Bok Chang Dong

I have truly neglected my food blog over the past two months, and it’s about time I get back into the swing of things...This entry goes all the way back to New Year’s Eve of 2005 when I visited New York to celebrate my birthday. One of the places Meat took us to was Bok Chang Dong, a small Korean restaurant located in Queens.

Bok Chang Dong was rather small and it seemed more like a café than a restaurant. Nevertheless, it was nice and quaint. The window facing the street let you peek into the kitchen where soups and stir-frying meats were bubbling and steaming away under the supervision of a handful of cooks.

With a small kitchen, the menu was understandably rather limited. The concise menu fit on one page. The restaurant specialized mainly in soups but it also offered a few of the most popular dishes found at most Korean restaurants like LA Kalbi, Bulgoki, and Bibimbop to name a few.

I like eating at Korean restaurants because they always provide several different appetizer dishes to nibble on and begin your meal – free of charge. I appreciate that. Each restaurant is different but at Bok Chang Dong, among the dishes served were Kim chi, pickled cucumbers in brine, jelly fish, bean sprouts, cucumbers marinated in a spicy garlic sauce, and a seaweed/daikon salad.

I ordered the Bulgoki for my main. It was moderate at best. Although tender, the beef wasn’t very flavorful and it sat in a pool of watery sauce. I have had better versions at other places, but it did the trick for the night. The rice that it was served with was interesting though. The rice was cooked in a large hot stone pot, and once the server dished out individual servings to everyone, he poured hot water into the bowl so the pieces of slightly charred rice that accumulated at the bottom could also be enjoyed. It was the first time I saw that.


Both Eric and Meat ordered soups. I did not try either of theirs but I believed they came with beef and tofu. They arrived at the table boiling hot and bubbling vigorously. Accompanied with the soups were eggs, which could be cracked open and mixed into the soup to create a more luxurious consistency and taste.

Overall, the food was decent and affordable. We were looking for a quick bite to eat and didn’t want to travel far, so given our situation and requirements, Bok Chang Dong was a good choice.