Looking for Korean food in the Albany area? Arirang
Being a regular is one of life’s great pleasures. We all want to be Norm somewhere, have our entrance greeted with a smile, a familiar nod, a new note in a conversation that in some cases has been running for years.
Kim’s Asian Market is one of those places that makes Albany feel like home. I’ve been shopping there for years. Trading recipes with Mrs. Kim. (OK, stealing her recipes is more accurate.) Discussing the best cuts of meat with Mr. Kim, and, frankly, just enjoying the pleasure of feeling truly welcome every time I walk through the front door.
And over the nine plus years that I’ve been wandering Kim’s noodle aisles and poking in to the back freezers, one of our ongoing conversations has circled around finding good Korean food in Albany and would the Kims ever considering opening a restaurant.
So imagine my pleasure when I walked in the door last month and Mrs. Kim handed me a menu for Arirang.
I’ve been a few times and haven’t yet ventured far off the Korean side of the menu. Arirang has Korean, Thai and Japanese food.
So far, my favorite dish is the kal bi gui, grilled beef ribs. The meat is so tender it almost melts in your mouth.
This is the dish that keeps nagging my thoughts a week after first trying it. Don't you need to go back there for, I don't know, one more picture of something. If I were Mr. Kim, I would offer every person who walked in the door one little piece of this meat with a dap of dipping sauce. You'd have them hooked in no time.
And now that is getting colder, it's always nice to know there is a bowl of dumpling soup near by.
On one visit, Mr. Kim and his son were just sitting down to their lunch of kimchee fried rice.
He let me have a taste. Oh, yums. I wish he would put it on the menu.
A few notes. The bi bim bab was delicious, but if you like your egg sunny side up, you should make sure you order it that way. It comes with the egg fried pretty hard, which means no runny yolk to mix in with the veggies.
Lunch prices run from $7.99 to $12.99. Dinner is more in the $11-$14 range, more for sushi and some of the other Japanese items.
I want to go and try more of the Thai selections (I did taste the green curry, and it was a nice dance of flavors, although not as much heat as I like. My friend ordered it that way, though.)
The problem with venturing out, is that if I get another chance to stop by, I'm going to be hard put to pull myself away from these.
Details:
Arirang
Korean, Thai and Japanese
(518) 452-6878
1558 Central Ave
Colonie, NY 12205
Hours:
Lunch: Monday -Saturday 11:30 am -2:30 pm
Dinner: Monday through Sunday 5:30 pm - 10 pm
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Comments
Today I went to the Kim's market and Mr.Kim recomended me to visit this restaurant. I will try !
- by Mari on Oct 23, 2008 at 5:35 PM | link
We went there last month. We didn't even realize it was owned by the Kims until we saw Mr. Kim inside. He said they've only been open a couple of months then. I had the Bulgogi (which was really good, tender and sweet, with good sized portion too) and my friend had the Pad Thai (pretty good too). I didn't see Chap chai anywhere in the menu though.
Funny thing happened on the way out. I forgot my doggie bag on the table and Mr. Kim even ran out with it and handed it to me in the car. How's that for service? Will definitely go back!
- by josie on Oct 24, 2008 at 12:55 PM | link
I've always been meaning to ask, you take really nice pictures and I'm wondering what camera you're using. Your pictures are always clear and the colors bright.
- by josie on Oct 24, 2008 at 1:01 PM | link
Sweet, I am excited for this. I grabbed one of the Arirang flyers when I was at Kim's last week and now... oh it is a done deal now.
- by Albany Jane on Oct 24, 2008 at 3:20 PM | link
I use a Cannon Powershot A540. It is basically a point and shoot with a few extras. I try to never use a flash, and for close ups I use the macro setting (the little flower symbol).
- by celinabean on Oct 25, 2008 at 3:18 PM | link
Husband and I went there for dinner on Friday (10/24). We were seated immediately, but boy were they busy. I think the sole waitress/hostess/bus person was a tad overwhelmed. The chef (I assume that's Mr. Kim) kept coming out to help serve, clear, make sushi whenever he could. The Kalbi was very good a tad different than I've had in other korean restaurants. The kimchi was amazing. I ate a couple of bowls of that. My husband's pad thai was ok, but he says he's had better. Two of the little side dishes that came with my korean food were rather interesting. Rather than other types of pickled veggies, one was shreds of beef, similar to a pot roast and the other was potatoes that were cool, and must have been cooked with the beef. Our appies were very good, tempura squid and thai spring rolls. The spring rolls were a bit of a suprise as we thought they would be more like vietnamese spring rolls, meaning cold, rice paper wrapped around shredded veggies....the thai rolls were small cigar wraps that were deep fried....still great tasting. Oh...and the tea was really interesting...almost a nutty taste to it.
We will definitely be going back...want to try the udon, and other dishes as well.
- by llcwine on Oct 27, 2008 at 8:57 AM | link
Thanks for the camera info, Celina.
- by josie on Oct 27, 2008 at 12:46 PM | link
Good find! I miss the Korean side of the menu (and the Sushi) at Ginza.
- by Joe Esposito on Oct 28, 2008 at 2:34 PM | link
Someone forwarded this link to my husband and we tried it for lunch that same day. The food was wonderful - we had the Bulgogi and grilled beef ribs. They did not serve it with the dipping sauce you mentioned. Do you have to ask for it special? We will definitely return.
- by Mary on Oct 29, 2008 at 11:12 AM | link
Stopped in for dinner on the way home tonight and had the kal bi gui - very tasty. I like the tea also; I believe it is a corn and barley tea. I, too, miss Ginza; they had the best homemade yakimandu. But this is a nice addition to the area and I'm sure I'll stopping by on a regular basis. Thanks for the tip.
- by Steve on Oct 30, 2008 at 8:45 PM | link
Celina, you may want to update the days and hours. The sign on the door now says dinner starts at 5 pm. Also, a notice was posted on the door tonight saying they will be closed on Sundays starting November 9.
I agree that Ginza had fantastic Yakimandoo. It was actually recommended to me by Un-Hui from Avenue A. Tonight my wife and I shared the Goon Man Doo (fried dumplings) entree as an appetizer. They were quite good and brought back memories of my army days in Korea.
I thought the Gob Dol Bi Bim Bab would have been better if the stone bowl was hotter. The rice never had a chance to really sizzle and start getting crisp. Otherwise, it was very flavorful. My wife had the green vegetable curry. She couldn't decide whether to pour the vegetable curry on the plate of rice or to spoon some of the rice into the bowl of curry. The consistency of the curry could have been a little thicker, but the flavor was excellent.
My understanding is that, as of now, there are different chefs in the kitchen for Korean and Thai cooking. I believe each is teaching the other the culinary skills of their country.
- by RogerK on Nov 8, 2008 at 9:59 PM | link
*gasp* I am so unbelievably excited. Arirang is literally two minutes from where I live and I was extremely disappointed in the restaurant that was in that space previously. Thanks Celinabean!
- by charley on Nov 11, 2008 at 5:54 PM | link
Stopped in again and had Beef Bulgogi for lunch. A little disappointed; no lettuce served with it for wrapping and the rather gray meat seemed stewed or braised instead of grilled. Maybe there are different ways to make it, but my benchmark is the version at Avenue A, which is stellar. Still happy that Arirang is on the scene with it's very reasonable pricing.
- by Steve on Nov 12, 2008 at 7:18 PM | link