juban

menlo park, ca

website

miracle of miracles, derek and i were both leaving the office before 7 pm. we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner. and we decided since we had so much time on our hands, we should drive over to menlo park and check out a restaurant downtown (downtown of course being a single street with a handful of restaurants and shops). juban is japanese-style korean bbq, if that makes any sense. it's similar to gyu-kaku in new york city. the meat is prepared in a soy sauce-based marinade and is usually cut to be more aesthetically pleasing than you would find in a typical korean bbq spot.

the meat was very good and it was fun to cook it ourselves at our table. unfortunately the meal was missing the banchan dishes that you usually get with korean bbq and they even made us pay extra for the kimchi. we did, however, get an excellent bowl of oxtail soup - a warm and comforting broth, filled with rice and oxtail. since you do all of the cooking at your table, this is a very efficient place to eat - it took us about a half hour from getting seated to getting our check. a pretty good option for japanese bbq in the south bay.