Woo Chon Korea House: Korean offerings are delicious

Tabletop barbecue is the easiest on-ramp to Korean cuisine.

My first time was Kang Suh, a Manhattan Koreatown restaurant. All I knew about Korean food at the time were nasty cracks from "M*A*S*H" episodes, but my friend Deb had never steered me wrong.

We gaped as a sure-handed waiter lowered a tub of glowing hardwood charcoal into the tabletop's aperture. The table was crowded with small bowls of fiery pickled vegetables, cooked greens and a bunch of tidbits I couldn't name.

Platters of thin-sliced marinated meat were laid on a grate. As I picked smoky, crispy-edged morsels from the coals and laid them still sizzling atop lettuce wrappers anointed with spicy-sweet bean paste, I was hooked.

Woo Chon Korea House, one of two full-service Korean places in the Buffalo area, is the granddaddy of local Korean dining. It's also the only one offering Korean tabletop barbecue, albeit with gas-fired heat. My children love it, putting the lie to the canard that all Korean food is painfully spicy.

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