Food | Restaurants

Lunch at Han Woo Ri, Korean BBQ restaurant

Earlier this week, Orchid wrote about K-popped! Trio’s excursion to Koreatown in Ampang. Walking around Little Korea of Malaysia worked up an appetite and it wouldn’t be a complete outing if the Trio, who were reunited for the Lunar New Year holidays, did not stop for Korean food!

Korean food: Han Woo Ri is a BBQ specialist? Whoa

We went to Han Woo Ri (한우리), a Korean BBQ restaurant. We chose the joint because it had the most patrons compared to the rest of the restaurants. When in Koreatown, do as the Koreans do, no?

Typically vegetable eaters (but not vegetarians), the Trio had quite a tough time ordering as the menu offered mostly meat dishes. No tofu or mushroom dishes in sight! We finally settled for two portions of meat – one beef and one pork, kimchi pancake and japchae.

Food, glorious food: Grilling kalbi beef. Look at the
plethora of side dishes!

Han Woo Ri’s rules: The restaurant requires you to order a minimum of two portions of meat to fire up the BBQ. The restaurant uses the traditional method of grilling – food is cooked over charcoal in a brazier. And yes, dear Muslim friends, the restaurant is non-halal.

Kalbi beef (RM59)

It consisted of beef short ribs that were marinated in a mixture of sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, sugar and onions. The waiter grilled the meat to perfection and after eating the bite-sized pieces, I thought about kalbi beef for the next two days!

Yummilicious: I thought about this for two days

 

Enhancer: Dipping sauces (in the foreground)

 

It was absolutely delicious! Cooked over charcoal, the tender meat had a smoky aroma to it and dipping it into the salty and slightly vinegar-like sauces that accompanied the dish enhanced the taste.

It was darn expensive, but tasted real good. Yum!

Pork (about RM29)

On usual days, we’d avoid pork because we just don’t like it. However, the Trio gobbled up every single morsel from the grill that day because when cooked over charcoal fire, the aroma of the meat was just heavenly. For that extra oomph, dip it in the sauces provided.

Tasty too: Pork on the grill

What I liked most about the two dishes was that it didn’t have any bones…or blood. I can’t stand “bloody” meat and wrestling with bones when having a meal is a hassle. The pork had one bony piece, though, but Rooster dealt with it.

Japchae (RM40)

 

Colourful: Yes, it’s as tasty as it looks. Great dish.

A large dish of tasty Korean glass noodles cooked with prawns, vegetables and some meat. The noodles were delightfully springy and had a fresher taste compared to the Malaysian dish of char bi hoon (fried rice vermicelli).

Kimchi jeon, 김치전 (RM40)

This dish was similar to the Korean seafood pancake we had at Seoul Korea Restaurant. It was filled with seafood and kimchi, making the dish flavourful and tasty.

Kimchi pancake: Delicious pancake, weird sauce

The sauce that came with it had a funny taste. It was a little too vinegary for my liking, but I still enjoyed the pancake.

Of course, there were loads of side dishes accompanying the meal. Fantastic.

Han Woo Ri didn’t serve green tea as its default drink. You’d be served plain water and top ups were free.

However, the waiters were not very attentive, you’d probably be choking on something and turning red in the face before they’d come and fill your cup. You’d need to get their attention and ask for a top up yourself.

Dessert was a watermelon slice each.

But that wasn’t enough, so we made our way to Hanguk Supermarket (한국 슈퍼마켓) again for some Korean ice-cream!

Dessert!: Ice-cream on a hot day…perfect!

Sticking to the rule of “when in Koreatown, do as the Koreans do”, we took note of what a bunch of Korean kids hovering over the ice-cream freezer were choosing. When the rowdy bunch left, we searched for the same ice-cream they picked.

Too bad Orchid couldn’t find the watermelon ice-cream as one of the boys got the last stick. She ended up with a Bibibik red bean ice-cream (RM2) instead (pic above).

Playing Star Wars: ‘My lightsaber is bigger than yours.’

Meanwhile, Rooster and I went for the Deowisanyan coffee-flavoured (RM2.80) one. It wasn’t too sweet, just the way I like my desserts.

How to get there:

Get yourself to One Ampang Avenue, take the first right after turning into the area.

Han Woo Ri is at:
C6-1, C7-1, Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1
One Ampang Avenue
68000 Ampang, Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: 03-4253 1308

There’s also a Han Woo Ri branch in USJ (Taipan)
1D & 2D, Jalan USJ 10/1J
47620 UEP, Subang Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: 03-8023 3357

Related:
K-popped! visits Koreatown Malaysia

K-popped!’s culinary adventures:

In Malaysia
Eating out at Seoul Korea Restaurant (Taman Desa)
Korean Cuisine at Pavilion KL (Kuala Lumpur)
Dae Jang Geum (Section 14, Petaling Jaya)
Daorae Garden (Sri Hartamas)

In China
Coffee at Beijing’s 798 Art Zone
Delicious Korean cuisine at Beijing’s hutong

Korean snacks from Wudaokou

Lunch at Wudaokou

17 thoughts on “Lunch at Han Woo Ri, Korean BBQ restaurant

  • ♥corcraze♥

    argghh,more non-halal food.
    i always went to Ampang years back cause i had an orthodonthic appoinment,then usually will hangout at ampang point,there are a few korean stalls inside it,but i dunno it is HALAL..hurmm..

    btw,is the ice-creams that u guys had were HALAL or not????pls.those are darn temptation!

  • hello… =)
    the posts here are very interesting.. hehehe..
    im paying a visit to KL next week, and was wondering if there are halal korean restaurants that you guys could recommend? thanks in advance… =)

  • Erin Hakkinen

    hi everyone (^_^)/

    i’m a muslim and i would like to make a correction(addition?) here.actually non-halal food doesnt only mean pork. it also depends on the way the cow,chicken is slaughtered.

    here’s an explanation from Wikipedia. they can explain better in words.

    1. In order for food to be considered halal, it must not be a forbidden substance and any meat must have been slaughtered according to traditional guidelines set forth by the Sunnah.

    So if the meat is not slaughtered according to Sunnah, we consider that non-halal too 🙂 yes, be it chicken or cow meat.

  • Anonymous

    That looks so good. Thanks K-popped for the fun experince! I really enjoy your articles.

  • ladida

    wow. they do look delish!! but instead of doing lunch, i’ll do dinner…too much food
    “ALL THOSE DISHES..the poor dish washer” that’s cute, Kpop-rubba 🙂

  • meiruo_chan

    That guy who played JIN HA RIM in Coffee Prince currently star in Unstoppable Marriage daily sitcom. And of course he’s damn funny there too.

    Hmm…is there any halal Korean Restaurant in KL. If so, I would love to go.

  • Orchid

    hello anonymous from Ohio!

    We have not seen Coffee Prince ourselves…i’ll bet if we watched the drama we’ll start hunting for news and updates on JIN-HA RIM. 🙂

    Hopefully we’ll get our hands on the DVD box set soon.

    Thanks for writing in!

    @hjn: i can’t really remember the packaging of the melon ice-cream. if i am not mistaken, the ice-cream itself resembles a watermelon. ahh…it looks so juicy and refreshing. too bad they ran out of it…

  • so sad orchid didn’t manage to grab that melon ice-cream … (merona – is it that one? green coloured packing).. man, i would kill (figuratively) to get one of those melon ice-cream.

    anyway, malaysia is a multi-racial country.. there are restaurants that are halal (those serving for official functions-eg hotels etc must be) and some that are non-halal (if you want to allow pork, it have to be non-halal..).. non-muslim accounts for about 35% of the population, i guess its considerable market for that one small shop to make a good margin…

  • Orchid

    Hi Joe,

    There are many restaurants here in Malaysia that are non-halal. Most of the Chinese restaurants are non-halal. There are also chinese “specialty” restaurants / stalls that serve a famous pork dish called “bak-kut-teh”. It’s pork cooked in some herbal concoction & you eat that with rice. And those places are packed with people.

    As for the Korean restaurant, most of its patrons are Koreans (as it’s in Koreatown) and maybe Malaysians who like Korean food (like us). Yes the restaurants can survive.

  • Anonymous

    HI THERE…..

    ALL THAT FOOD ……DID YOU HAVE AN ARMY WITH YOU? LOL…..I MUST FIND A RECIPE FOR THAT KALBI BEEF AND KIMCHI PANCAKE…I WOULD PROBABLY INVENT MY OWN SAUCE….BY THE WAY COULD I GET SOME INFO ON JIN-HA RIM….IS HE THE CUTEY IN COFFEE PRINCE…IT ONLY COMES ON THREE NIGHTS A WEEK HERE IN OHIO..BUT I NEVER MISS A SHOW…THIS IS ONE DRAMA I AM GOING TO BUY..

  • Hi Orchid. Thank you, but I know what halal means.. my question was, Malaysia is an Islamic country and many of the people are Muslims, how can they serve non-halal meat there..? Can they make enough money by catering only non-Muslims?

  • That food looks good…I really could eat some galbi right about now!! 🙂 You guys are hilarious with the ice cream. 🙂

  • Orchid

    hi joe, “non-halal” means the restaurant serves pork. Muslims do not go to non-halal restaurants.

  • kpop-rubba

    I love how k-popped are avid veggie eaters! This way I know there’s always gonna be something to tickle my vegan fancy!
    I just don’t understand ALL THOSE DISHES
    the poor dish washer at korean restaurants… LOL when I cook I try my best to keep everything in 1 plate or bowl…

Leave a Reply