rice; with side salad and kimchi) $7.75~ Two friends got this. It's probably the best bang for your buck. Comes with the fried rice, salad, and kimchi. And the plate was nicely presented. It was yummy.
Small Cool Smoked Beef (certified USDA choice beef, julienne green onion, salad, kimchi's mustard sauce) $6.95~ One friend also got this. It was very pretty and impressive looking. The beef was sliced thinly and definitely full of smoky flavor. If you want something lighter, this is a good choice.
Grilled Pork Belly (with three dips: sesame sauce, kimchi's mustard, doen-ma, julienne green onion salad; served with rice and kimchi) $12.95~
Two other friends got this. I so wanted to as well since I lurrrrv pork belly. But I'm trying to eat less fatty meats cuz my cholesterol's gone up! Getting old... :( The meat was grilled well. It was chewy yet tender, how pork belly should be. The sauces were all good. Koreans definitely know how to cook their meats!
The prices seemed a little high when I first got there, but seeing the quality and portions, I'd say it's pretty decent. I would definitely go there again. :)
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
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