Koja Grille located at 1600 N Broad Street is a Korean and Japanese fast food style restaurant. It is located in the heart of Temple University campus and offers good mix of both Korean and Japanese food for take outs and sit-in.
I had dinner at Koja about a month ago with my brother and couple friends who were students at Temple. We happened to go there by chance as all the other places we tried were closed for that day. It turned out to be a very pleasant visit and I look forwarded to have a full fledged meal the next time.
I just ordered 8 of their Asian Wings as I already had my dinner. It was about 9:30 PM and I am not student to wait that long for dinner. The others with me order the Soft Tofu Soup (Chigae) and Clear Noodles with Chicken (Job Chae).
The wings were some of the best I had in Philadelphia. There were soft, crispy, sweet and spicy, and juicy. They worked perfect for me. My friends liked what they had. The service was good. The quantity was also well portioned. I thought the wings were a bit pricier at $6.99($7.5 with tax) for 8 wings, but I am willing to pay the premium for those tasty wings. A typical entree on the menu was about $9 with is not bad and in line with other restaurant offering Korean and Japanese food.
The distance from Center City could be a factor. The website is simple, orderly and well maintained. I found from their website that they originally started out as a cart in the University City area at 38th st and between Walnut and Sansom St. I will definitely give this cart a try the next time I am in University City.
TO.DO: I have a reminder for myself to search and upload the pictures of the food that we had.
Showing posts with label Korean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korean. Show all posts
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Miran - Korean Restaurant @ 2034 Chestnut St
I wanted to visit Miran located on Chestnut St between 20th and 22nd Streets for a long time. I have tried other Asian restaurant around this block and have walked past this restaurant several times. I finally picked a day to have lunch here with my client representative.
The ambiance is warm and cozy. The server got us water and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. I must have got coke or something. For the Main course I had Seafood Hot Pot. My colleague got Salmon Teriyaki Box.
The Seafood Hot Pot was really hot in both ways. It was hot in temperature and in spiciness. Having a liking for hot stuff, I did not mind the spiciness much. The hot pot was more like a soup with liberal sea food like shrimp, crab legs and some kind of fish pieces thrown in for good measure. The rice and the sides were little in comparison to the hot pot content. I guess they are just sides. I had to order extra rice to complete the hot pot as the hot pot by itself got a little hot for me to take it directly after a while.
The Hot Pot was $13.99 and the Salmon Teriyaki was about $10. The check came to about $35, which is $17.5 per head. The cost includes the food, soda, taxes and tip. That's still expensive for my budget. The food is great, service was good. I will definitely visit it for lunch with family, but will think twice before taking my wallet for lunch.
Bloggers Messy and Picky have a thorough review of this restaurant.
The ambiance is warm and cozy. The server got us water and asked us if we wanted anything to drink. I must have got coke or something. For the Main course I had Seafood Hot Pot. My colleague got Salmon Teriyaki Box.
The Seafood Hot Pot was really hot in both ways. It was hot in temperature and in spiciness. Having a liking for hot stuff, I did not mind the spiciness much. The hot pot was more like a soup with liberal sea food like shrimp, crab legs and some kind of fish pieces thrown in for good measure. The rice and the sides were little in comparison to the hot pot content. I guess they are just sides. I had to order extra rice to complete the hot pot as the hot pot by itself got a little hot for me to take it directly after a while.
The Hot Pot was $13.99 and the Salmon Teriyaki was about $10. The check came to about $35, which is $17.5 per head. The cost includes the food, soda, taxes and tip. That's still expensive for my budget. The food is great, service was good. I will definitely visit it for lunch with family, but will think twice before taking my wallet for lunch.
Bloggers Messy and Picky have a thorough review of this restaurant.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tampopo - Korean Restaurant @ 104 south 21st street
The blocks between Rittenhouse Square and market Street has some good looking restaurants on the 21st street. I do a lot of walking and strolling in the evening along those blocks and have noticed this Korean restaurant named Tampopo. 
Tampopo is a Korean fast food joint located a little south of Chestnut St on the 21st street in Center City.
My colleague Marina got a promotion recently and will be joining her new team next month. My other colleague suggested we should give her a congratulatory Lunch. So I did some search on google to find what kind of reviews this restaurant had. I always wanted to try this place but did not want to subject my colleagues to the cruelty of my curiousness. I was not surprised when I found some really good reviews and decided to take a chance.
We were a group of 6 who walked to this restaurant on a windy Tuesday afternoon. The interior is small, simple and well kept. They had about 8 small tables, each table could seat only 2. We had to join 3 tables together so that we could have our lunch together as a team.
Since this is a fast food kind of a place, they take a note of our name while taking orders and announce our name when the food is ready. The food is to be paid for while placing the orders like any fast food place.
It was first time to all of us excepting one who gave a overview of the menu. Having read some good reviews and deciding to be safe I ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken($7.50). My other colleagues ordered a very similar stuff which was really surprising. One colleague who had been to other Korean Restuarants had bi-bim-bob with beef($7.50). Marina ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken and egg($8.00). One friend requested hot spicy chicken breast bowl($7.25), one ordered chicken breast bowl($6.75) and other had chicken breast bowl($6.50).
All the stuff we ordered fell under [Donburi Rice Bowl] section. According to their menu site Donburi (don) means a bowl of rice served with different toppings. You can choose from white rice or brown rice. The bi-bim-bob with chicken that I ordered
had cooked carrots, bean sprouts, zuchini apart from chicken and white rice. The zuchini was cooked in some mild spices that gave it a very good taste. The chicken was grilled and had a flavor like barbeque chicken. The food also came with a sauce that was sweet, sour, spicy all in one. It was great with the rice. It was so good that my colleague who ordered just the chicken breast bowl had some and did not stop raving about it. The bi-bim-bob that I took had a mild pleasant smell and looked colorful and beautiful in the bowl.
At first the serving seemed to be small. The food was served in a maroon colored bowl that looked like procelain at first. But my colleagues who had almost finished my lunch while I was half way through said the quantity was more than enough to satiate the hunger. I found that they were right as I was full on completion on my meal.
The maroon bowls looked really cute and were sturdy. I was almost tempted to take it home with me, but did not do that to avoid people staring at me on the road. The colleagues all liked their food and thoroughly enjoyed their food. I was happy that they liked their food as it was the first time for most. It is difficult to make everyone happy while trying an ethnic food but this place proved to be match for everone on our team.
None of the items on the menu were more than $10. Most items fell with the range of $7-$8. You can also find [Bento Box](comes with white or brown rice, salad w/ginger
dressing,edamame and your choice of broccoli, mushroom, gyoza,or egg cake), Sushi Rolls, Noodles items, Salad Bowls and some side dishes like Kimchi (I will try this the next time I come here). They will find in me a very satisfied and returning customer. By the way if you are not used to eating with chopsticks, you have to specifically ask for a spoon or a fork. The bowl comes with chopsticks only.
Tampopo is a Korean fast food joint located a little south of Chestnut St on the 21st street in Center City.
My colleague Marina got a promotion recently and will be joining her new team next month. My other colleague suggested we should give her a congratulatory Lunch. So I did some search on google to find what kind of reviews this restaurant had. I always wanted to try this place but did not want to subject my colleagues to the cruelty of my curiousness. I was not surprised when I found some really good reviews and decided to take a chance.
We were a group of 6 who walked to this restaurant on a windy Tuesday afternoon. The interior is small, simple and well kept. They had about 8 small tables, each table could seat only 2. We had to join 3 tables together so that we could have our lunch together as a team.
Since this is a fast food kind of a place, they take a note of our name while taking orders and announce our name when the food is ready. The food is to be paid for while placing the orders like any fast food place.
It was first time to all of us excepting one who gave a overview of the menu. Having read some good reviews and deciding to be safe I ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken($7.50). My other colleagues ordered a very similar stuff which was really surprising. One colleague who had been to other Korean Restuarants had bi-bim-bob with beef($7.50). Marina ordered bi-bim-bob with chicken and egg($8.00). One friend requested hot spicy chicken breast bowl($7.25), one ordered chicken breast bowl($6.75) and other had chicken breast bowl($6.50).
All the stuff we ordered fell under [Donburi Rice Bowl] section. According to their menu site Donburi (don) means a bowl of rice served with different toppings. You can choose from white rice or brown rice. The bi-bim-bob with chicken that I ordered
had cooked carrots, bean sprouts, zuchini apart from chicken and white rice. The zuchini was cooked in some mild spices that gave it a very good taste. The chicken was grilled and had a flavor like barbeque chicken. The food also came with a sauce that was sweet, sour, spicy all in one. It was great with the rice. It was so good that my colleague who ordered just the chicken breast bowl had some and did not stop raving about it. The bi-bim-bob that I took had a mild pleasant smell and looked colorful and beautiful in the bowl.
At first the serving seemed to be small. The food was served in a maroon colored bowl that looked like procelain at first. But my colleagues who had almost finished my lunch while I was half way through said the quantity was more than enough to satiate the hunger. I found that they were right as I was full on completion on my meal.
The maroon bowls looked really cute and were sturdy. I was almost tempted to take it home with me, but did not do that to avoid people staring at me on the road. The colleagues all liked their food and thoroughly enjoyed their food. I was happy that they liked their food as it was the first time for most. It is difficult to make everyone happy while trying an ethnic food but this place proved to be match for everone on our team.
None of the items on the menu were more than $10. Most items fell with the range of $7-$8. You can also find [Bento Box](comes with white or brown rice, salad w/ginger
dressing,edamame and your choice of broccoli, mushroom, gyoza,or egg cake), Sushi Rolls, Noodles items, Salad Bowls and some side dishes like Kimchi (I will try this the next time I come here). They will find in me a very satisfied and returning customer. By the way if you are not used to eating with chopsticks, you have to specifically ask for a spoon or a fork. The bowl comes with chopsticks only.
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