I can’t say that the garment district in Floresta is a place that I’d generally want to head to at night. I suppose with cabs or ubers that it’s not that big of a deal, it just doesn’t generally occur to me. And for as long as I’ve been exploring the two Koreatowns in BA, The Kunjip, Felipe Vallese 3209, has only been open for dinner. So it got relegated to the backburner of exploration. A few months back, just in randomly looking over the Facebook pages or website for places I still hadn’t gotten to, I noticed that they’d recently started opening Saturday for lunch.

I made a note, but I rarely have a Saturday free. I’d sent them a message and asked if they might be planning on opening on other days for lunch. They’re very responsive to Facebook messages. At the time, they weren’t open other days, but thought that maybe down the line they might, so I “liked” the page. And just last week, a post popped up on my timeline that they’d updated their hours. And sure enough, Sunday lunches! Not a day I would have expected for that neighborhood – they’re pretty much the only restaurant open, but hey, grab it while it lasts and all that.

Now, “kunjip” or “keunjip” means “big house”. And the sign in Spanish, or really, in English, says “The Kunjip”. But the actuality is that the Korean name on both the front and the menu is “deo keun jip” which means “bigger house”. Now, I’m not sure bigger than what, as this isn’t exactly a massive space. I forgot to take an interior photo, but what is inside is a lineup of eight bamboo surrounded booths, each with a table designed for four people (you could squeeze more, but it’s a squeeze). And the booths even have bamboo curtains so that if you choose, you can dine inside your booth in privacy. We opted to leave our curtains open – two other tables were there while we were (their first Sunday lunch open, so not bad for a start), one kept them open, the other asked for them to be closed.

There’s a menu posted on the wall, noting an all you can eat Korean BBQ for 450 pesos (currently a shade over $16), and then listing five other dishes – two forms of cold noodles, either in soup or with spicy sauce; a spicy pork stir-fry, a sweet and spicy beef stir-fry, or a spicy beef soup. Apparently the barbecue part isn’t really optional, as they started the service for that nearly as we sat down. It’s just an option to order one or more of the other dishes to supplement it (they all run a shade over 200 pesos each).

And this is one abundant barbecue spread. It’s worth clicking on the photo to see it large sized. If I have any criticisms of it, it’s two things – first, the grill is just too big for the table, and second, there were no non-red meat offerings, even in the various side dishes (yes, there were vegetable dishes, but nothing fish or seafood based, no chicken, just all beef and pork). Let’s zoom in on some standouts.

First, a couple of actual steaks, not just chopped or shredded meat, or thin slices of steak, but actual steaks, that you can cook to the temperature you like. and decent quality ones too. And the bacon, likewise, is thick cut. Also, neither is brought out frozen, a common thing at several of the Korean BBQ spots we’ve been to over time. There’s also the usual two shredded beef offerings (not pictured, though in the front of the big spread picture), both in a soy marinade and a spicy marinade.

And, in traditional service style, they brought a big platter of lettuce for making wraps (the first place we’ve been to where they asked if we wanted it or not rather than just bringing it). We did, also, have to ask for hot sauce (which is delicious, actually spicy, and well worth asking for), rather than it being on the table – oddly, what they did give each of us on the table was a dish of salsa criolla, the Argentine mix of tomatoes and onions in vinegar. Bowing to local tastes I imagine.

I liked this more than Steven did, it was a dish of stewed chinchulines, small intestine, or “chitlins” as some might call them, in a fiery pepper sauce. I think I ate about 3/4 of the dish myself.

The other side dishes – a decent selection of ban chan, though we found the kimchi to be a bit tame. Interestingly they brought two different kinds of kimchi, specifying that one was for the grill and to be eaten hot with the steaks. There was also a bowl of soup, a moderately spicy miso based broth with tofu and zucchini that was decent, though not one of the better ones we’ve had. Some deep-fried pork on another plate, and a pretty good salad. Refills of anything, of course, are free, if you can manage.

Like the place, friendly service, really good food, certainly moves this spot into one of my top five for Korean BBQ, knocking out BBQ Town in Barrio Chino to take position number 5. And, all told with a large bottle of water to share, and tip, 1060 pesos, or about $38 – $19 apiece. Not a bad deal at all.