Korean, yet Filipino’s Favorite

One day, one of my friends offered me to eat lunch at Robinsons Galleria. He is Chinese and it is interesting to know that he enjoys Korean food very much. So when we went out, it wasn’t a surprise for me that he wanted to have Korean food, particularly Galbi—which is grilled meat with sweet and salty sauce. I didn’t know there was a Korean restaurant that sold Galbi in Robinsons. I thought it would be like an original Korean Galbi restaurant where you can find grills on each table and you grill Galbi right in front of you because that’s originally how Koreans eat Galbi. So maybe I would be little bit disappointed when I finally found out that the Korean restaurant my friend was talking about was Filipino styled Korean restaurant—of course, there were no grills found on tables and Galbi would be cooked in the kitchen and served in individual plates. But the tastes were not bad. It will surely attract not only Filipino but also Koreans who have just arrived Philippines, despite of the fact that they serve Filipino styled Korean food. There was a little bit of exaggeration but all I want to say is that the food there was really good. That’s how I knew this restaurant at first.
It is located at 2nd level along East Lane in Robinsons. If you go to East Lane, there are some casual dining restaurants and you will find a sign that says “Duri”. I don’t know where this name came from. According to my knowledge, Duri is the name of famous soccer player who plays in the Korean national soccer team but unless the owner was a great fan of him, he would have just picked this name because it sounded Korean, I think. Restaurant’s walls are decorated with the frames of Korean traditional masks or antique crowns that might have been some kings or queens’ belongings of old Korean kingdom. It is so Korean so you will never misunderstand that it is Japanese of something else. Restaurant’s atmosphere is bright and comfortable. The place is clean and well-lighted, seems to be little bit small though. Customers who were there when we visited last time were rather Filipino or foreigners. This restaurant is not really well-known to Koreans, after all, I didn’t know it was there until my friend told me.
My friend ordered Galbi and I ordered Dolsot Arbab. Galbi, as I mentioned above, is grilled meat like pork or beef ribs. I tried some and the taste was good. Not so sweet, not so salty. The sauce was well balanced. And this time I tried mine, Dolsot Arbab. In a hot stone bowl, there is rice, vegetables, chopped beef, hot pepper paste (it is sauce made from hot chili for those who don’t know), and most remarkably, some orange figure on top. I thought that was carrot at first glance. As I studied carefully the object, I recognized that it was actually a scoop of some fish’s egg, maybe salmon’s. Taste was even greater than Galbi. As you chew the food, you could feel that the eggs are popping in your mouth and it is really good. I only tasted these two foods, Galbi and Dolsot Arbab, but there is a lot more food there to be tasted. After all, my experience in Duri was satisfying; clean and nice looking restaurant and reasonable price & good food. The usual Korean restaurant charges you more than 200 pesos for one Galbi order. But the price in Duri was less than that, around 150 pesos. They didn’t even add a service charge so I had to leave them a tip! I want to suggest you that one day you go to Robinsons to shop and once you get hungry, you go to the 2nd floor East Lane and find out for yourself, wonderfully tasty Korean food that’s, not only Korean’s, but Filipino’s favorite as well.