As part of my ongoing efforts to try restaurants on J. Gold’s list of 101 restaurants, I had lunch at Soban, a Korean restaurant on Olympic in K-Town. I thought it was great, though it has inspired the wrath of quite a few Yelpers for some reason.
The dish they are most famous for is a whole raw blue crab in a soy sauce sauce. This dish has the peculiar name “ganjang-gejang.” I thought it was fabulously good. The raw blue crab was creamy, sweet, and delicious. It was big and had lots of oozing meat to suck from the claws. The soy sauce sauce was delicious too. It was slightly sweet and tasted umami-ish, like mirin. There were also wilted green onions and roasted garlic. Great dish!
I also had the broiled atka mackerel (first time I’ve heard of this fish). It was simple but good. Crispy skin. Rich, brown, flaky meat.
The mackerel came with a soybean paste stew. I don’t have any love for Korean stews, and this one didn’t win my affection. It looked like a good effort, but I’m not sure what the goal is or why they eat this stuff. (Secret: I don’t think kimchi is that great either.)
The restaurant several 12 (twelve) complementary panchan dishes. I loved these overall. It’s the best panchan spread I’ve ever had.
I really enjoyed this restaurant and look forward to returning.