Who doesn’t love takeout on a Friday evening, with a long week behind you and the weekend ahead of you? Kangnam Style– a tucked-away food trailer on Reservoir Street serving traditional Korean comfort food– was my reprieve last weekend’s eve, and I don’t think there could have been a better restaurant for the cloudy weather and drowsy post-class state of mind.
Located only a few minutes away from campus, Kangnam Style is a quaint Korean restaurant located on a small gravel lot next to the railroad tracks, serving traditional Korean comfort cuisine out of a bright red food trailer. It’s easy to miss, especially in the busy section of Reservoir Street (I had to make a u-turn), and when you get there it may not seem like much. That dynamic changes though when you step out of your car and catch the scent of stir fry in the air and get an up-close glimpse of the charming trailer, which seems to capture the essence and heart of “comfort food”– simple, warm, and made with care.
It’s a humble setting, with a lean menu posted on the front of the restaurant– which includes a variety of Korean staples like bulgogi, jaeyook, hot chicken, deep fried pork, and their pièce de résistance, hosi fries– an ordering window, and a couple of picnic tables set aside for dining. Most of the dishes consist of either beef, pork, or chicken– with one dish having the option of sausage or shrimp as well– and are served with a vegetable blend, rice or noodles, and a fried egg. Depending on the dish, the ingredients are also seasoned or marinated with different flavors and levels of heat.
I ordered the Fried Rice dish, which came with fried rice, a blend of corn, green beans, peas, spinach, diced carrots, a protein option of either shrimp, chicken, or sausage, and a fried egg adorning the preceding pile. After ordering, you wait a brief five or so minutes, after which the food is packaged in sizable styrofoam containers, wrapped in a classic plastic take-out bag, and taken out to you.
The take-out ideology seems geared towards value, providing generous portions for a reasonable price, and for college students not in the market for expensive dining, this is a quintessential restaurant ethic. Kangnam Style is no different. Their prices are in the range of eight to twelve dollars per meal, and their servings are more than enough for dinner and leftovers.
The food itself is wonderfully satisfying and notably fresh, not only in the ingredients but also in it being cooked to order. The vegetables are flavorful and the protein of choice– in my case shrimp– is portioned enough to keep the dish balanced without making you feel overfull. The rice provides a nice contrast and level of consistency in every bite, and the fried egg is just a great pop of color and umami.
I think stir-fries do have a tendency to take on the flavor of whatever oil they’re cooked in, and admittedly my dish did have this property, which caused the flavors to run together a bit and lose some of that fresh element. When I finished my leftovers later, I added some store-bought and chilled Baja sauce, which helped to liven the dish and give it that extra oomph.
Overall, Kangnam Style is a hidden gem that offers high-quality East-Asian cuisine for a great price. It may not look like much, but its modesty is one of its core charms and its food is more than enough to justify giving it a chance. They’re open from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1106 Reservoir St.