The Bite of Korea (BOK)

BOK have been doing a bunch of pop-ups over the years around Atlanta and now, they finally got a brick and mortar location. The location they selected was quite surprising to me... Tucker. Really? The palate of the demographics there aren't exactly that adventurous. But nonetheless, I applaud them for doing something not in midtown, westside, EAV, Inman Park, Grant Park, etc etc... Those areas have been so saturated with so much garbage that I avoid them like the Golden Corral. People always ask me, Pouch, have you been to any of the new places that opened up in Atlanta? I always tell them, Fuck No! Have you read any of the menus? It's totally shit. Pigs with lipstick. They are using the cheapest ingredients they can find and gussying them up to make the dishes look and sound fancy on the menu while charging highly marked up prices. Don't give me that shit about high food cost and supply chain issues anymore... The pandemic has been declared by the Big Guy over months ago. C'mon, man, the economy is strong as hell! Wow, it really was just transitory... Suckaz. 

OK, let's get back on track to what's most important here... The Corean vittles in Tucker. When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a real restaurant, not some self serve counter service, fast casual joint. They had real tables, servers and a bar! I was giddy as a school girl until they put me at a tiny table in a dark corner like some dive bar's toilet stall. I'm like wait a minute here, my auntie, Rosa Parks, fought for my civil rights to not sit in a latrine while dining on overpriced food. I asked if the bar was opened for dining and they said yes. I grabbed the menu and glass of water and race walked my fat ass over there, I haven't moved that fast since Popeyes announced last call. 

The place was about half full but the kitchen was in the weeds... I thought about leaving but since, they just opened, I'll give them a chance and keep it simple. Let's take a first look...

Banchan, soybean sprouts, kimchi, spicy cucumber. They were actually pretty decent. The kimchi was the best out of the three... And they were nice enough to give you 2 or 3 more servings upon request. Bar service is always the best.

Sodduk Skewer, flash fried rice cake with pork sausage, gochujang sauce, honey mustard drizzle, $6. This was a cute street food snack. It looks so plasticky but it was actually quite tasty. I would get this again. But the cheese corn for $7 I saw on another table is just a sad joke they keep playing on the roundeyes... And they keep coming back for more. Suckaz!

Korean Fried Chicken (boneless), yangnyeom (sweet & spicy) glazed KFC, double fried for extra crispiness, pickled radish and rice, $17. When this came out, I was like did the Colonel or the General make this? KFC or GTC? For $17, this was pretty much a rip off when you could go to any Chino hole in the wall and get their General Tso's or Sesame cheekan lunch/dinner combo with flied lice, eggroll, wing and soup for under $10. It tasted fine but nothing that will get this fat cheekanhead to come back for another serving. The pickled radish were weak, needed more sugar, vinegar and time. Jesus, thinking about it now, I coulda got a spicy 10 piece box of Popeyes, a spicy cheekan sando and their new blackened cheekan sando for the same price. Wait, if they start doing a BONE-IN KFC, then I would totally go back and get sucker punched in the nads, again. The shit I do for my one fan...

Japchae Noodle & Bulgogi Plate, traditional pan fried glass noodles with sauteed veggies, bulgogi ribeye steak, onions, carrots and rice, $17. WTF is this? OK, the japchae looked acceptable but what's with the color of the bulgogi... Did they steam it or boil it? It looked like the skin on a Mexican hairless after you throw boiling water on it. Look at that, it had no color, no marinade, not even a squirt of sauce afterwards to trick me into thinking it was made correctly. The more I look at that bulgogi, it reminds me of the toxic waste thug in Robocop. The japchae was the only thing that was edible and tasted good. Skip the bulgogi, keep the rice, it had more flavor.

I like that they have a brick and mortar spot in the fast developing area of Tucker and I hope they do well but they need to fix a few things before they can sucker me back there. Antico just opened their newest location in the same strip mall... I swore I would never go back to that shithole but that's another pending review...

4650 Hugh Howell Rd

Ste 670

Tucker, GA 30084

https://www.biteofkorea.com/