Sam Gyupsal dinner at Min Sok

It was a lazy Friday afternoon just after office when I thought of inviting Gil out to a different dining experience, Korean setting this time. I learned of this place from our previous GM, Murase San and wife Yoko (Japanese) who constantly tag us (Che, Joy and I- who he called his angels) in their dinner dates and been yearning to let Gil experience the same since then. The place is called Min Sok Restaurant, a known Korean restaurant within Korean town in Poblacion, Makati.

Min Sok is a house turned restaurant owned and operated by couple OG IN, HAM (I assumed though as written sa calling card). It doesn’t have the ‘homey’ vibe I’m looking for in every resto we visit but has that ‘mind your own business’ feel, as we never felt awkward mingling around mostly Korean customers. Both the owners and staffs were accommodating. At one point, we saw the Korean owner assisting the customers to slather lard unto the pre-hot grilling plate.

Going on, we ordered the main reason of our visit: the Sam Gyupsal described as three (sam) layered (gyeop) pork meat (sal) thinly sliced for grilling (tama ba ate Pheng? Hehe!) An order consists of 10 pieces pre-cut meat, lettuce for wrapping and a dozen or so condiments, which occupied most of the space in our table.

To begin with, Ate assisted us with the heating of the grilling plate and did the first batch of grilling.

Two orders of Sam Gyupsal entitle you to a FREE steaming bowl of Miso soup…er, SPICY Miso soup. Spicyness is tolerable btw. Laveet! :)

hot and spicy!

Then the wrapping begins...

the grilled meat, first and foremost.

the lettuce for wrapping. The spices could also be grilled for additional flavor.

...and the condiments of your choice. Take your pick! :)

Lettuce + the grilled meat dipped in salt pepper sesame oil dip + the condiments of your choice = Winner!

this is how I dig in...

...and this is Gil's.

We also had Haemul jun- a Seafood Korean Pancake, which is equally satisfying! We thought of it as pizza before but it actually looked and tasted like omelet with lots of vegetables and seafood served with Korean dip (soy sauce with chili something!)

Crunchy and healthy Haemul jun- P250

They don’t scrimp with the lettuce and condiments as they add with or without requests. Owners and staffs roam each table from time to time checking what to be replaced. Sweet noh? :)

Some of the outstanding condiments for us are as follows: (Dunno the names haha!)

the untouched kimchii haha! Need pa of frequent visit for us to really like it! :)

I never found the menu of this restaurant online so I thought of taking pics of the menu itself for you (Click pictures for larger view).

If you were up to a Korean fix, non-aircon and basic environment but definitely good food…. Min Sok is the right place to be! Really a value for your money Korean experience!

Will definitely visit again and again...and again! :)