Tokyo Food Page

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★Halleluyah/
Gaienmae: Korean
▼3478-7848
▽Data

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It's always a pleas-
ure to find real
down-home Korean
cooking without
having to make the
trek up to Okubo, so
we were thrilled to
discover Halleluyah
on a fashionable
Aoyama side street.
When we saw the
bottomless bowls of
kimchee and bean
sprouts on each
table, the imported
Hite beer and makko-
li on the drinks
menu, and the huge
nabe-style stew
simmering away on
the next table, we
knew we'd found
something more
interesting than
run-of-the-mill
Korean barbecue.

Halleluyah's decor
is playful and sub-
tle - cheap-looking
red tables with
spindly aluminum
legs, cement floors,
wooden shingles on
the inside walls,
half-rusted corro-
gated metal on the
outside. It all
evokes a kind of
post-war, retro-chic
aesthetic without
being pushy about
it. (There are no
cutesy fifties-era
advertising posters,
for example, and
it's easy to miss
the effect entirely.
) But it's clear
that some designer
worked very hard,
and probably spent a
good chunk of money,
making things look
this cheap.

Although they have a
diverse menu, the
specialties of the
house are the spicy
stews that are
cooked on a grill at
the center of your
table. Among these
is an excellent
version of dakkalbi
- a dish originally
from Chunchon (near
the north-south
border) that's be-
come popular in
Seoul and the rest
of the country over
the past few years.
Succulent grilled
ji-dori chicken,
Korean mochi (rice
cakes), potatoes,
carrots, onions and
other vegetables are
simmered in a thick,
spicy red sauce.
Portions are ample,
and the smaller size
(Y2500) should be
sufficient for four
hungry people, as-
suming you're order-
ing other dishes as
well.

And there are plenty
of side dishes worth
a try, like the ebi
hotate itame, with
big, flavorful
shrimp and sushi-
bar-quality scallops
stir-fried in a
rich, spicy miso-
infused sauce.
There's also braised
oxtail - intensely
beefy in flavor -
and vinegared sesame
leaves (best accom-
panied by a dab of
white rice), that
make a nice contrast
to the rich sauces
of the other dishes.


Given the hefty size
of the portions,
this is a good place
to come with a
group. And should
your group settle in
and make an evening
of it, the pig's
foot (Y3500) pro-
vides good nibbles
to go with a few
rounds of drinks.
It's all sliced up
and ready to go -
just add miso paste,
raw garlic slivers,
hot peppers and
kanimiso (crab
guts), wrap the
whole thing in a
lettuce leaf and
you've got a bal-
anced meal. In case
you crave a few more
vitamins, though, a
good accompaniment
to the pig's foot is
a dish called muku -
basically a salad of
exotic greens, cu-
cumbers, nori
(toasted seaweed),
and odd greyish-
brown chunks of
buckwheat-flour
tofu, all in a sweet
and spicy dressing.
Drinks include do-
mestic and Korean
beer, soju (shochu),
makkoli (a mild,
milky-looking tradi-
tional rice wine),
and a clear Korean
rice wine called
chungha - it's not
quite sake, but very
similar, and it's a
decent match for
spicy food.

The crowd is a live-
ly mix of after-work
office staff,
fashion-industry
underlings and local
residents, with more
families on the
weekends. Private
rooms up on the
second floor handle
the overflow and
cater to small par-
ties.

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▼Photo (large)
▼Map for AU phones
▼Map for DoCoMo

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◎Jingumae 3-42-18.
[about five minutes
from Gaienmae sta-
tion, on the way to
"Killer dori" and
just before Aoyama
Kumano Jinja but on
the left side of the
street]
◎Open 11:30am-2, 5-
11pm (LO). Closed
Sundays.

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