Macheko Grill

Having worked in restaurants for years, I knew why Macheko Grill’s entire crew was sitting down at the end of the night to a staff dinner of Jet’s pizza. No matter how wonderful the food, or enthusiastic the crew at the area’s newest Korean restaurant, there come moments when endless repetition incites longing for something different. And apparently pizza–likes fries or a ham sandwich–always sounds good, even to an all-Asian group using chopsticks.

Still, the scene provoked smiles as my husband and I slurped noodles and tucked bits of sliced pig hocks in lettuce leaves with raw and sweet pickled garlic, chili slices, and fermented shrimp sauce. K-pop starlets bounced on large-screen TVs, alternating with French-born chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his Korean-American wife demonstrating traditional and fusion Korean dishes. “Bon appetit” and Route 66 signs decorated the walls, and outside, on this last night before the nation’s birthday, a giant tent housed fireworks for sale. Were we abroad or were we in Kansas? Was it cultural confusion or fusion? Not having been to Korea, I can’t attest to the authenticity of the experience offered at Macheko Grill, but I can promise the food is often intriguing and delicious.

As the number of Korean restaurants has proliferated, I’ve noticed a certain sameness in the flavor of many of the dishes, attributable, I think, to the liberal use of fermented seasonings–doenjang (soybean paste), gochujang (red chili paste), and jeotgal (salted seafood). These ingredients meander through many Korean dishes, giving them a shared red color and a tangy, slightly funky taste. Kimchi is probably the most widely known Korean dish, and it incorporates some of these ingredients to ferment cabbage and other vegetables–sauerkraut with a kick. If you like those flavors, as my husband and I do, you’ll enjoy Korean food.

Macheko Grill also advertises Korean barbecue. When it opened last February in a strip mall on Ellsworth at Hewitt, table-top grills invited customers to cook their own meat, but the stoves’ alleged “smokeless” attribute proved untrue, and Michael Kim, the owner, discontinued their use. For now, a few dishes on the ninety-two-item menu aren’t available, or charbroiling happens in the kitchen.

Ninety-two items–I can see your eyebrows rise. How could we possibly sample a representative number? Well, we couldn’t, but we tried, aiming for a bit of both the known and the unknown.

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The first night we began with soju, the national distilled beverage traditionally made from rice or other grains but also produced from starches such as potatoes or tapioca. Moderate in alcohol and typically drunk neat, soju seemed particularly neutral for this gin drinker, who tends to find vodka rather flat.

With banchan, the little side dishes that precede every Korean meal, one rarely needs any other appetizers. At Macheko Grill, however, the banchan array is small and not terribly interesting–a few sesame-y slices of fish cake, some marinated broccoli or spinach, a tiny dish of kimchi, and pickled bean sprouts or sweet black beans. For a more substantial appetizer, I’d opt for the kimchi pancake over the seafood one. Unlike many better ones I’ve had, Macheko Grill’s seafood pancake is light on content and flavor, while the cabbage one is moist, savory, and packed full. Japchae, slippery translucent sweet potato noodles stir-fried with vegetables and sesame oil, is satisfying if unexciting.

Perhaps Macheko Grill skimps on its banchan because it’s so generous with its entrees. Each time we visited we brought home enough leftovers for at least one lunch, sometimes two, especially the meals accompanied by the kitchen’s rice mix–short white grains interspersed with nutritious black ones. Champon, a mildly spicy red soup with long, thick wheat noodles and assorted seafood, is enormous and offers a clear example of that fermented tang, as does soondubu, a pork broth awash with pillowy soft tofu, a poached egg, and kimchi. The flavors of stir-fried spicy calamari and sliced vegetables echo similarly on the tongue. Gamjatang, a robust soup with bony bits of pork, hunks of potato, and clumped greens, impresses with its deep savor. Even better warmed up the next day, tofu kimchi–sauteed pork and kimchi served with squares of cold tofu–adds vinegary sharpness to the mix. And spicy calamari dol sot bibimbap sparks notions of Asian paella, the sizzling stone pot browning the rice for a perfect bottom crust, and the squid imbuing it with a rich seafood essence.

Korean barbecue lessens the complexity but is no less delicious. With a sweet marinade balancing charred flavor, 888 galbi offers, like the aforementioned poached pig hocks, the chance to play with your food. Lettuce leaf in hand, you enfold pieces of meat–extracting bone as necessary–rice, ssamjang (a sauce of fermented bean and red pepper pastes), and kimchi into a gift-wrapped package for your mouth–messy but wonderful. Of course Macheko Grill offers ju mul luk galbi (traditional beef rib barbecue), bulgogi, and barbecue chicken, though they are some of the ninety-two items we didn’t try.

Having successfully crossed a few dishes off the menu, we look forward to making inroads on the long list of unknowns. Discovery is part of the pleasure of travel, whether you’re actually abroad or only in a different dining room. And if I’m tired of pizza, where else would I rather go?

Macheko Grill

macheko.comM.

Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5 p.m.-midnight; Sun. noon-10 p.m.

Appetizers $1-$8, lunch entrees and specials $8-$18, dinner entrees $10-$85

Wheelchair friendly