Best of Ulsan – East Asian

Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai cuisines are covered here.

In the Chinese category, Chai takes the prize for Best Chinese in Ulsan with 61% of the votes.  Not a single other Chinese restaurant got better than single-digit percentage of the votes.

Thai restaurants in Ulsan are as rare as hen’s teeth, but our readers seem certain of their choices. Noodle Box, in Mugeodong, came away with 62.5% of the vote. Second place goes to Pataya Noodle with 37.5%.  No other restaurants were even voted on.

There was a lot of competition for Best Vietnamese. Pho Ban came away with 29% of the votes while Pho Bay and The Pho each got 12%.  Several other places took just a handful of votes each. One of the newest Vietnamese restaurants in Ulsan,  Thao Uyen, seems to be generating some buzz, but they opened during the voting process and therefore received no votes. We’ll see how well they stand the test of time next year.

For the Japanese style restaurants, Sushi Bar Haru got the most votes at nearly 31% with Maru coming in a distant second at  15%.  The rest of the restaurants all came in with single digit percantages.

And for the Korean restaurants, well, it just wouldn’t be fair not to include them in our votes. But with so many of each variety (throw a stick anywhere in town and hit a dozen Korean restaurants) the voting and consensus was difficult.  In the Galbi category, only Green Pig in OkDong got more than 20% of the votes. The others, including Three Pigs, Bak Dae Po,  Ggulgalbi, DoDong Shin Bang and PodoJang  splitting the remaining votes.

In the Samgyeopsal field, the results were even less clear, although Three Pigs, Podojang and Bak Dae Po were all mentioned once again. No restaurants got more than a single vote.

With Boshintang, or dog stew, the  votes were evenly split between 놀부가보신탕 and Hwang Ju Gang. Only a few UlsanOnline readers voted in this category, presumably because of the lack of interest in eating man’s best friend.

Hwey, (회) or Korean style sushi, also only garnered a few votes from our readers.  Cho-Bap-wang and Ilsan Beach 회 City and Japanese restaurant Sushi Bar Haru each took 33% of the vote.

Duck, or origogi, was another category with little consensus, although much more popular among our readers if the number of votes is any indication.  Votes were cast for Duck.com, Hirue, 호계골, Myon-Chon Sot Dae, Numaroo, Sarang Chae and YaeMeck.

Bulgogi restaurants, just as plentiful as any other in Ulsan, were spared the ignominy of a dearth of voting but could gain no accord among our readers. Worth mentioning are Podojang (again), Bongae, Anap-ru and 소구루마 who each got single votes.

In the Korean Fast Food department, things were slightly more clear. Of course we didn’t specify what kind of fast food, whether it was tent food, hamburgers or kimbaps. Regardless, Lotteria is head of the pack with 33% of the votes. Kimbap Cheonguk came in second with 23% of the votes. Others included Family Mart, Kimbap Nada, Go Bong Gim Bap, Hansol, Tomato and 석봉토스트. 

And finally, in the Jiggae category, a number of memorable restaurants made the cut. Sadly, however, only one of them received more than a single vote – variously voted for as either Samaulshikdang or  새마을 식당 thus winning 25% of the vote. Others mentioned include Kimbap Cheonguk,  생생, Ddeungbyo – gamjatang, and Bom. 

This was a difficult category to tally votes in, due to the large number of “lost votes” – general, vague descriptions of places that didn’t allow us to identify a restaurant. Some votes said, “That galbi place in Shinae”, or “The ajumma in Guyeongli”, which, of course, is like saying, “I like that leaf on that tree.” If we run this category again next year, I hope our readers take their time to go out and discover the name of the place they enjoy eating at. Take a photo of the sign out front, maybe.

Congratulations to the winners, the runners-up and the honorable mentions.