Hats that remind you of historical K-Dramas adorn one wall of the restaurant.
Sweldo Friday Group is out again and the night's restaurant of choice was Dong Won Garden Korean Restaurant. We decided to give this place a try because we have been going to the same Korean restaurant for more than two consecutive paydays already, it's time to check out other restos out there,hehe. The price was fair and it's in the same area, so off to Jupiter we went. :)
Table for four.
The establishment doesn't look new but I wouldn't call it shabby either. It may be the minimal furnishings that gave it a homey vibe. We chose the tables in one of the rooms that I think were reserved for bigger groups but were still allowed to be used by us. We were able to sit comfortably, like when you're lounging around your own living room floor, heh. We took our sweet time deciding on what to order (we ended up picking the usual ones, though) and taking pictures which were fine with the servers (me thinks) given that they had more customers than they could handle. We were left alone striking silly poses in whichever part of the room we wanted. We eventually got tired and felt that we really were hungry by that time.
Burp! Taken after all the food had vanished. See how the throw pillows were strategically positioned to hide the evidence?.. hahaha
We originally intended to grill the meat ourselves this time since we always just let them serve our samgyeopsal ready to eat. But since it was a very busy night, everything was taking a little too long for their staff to prepare. Oh, did I mention that they were short staffed? There were just two waitresses on the day in question. About half an hour have passed and still the charcoal was not yet available? For a restaurant this size, and considering it's a payday weekend, you'd expect them to be well prepared to serve everyone, in a timely manner. We especially watched out for our dinner that night choosing to go light as we were planning to make room for this outing, so we were already hungry. They just had about a couple of tables with customers when we came. But when we arrived, more people started coming, too.
Refillable banchan. I especially liked the salty & spicy potatoes. Don't know what it's called, though.
Our default order Jeyuk Bokkeum P300
Saeu Bokkeum (fried shrimp with chilli powder) P380
Samgyeopsal P300
FREE Chiggae! We ordered Dwenjang chiggae, assorted seafood with soy bean paste stew, but this one looked like Dubu (tofu) chiggae. At least it had clams in it. :P We got this for free because we ordered 2 servings of Samgyeopsal but the price of Dwenjang Chiggae is around P250-P300, i think.hehe
What we liked:
Refillable banchan. I think ours were refilled at least twice.
FREE stew (Dwenjang jjigae) since we ordered two servings of Ssamgyeopsal.
They're open 24/7.
They also have a food mart.
What they could improve:
Slow service. With (maybe) more than five tables and most were in big groups, they really had to hustle given that they only had two waitresses present. That may have been sufficient on a regular day, but on a weekend proved to be lacking.
photo credits: Tine, thanks a bunch!
Dong Won Garden Korean Restaurant
53 Polaris Corner Jupiter Street,
Bel-Air, Makati City
Budget P900 for 2 It's always better to come in a group so the bill could be split between more peeps.
