Back when Gangnam Street Food opened in January, I was really intrigued by their concept. No doubt you're spoiled with choice when it comes to Korean restaurants in south side Edmonton, but none are doing it quite like Gangnam.
Gangnam has carved out their own niche and identity, as a fast-casual restaurant focusing on the various street foods you'll find in Korea. That means meat on a stick, deep-fried things, and plenty of cheese-pull opportunities.
They're located in K-Mall on 34th Avenue, which is aptly named because it's also home to the likes of Ginseng, Miga, Pocha, Let Eat Snow, and Korean grocery store A-Mart. There's also a second location in the works for West Edmonton Mall; they'll be joining Splash Poke and Calle Mexico as locally-owned restaurants infiltrating the food court market.
Gangnam is a fun place. There's pops of yellow and neon-green, with random license plates on the walls and a cartoon street mural. There's a decent amount of seats, with counter/bar seating and tables of two that can be pushed together for larger groups.
When you walk in, it's pretty much a self-service deal. You order, pay, and pick-up your food at the counter. There's a cooler filled with drinks (Korean cult favourites like Milkis, banana milk, and Yakult) and a selection of instant ramen, candy, and snacks for sale. The menu is plastered on TVs above, but they also have large laminated copies so you won't have to strain your eyes too much.
Speaking of the menu, it has over 20 items (27 to be exact but they're also making updates to the menu) with prices starting at $5.50 and capping at $8.50. It's affordable, but prices can definitely add up (especially if your eyes are bigger than your stomach, like mine)! It's best to go with a group so you can order a bunch of stuff to share.
Kimbap is a popular portable snack; you can find them everywhere in Korea from street carts and markets to dedicated kimbap restaurants, even convenience stores. It's sometimes referred to as Korean "sushi," but the only similarities between them really are the kim (seaweed) and the bap (rice). Instead of raw fish, a classic kimbap is usually filled with (but not limited to) egg, ham, pickled radish, carrot, cucumber, burdock root, and fish cake. At Gangnam, they have several different varieties including original, bulgogi, spicy pork, veggie, and tuna mayo ($8.50) which is what we ordered.
Each kimbap comes with 10 pieces, which makes it perfect for sharing, or filling enough for one person on its own. When we were kids, I remember my mom made her own version of "sushi" at home, with unconventional fillings like egg, spam, tuna mayo, and pork floss. So tuna mayo in kimbap was quite nostalgic. It was one of my favourite items that we ordered. Maybe not the easiest thing to stuff in one bite, but it was fresh with great crunch from the veggies.
Another popular item at Gangnam are the Korean-style hot dogs, basically the Korean adaptation of a corn dog. The only reason we ever went to Klondike Days as kids was for the corn dogs (and okay, maybe the mini doughnuts) so it's almost dangerous that I don't have to wait once a year to get my corn dog fix. (Too dangerous!)
The hot dogs are battered and then breaded with panko before being deep fried. They even have an option to add cheese around the sausages (mozzarella or cheddar) so that each bite has a molten cheese pull. We got the potato hotdog ($6.50) which has pieces of hashbrowns embedded into the dough. You can also sauce it up however you'd like with their variety of dips (ketchup, honey mustard, spicy mayo, etc).
It wasn't LT's first visit to Gangnam so she recommended getting the dak gang jung ($6.50), boneless pieces of Korean fried chicken. We got the special spicy sauce, but there's also a honey mustard option. These were almost like popcorn chicken, but bigger, meatier, and piping hot. The sauce definitely has a good kick to it, and surprisingly, the chicken stays crispy under its weight.
We didn't want to order everything deep-fried so we thought the bulgogi cup bab ($7.50) would be a nice change of pace (balance out carbs with more carbs and meat, you know?). The cup-bab is basically a mini rice bowl, with thinly-sliced beef bulgogi, stir-fried kimchi, and two mini pork sausages. They also have a spicy pork and a chicken teriyaki version.
We thought the cup-bab was just okay. If anything, it's a bit boring compared to the other items on the menu. If you were craving rice or wanting something more filling, I would prefer ordering the kimbap to this.
Finally, you could not talk about street food in Korea without mentioning dduck bo kki ($6.50). It's *the* quintessential Korean street food. Rice cakes and fish cake simmered in a spicy gochujang sauce. I thought I would enjoy this more than I did, but it wasn't my favourite. The rice cakes were nice and chewy, but because they were the thick kind, I was pretty done after two pieces. They were almost like mini starch bombs.
After consuming the amount of carbs and deep-fried stuff that we did, it's easy to walk away from Gangnam feeling a little (okay, a lot) bloated. But it is a snack bar after all. Everything in moderation, kids.
Gangnam Street Food
9261 34 Ave NW #15
Edmonton, AB
- CT
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