Dianne and I both love Korean Cuisine and we seek it out whenever we are visiting large cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas.  If you know where some great Korean food can be found around Oklahoma, leave us a comment on our Taste Oklahoma Blog.

On a recent trip through Tulsa, we saw a sign for the Hmong Cafe at 31st & Garnett.  Upon visiting them, we found Hmong cuisine surprisingly familiar to our western palates.

Hmong Cafe
11197 East 31st Street Tulsa, OK 
(918) 828-9192

Soju and Sushi at Tulsa’s Korean Garden

Dianne's food review from 3-31-2005
Tom (my husband) and I both enjoy Korean Cuisine, but for different reasons. Korean food offers more meat than many Asian styles, so it works well on my low carb diet. I find the food spicy and adventurous and I learn something new every time I go out for a Korean meal. Tom spent a year in Korea, where he developed more of a taste for the Soju (the local drink) than the cuisine. I think he humors my love of Sushi for the occasional chance to enjoy this unusual beverage again.

Around 41st and Mingo in Tulsa, Oklahoma you will find one of my favorite restaurants, the Korean Garden. It features a huge menu with several sections including Soju, BBQ, Sushi and Sashimi.

Soju

Soju is an alcoholic drink distilled from rice, yams or tapioca and has a 24% alcohol percentage. The taste is much like watered down vodka and it is traditionally served straight. Surprisingly, Soju is the leading distilled spirits category in the world, selling over 200 million cases annually.

Korean BBQ

This is where you cook your own food at the table over a large broiler that is housed inside each table. You choose an item, the waiter brings out a pot, and the party begins. This is priced per meal and has a minimum limit of 3 people, but like all Korean food includes a healthy amount of side dishes.

Sushi

Often thought of as simply raw fish, sushi is actually served in or on rice, commonly housed in a dried, sliced seaweed wrap called: nori. The fish and rice arrive nestled against a veggie or two and served with a bright green dollop of wasabi (a type of horseradish…punishingly hot) on the side. Sushi, which actually means flavored rice, was originally designed to keep fish from going bad. The dried fish would be placed between two pieces of vinegar rice, the nori was added later to keep the rice from sticking to your fingers…how’s that for finger food evolution.

Sashimi

This is the dish most people imagine sushi to be. Served alone, (no rice) these small raw fish steaks are commonly accompanied by Daikon (white radish). I don’t eat rice, so I enjoy this over sushi, but boy will it ever freak out the unsuspecting dinner guest. This is definitely not what you want to start with when introducing yourself to oriental cuisine.

Regular Dinner Entrees

I have visited The Korean Garden on several occasions and have never had the same dish twice (appetizers don’t count, I enjoy kimbap despite the rice), but I have yet to try even a quarter of what they have to offer.

Pork Bulgogi

I love this stuff! This is marinated tender pork served in a spicy red oriental chili sauce mixed with onions and peppers much like a fajita. It is a great meat dish with a spicy flavor all it’s own.

Chicken Bulgogi

This is another of my favorites, spicy chicken mixed with broccoli and onions. The red chili sauce is spicy, but I can’t get enough of it!

Sriracha is an amazing Thai hot sauce. AKA: "Rooster Sauce", due to the rooster featured on its label. You will find it is available by request at just about any Asian cuisine restaurant. My advice is: 'don't rock sushi without a little Sriracha'. A little bit will do for most folks.

Bulgogi

This is where it all started; thin tender slices of marinated top sirloin mixed with onions and served on a hot plate. This is not spicy at all, but very tender and juicy, I recommend this for any beginner to Korean cuisine. Frankly, I lived on the stuff for my entire tour in South Korea.

The Side Dishes

This is the fun part! There are always bunches of side dishes served with any Korean food and they sometimes vary by availability. Although some things may change, others remain a constant. Kimchi, for example, will be present for every meal as will bean sprouts and dried radish. Kimchi is a Korean word for ‘pickled vegetable’. However, unless it is followed by the name of the vegetable (i.e. kimchi radish), kimchi refers to a spicy pickled cabbage served cold.

The staff at The Korean Garden is very friendly and eager to help you have a good time. The service is great and they were happy to help answer all of my questions when I needed help deciding what to order.

If you don’t know what Korean foods you want to try first, I suggest visiting on Friday afternoons. They have a small buffet with a nice variety of main courses. It is the only place in Tulsa where you can try all three bulgogies at once for around six dollars.

If you are looking for wonderful authentic Korean cuisine at a reasonable price, this is the place for you. The Korean Garden offers a wide variety of exotic pleasures to experience, from Kimbap to Sushi.

Don't forget to visit the Korean Food Market right next door whenever you visit The Korean Garden in Tulsa.  They have a selection of Ramen that will blow your mind.  My favorite: the Jja Jang Myun flavored noodles.

We will definitely be returning to the Korean Garden in Tulsa, OK. -- Thomas & Dianne Jones
September 13, 2008

More About Soju

Jinro America played a key role in successfully lobbying the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to allow restaurants in California and New York with only a beer and wine license to sell soju, a distilled spirit. This unique status has made Jinro Soju one of the fastest growing spirit brands in the U.S.

In addition to restaurants, we buy Soju at our home liquor store: Beeline Liquor in Okmulgee, OK.
 
Beeline Liquor
1010 E 7th St,
Okmulgee, OK 74447-4716
Phone: (918) 756-6413

FYI - Korean food is popular throughout the world. It traditionally includes more meat than most Asian cuisines.

Good News - Two New Kimchi Sources in Tulsa, OK!

Sushi Train is a fun sushi buffet restaurant at 51st & Harvard in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Ask for a menu and order a bit of their wonderful Cucumber Kimchi in addition to whatever tasty sushi rolls capture your interest as they circle the buffet via electric rail.

Haruno's Sushi & Korean in Tulsa

Restaurant Review 12-11-2009

Christmas shopping requirements took Dianne and I to Tulsa again on Friday. We were driving down 71st Street toward Woodland Hills Mall, when were pleasantly surprised to spot a new restaurant: Haruno's Sushi & Korean. Dianne and I love Korean food and Japanese Sushi, so this discovery trumped any special bargains we found at the mall.

Haruno's Tulsa offers private karaoke room, a full bar, private dining rooms and other amenities common to Asian cuisine restaurants, but the quality of the food and the Zen garden like atmosphere sets Haruno's apart. Stop by and see them soon and you can enjoy the Grand Opening special of free Miso Soup & salad with your entree. The cuisine seems very authentic to me, heck... they even have Soju!

According to their lovely website, Haruno means the season of spring in Japanese. I found the simple elegance of their beautiful plates, saucers and saki service to be as refreshing as a breath of spring. Since the spot is still relatively undiscovered, we got right in with no waiting for a table.

Dianne ordered the Spicy Bulgogi and I decided to try their Sushi Combo both offered reduced prices for lunch. You won't find Kimchi on the menu, but you will find it on the table if you order the Spicy Bulgogi. They serve Kimchi with all of their Korean food dinners, which I can tell you... is exactly how it is served in Korea. Dianne found the Kimchi to be better quality than the Kimchi she ordered from Sushi Train on our last visit. I tried her Spicy Pork Bulgogi and found it to be slightly less sweet than other spots we have enjoyed this dish at. I really enjoyed the Jalapeño marinated onions served with it, but was surprised to see no Daikon served with it. Dianne added warm Saki to her lunch and found it quite comforting on this cold winter day.

My Sushi Combo was excellent; the spicy tuna roll was my favorite. Since we had started off with the Pork Gyoza appetizer, I was too stuffed to try any of the desserts. However, the server offered us plum or green tea ice cream.

The menu is loaded with exotic dishes that I am excited to try like Kobe Beef or HaeMulPaJen. However, next time I am up for sushi I think I will try the Magic Dragon Rolls (Spicy mayo, cream cheese, asparagus, avocado, fried shrimp topped with escolar, tuna, eel, eel sauce, Srirachi hot sauce and scallions). Haruno Tulsa is fairly upscale, but at lunchtime the prices are lower, so our meal was about $50 with tip. You can easily spend more than that on a single Kobe Beef entree at dinner, so it may be quite awhile before we can report on that dish!

Dianne and I both think that Haruno's Tulsa offers a delicious and calming dining experience that is a great addition to South Tulsa. We will definitely be back for more!

Cooking Korean Food with Maangchi DVD.
$20.00
Cooking Korean Food DVD. How to cook Korean food the traditional way.

Korean Food in Tulsa 

Korean Garden
12773 E 41st St
Tulsa, OK 74146
(918) 627-9292

Suki Unique Dining
7828 E. 71st St.
Tulsa Oklahoma
(918) 307-8008

Sushi Train
3300 E 51st St
Tulsa, OK 74135-3512
Phone: 918- 747-9931

Haruno Sushi & Korean Cuisine
7104 S Memorial Drive
Tulsa, OK 74133
(near by AT&T store)

Oklahoma City Korean Food Restaurants

Bon Jom Korean Restaurant
(405) 672-6060
4428 Se 44th St
Oklahoma City, OK 73135

Seoul Garden Korean Restaurant
(405) 732-3055
6012 Se 15th St
Oklahoma City, OK 73110

Sharon Garden Korean Rest
(405) 523-2121
1400 Nw 23rd St
Oklahoma City, OK 73106

Korean B-Won Restaurant
4517 S. Sunnylane Rd.
Oklahoma City, OK
(405) 670-1170

Japanese Pickles or Tsukemono can be easily made at home in hours with one of these handy Asian Pickle Presses.

More Tsukemono goodies here

Oklahoma Diversity

Oklahoma has no clear region. It’s not the South, it’s not the Southwest, it’s not the  Midwest. You can kayak through the mountains in some parts of the state, canoe through cypress swamps full of Spanish Moss in another part. Some parts are windy and dry prairie lands, other parts offer mountains of rock lined with quartz and iron. 

Taste the diversity of Oklahoma!