우리 집 (Woorijib)

Woorijib (or Woorijip, as my koryophile Dear insists it should be transliterated) is a Korean restaurant along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City. Literally meaning "our house", the restaurant is a family-owned and operated enterprise which started just a few years back. Everytime my Dear and I go there (which is quite often), we see three generations of the family around the restaurant.

Ambience-wise, Woorijib is very homey, to put it nicely-- family members lounging and playing around, the tv set to Arirang or KBS, no strict dress code. So really, this won't be the place to impress your date with fine dining. But if your date likes good Korean food with matching good service (complete with call buttons), this is the place to go.

All tables are served with around six to eight different kinds of banchan (side dishes or appetizers) on the house, the most recognisable being kimchi. They usually just give you one or two servings of banchan, but if they recognise you as a regular (and you're extra nice to the family) the banchan will keep on flowing until you ask them to stop. You can also buy the kimchi for P120 per kilo, which unlike supermaket kimchi uses higher grade chili that is smoother on the palate (it also has a more orange tinge-- another sign of quality).

Our regular orders include mandujim (steamed dumplings, pictured above, P100) or gimbap (rice rolls, P200) for appetisers, stir-fried pork with kimchi and chili sauce (pictured right, P250) or ojingobokum (sauteed squid with vegetables in a spicy fermented chili sauce, P300) for the main course, and two cups of sicky purple rice (P40/cup). So for less than P500, you can have a very sumptuous dinner for two, even cheaper if you drop the appetisers and stick to the banchan. On occasion we've also tried their japchae (stir-fried potato noodles), some buckwheat noodle soup, kalbi chim (beef stew), and jajangmyeon (noodles in a fermented black soya bean sauce)-- all of which we liked except for the last (which is really an acquired taste).

Relatively more pricey fare we have tried include samgyeopsal (thinly-sliced pork grilled on the table served with greens, P500) and dakdooritang (chicken and vegetables stewed in fermented chili sauce, pictured left, P500). By the way, only the owner can cook the dakdooritang as this is her specialty, a fact we later learned when we were told that the waiters had to wake her up to cook our order. Now that's service.

Serving sizes are all very generous and the taste is authentic, judging by the number of Korean regulars. Service, I should say, is above par-- the owners even greet you out the door if they happen to be unoccupied as you leave. Bottomline, if you want to dine in Korean elegance served by waitresses in hanboks, do not go here. If you want good, authentic Korean food north of Makati, and don't mind hearing VJ Isak introduce the latest in the K-pop charts or seeing an occasional patron in sando and shorts, Woorijip is the place to go.