It’s a house on a side street in Floresta. There’s no real sign, there’s a lampshade above the door with the Korean characters Kil Jung, the name of the place at Campana 714 (Google maps lists it as “Kwang N Kil”, probably the owner’s full name?). As best I can tell, that’s a personal name, it doesn’t mean anything in particular, and there’s nothing to indicate it’s a restaurant. There’s a gate just inside the door, with a buzzer, but I wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t just someone’s home, so I waited around a few minutes until a couple of 30-something Korean men came up and headed in, and I asked them. They told me that, yes, I was in the right place. [Visited 9/3/18 – it’s closed, but neighbor said it’s reopened a few blocks away on Bahia Blanca, but didn’t have the address. The search is on.]

The menu is only in Korean, though the woman attending the room spoke Spanish and probably could have made some suggestions. But she didn’t offer, and I had my google translate optical feature that at least gave me a basic idea of what the dishes were. I’ve added in the pronunciation, and the description of what each dish is in English and Spanish – feel free to take it with you if you go!

I spotted a calamari stir-fry, ordered it, was informed it was “really spicy”, told her that was what I wanted, garnering a smile. A nice little array of ban chan hit the table quickly, and then some rice and my dish.

They’re not stinting on the chilies! Absolutely delicious. Loved it. Generous portion. All the ban chan were tasty too. Immediately made plans to go back. They’re only open for lunch, Monday through Saturday, noon to 3pm.

I decide to put this place up for our next Roving Ravenous Horde lunch, #20. Four of us make the trip.

And we do pretty well, ordering up four hot dishes, plus some cold noodles to share. The woman who was attending the room last time is now in the kitchen, and there’s a man waiting on tables. He’s a bit less friendly, at least at the beginning, and seems particularly miffed that I took a photo of their menu the previous time and translated it. I think, maybe, he was implying that I actually had stolen a copy of the menu, and didn’t quite get that it was just a photo. I ended up leaving it for him, in the event that, perhaps, a non-Korean speaking person (like any of you, perhaps, though I don’t want to assume) wants to have lunch there. He thanked me for it at the end, by which time he’d become at least pleasant.

Zeroing in – different array of ban chan, other than the broccoli and kimchi. Interesting that it’s missing two things in particular, when I look back at the previous array – a soup, and… the chilies! That’s part of what gave my lunch a great kick the previous time, a bowl of sliced pickled chilies!

We ordered the same calamari dish, which seemed less spicy this time (perhaps, though, that was not having the additional chilies to add). We ordered the pork stir-fry, jaeyook bokum, which I think of as a pork and kimchi stirfry. This was pork coated with gochujang paste and stir-fried, no kimchi. Still, tasty!

The sundubu jigae, a soft tofu and pork stew was quite good – a bit more solid than we expected I think – there’s a little broth on top, but it’s mostly a solid mass of tofu, egg, and bits of pork underneath.

The waiter seemed a bit surprised and made a vague attempt at talking me out of the cheongguk jigae, the “stinky tofu soup” – it’s a fairly intense smelling broth flavored with, well, cheonggukjang, which you might have encountered in Japanese cooking as natto, fermented soybeans. They’re pretty pungent. We dug in and finished it all.

Although I remember taking a photo of the cold spicy noodles, there in the front of the lunch spread picture, it’s not on my phone, so for whatever reason, it didn’t register, or I somehow deleted it. The waiter, after watching us leave it sit for a few minutes, came over and said, “you know, you have to mix it up and let it sit for awhile before you eat it”, and then proceeded to do it for us, using the scissors on the table to cut the noodles, and then tossing the whole thing with chopsticks.

He also, when we asked about a small bottle of soju to have a toast around the table, went and looked in his refrigerator, found he only had big bottles, and sent someone out to the store to buy a cold small bottle for us. So he did warm up to having us there. Lunch for four of us, 1190 pesos plus tip, roughly $64, or $16 apiece. Now that’s a steal. And definitely puts this place into my top five for Korean homestyle cooking.

I also realize, looking at our Roving Ravenous Horde map to date, that out of 20 outings, 3 of them have been Korean spots in Floresta, all in a couple of block radius. That wasn’t planned, now I feel like I have to avoid the area for our outings. Then again, those three have been probably our most popular ones.