Sura Korean Restaurant - Temescal - Oakland

let's just assume that we've all had more than enough turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and cranberry sauce to last us the entire year so I won't need to recap all of that shall we? now...on to the more interesting stuff.

So recent chowhound postings alerted me to a relatively new Korean restaurant in the Temescal area of Oakland. The name of the restaurant is Sura @ 4869 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609. In a newly renovated space it is very spacious in side, with fully built in table grills and ventilation systems that all full service Korean restaurants should have for BBQ. Though we didn't go for the table grilling this time, I'm looking forward to testing out the nicely designed tables on my next trip. My foodie partner in crime agreed to try out this new place sight unseen at the time. Glad to have another adventurer with me, we perused a very extensive menu fully of bbq dishes, noodle dishes, stews, tofu soups appetizers and much more. Definitely a place you'll want to go to again and again to try all the items.

okay, now onto the food. After much deliberation we ordered the pan fried dumplings to start us off, a spice beef and mushroom soon du bu soup(tofu soup) and a big bbq beef dol sot in a hot clay pot. With our meal of course, came the myriad banchan dishes. Probably more than I've ever seen at a Korean restuarant. There must've been at least 17 of them. Some we're hits, some were misses. In general they were good, though a few I felt could have been stronger or spicier. The dumplings we agreed were excellent. Our starting appetizer came with 10 I believe. crispy bottoms, flavorful middles. And just went great with their spicy, soy dipping sauce. We both really wanted to get the tofu soup since it was getting pretty cold that night and it hit the spot for me. Spicy, but not too spicy, it was packed with tofu, meat, veggies and mushrooms. Very savory and served really well over rice. If that was the only thing we had that night, I would've been happy, wells, perhaps if we had two servings, it was that good.

Our last dish, with the bbq beef is like a bib bim bap in a heated clay bowl. one of my favorite korean dishes cause it just makes the rice on the bottom crisp and crunchy from the heated bowl. If you've never had it, it's basically a bowl of rice, topped with several varieties of julienned veggies (pickled bean sprouts, carrots, cucumbers etc.) with some sort of meat (in this case, thick slices of marinated grilled beef) and a spicy sauce to mix it all up. At some other restaurants they serve it with a raw egg cracked on top that you cook when you mix it up in the hot clay bowl. This would be the main thing missing for me in the version they serve at Sura. An egg or two really does make this dish better. Even lacking the egg, it's quite good and I also added some of the tofu soup over several servings to mix some of the flavors. Very comforting I have to say.

All in all, a very satifying meal that didn't break the bank. I think all together, for two people the bill came out to be $35 after tax and tip.

Thanks to a heads up on Chowhound regarding the cheesesteak at Gregoire, I ordered it today along with the cheddar cheese gratin and the pumpkin bread pudding, whipped cream.

It was all excellent. The cheesesteak was not overly cheesy, filled with a decent amount of meat, cheese and grilled onions served on a toasted baguette. I admit it got all over my hands but wasn't overly greasy. The Gratin is indeed good, though it took me a few bites for it to grow on me. Initially I thought the potatoes were a bit undercooked, but that actually helps when it's so perfectly thinly sliced and layered and it thankfully wasn't overpowered by cheese. A nice golden cheesy crust on top and just enough in between to make it stick. Lastly, the pumpkin bread pudding definitely satisfied my fall craving for all things pumpkin. I was at first expecting a more pudding consistency, but it turned out to be more like a very moist and soft banana bread consistency. It was wonderful, subtly spiced and was amazing with the fresh whipped cream. I licked the container clean.

appetite update

so a couple things i've been noticing on the food scene...

i'm not the only one crazy about tacos...apparently there's a mini-taco-truck-tacos resurgence happening. it's the in thing to taco truck hop, particularly down my neck of the woods (International Blvd, ie the Taco Truck Corridor). I've seen people creating google maps of all the trucks in East Oakland (over 30 of them) with reviews of the standard al pastor, pollo, carne asada tacos and the more exotic fare...lengua, cabeza, tortas and burritos. who knew there were other people out there right now also searching for the greatest taco that cheap wallets can find. I must locate them and share in my knowledge!

anyways...in other foodie cravings and news...Gregoire...a local fine dining take out place with locations in Berkeley & Oakland has something I want. recently posted was a great review of a Philly cheese steak sandwich that is apparently the holy of holies as far as sandwiches go. It's a special thing since Gregoire changes their menu monthly and certain items will only show up during certain months of the year according of fresh ingredients availability. I'm planning on ordering mine tomorrow before it goes away once again.

lastly...i've been participating in a food forum that many know as chowhound.com. a great website for foodies everywhere...where foodies let other foodies know where to find the good stuff and which places to avoid. sort of like a foodies help-line and advice column. seriously, there are foodie nerds out there that put me to shame. one of the great things about the online community there is that they organize chowdowns...foodie gettogethers with fellow foodies to fully explore hot restaurants. And reviews of one of their last chowdowns has piqued my interest...and it's at a restaurant just down the street from my office! woot! so if anyone is interested in joining me in a foodie excursion to China Village on Solano Ave, please let me know.

Pho King on International in Oakland

Okay, laugh all you want.

This was my second time visiting this pho restaurant. I'm not sure if the pho is actually excellent or if it was the cold wet weather.

The broth is flavorful and the bowls are good sizes. I always get the large, I could probably do with a small. The meat is delicious and they give you plenty of it. As usual, the vietnamese meatballs were delicious.

The noodles at this restaurant are on the firm side. Not good or bad, I'd prefer a little softer myself.

I'd report on eggrolls, but they forgot to bring them by. At least they didn't charge us. It could've been an error in translation.

One problem with this place is that it always seems to be closed. It closes early, so perhaps we just come too late.

I can't really comment on the service since they seemed not to speak very much English. We told her we needed a minute and she stood there nodding for a minute.

Overall, not a bad restaurant if you are looking to eat early.