Debbie
736 posts
Jun 20, 2005
9:59 AM
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Sallim Korean Veg Life Buffet
3020 Wilshire Blvd., #119, Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: 213-387-5334
Hours: Daily Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Daily Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
We decided to try this Korean Vegan restaurant last Sunday. The restaurant is about 38 miles from our house but California freeways could take us there easily. The restaurant is near downtown Los Angeles, in the edge of Korean Town district. For those who are not used to downtown LA, this could be a culture shock to drive around in this area. We encountered traffic jam even in the middle of the day on Sunday on California freeways. Californians are going to fun places on weekend so our freeways are always busy. I suspected that the Hollywood Bowl is having the Playboy Jazz Festival this weekend (something I would consider for next year). I considered it a medium light traffic jam but for people from out-of-town, this could be another shock. But I know that I would not pursue coming to this area on weekdays.
After we passed the Filipino Town and a section of a Hispanic area, we arrived to the Korean Town. We knew this by looking at the store signs in the area. They were in their own ethnic languages. The Korean Town’s signs were all in Korean, for example, so it was hard to find the restaurant because there were no English translations on the signs. But my husband was a good navigator and we found the restaurant by the address. One useful landmark is that it is next to Southwestern Law School (in English sign). The restaurant is in the middle of a business district on Wilshire (corner of Virgil and Wilshire). It was pretty quiet on Sunday and it was easy to find a metered parking space on the street. We didn’t have to pay for parking on Sunday.
Sallim is a large restaurant with a long buffet table in the middle. The atmosphere is bright and clean. That’s what we like. The waitress seated us and gave us a glass of hot green tea and water right away. The buffet is divided into sections: Soup/Porridge, Salad, Condiments and Kim chi, Entrees, and Rice. There was no large dessert section like in the Chinese, French, or American buffet but there was only a bowl of Sweet Rice (malted) drink and cut up oranges.
After looking around the restaurant, I got the impression that this restaurant is for the health conscious customers. All the flyers and signs on the wall were in Korean, but there was a flyer with one packet of Equal (the blue packet) taped to it. I just assumed that it was a flyer that warned people that Equal is bad. There was also a NO MSG sign. Most signs were in Korean but the dishes were labeled in Korean and English. There was one label that caught my eye. It said ‘We don’t use oil in our stir fried dishes, we use veggie broth’. It was another indication that this is a healthy restaurant.
There were only 2 deep fried dishes: Lotus Root Tempura and Veggie Cutlet. Both were good and not greasy. There were a lot of vegetables, fresh or cooked. I was expected that there would be a lot of faux meat dishes but there were not, only a few dishes that had soy meat in it. I started with the soup/porridge. I enjoyed the Cashewnut and Seaweed soup but was disappointed at the Lotus Flower Seed bean porridge because it tasted blend. I was looking for the Black Sesame/Bean porridge but they didn’t serve it that day. There were Pumpkin porridge and Soy Bean soup but I didn’t try them as I wanted to save a room for the other dishes.
It is impossible for one to try all the dishes. But I noticed that there were a lot of spicy dishes and strange items that I have never tried before like Burdock root, Bracken, and fresh seaweeds. I don’t like fresh seaweed in general (I only like nori and wakame) so I avoided those and also the strange stuff. Although, my husband was brave and did try what they called Bracken. He said it was good. The other strange thing that I found was the jelly-like strips. I assume that it was made of yam (like yam noodle or konjaku). I avoided those too.
I did try the rest of the dishes: spicy soy bean sprouts, kim chi fried rice, stir-fried soy meat and shiitake, sweet and sour soymeat balls, orange flavor mushrooms, stir-fried kim chi and tofu, stir-fried tofu and mushrooms, shiitake marinated in Korean barbeque sauce, Korean sushi, spinach and bean thread noodles, potato salad with soy milk and tofu dressing, vegetable pancake, and kim chi pancake (the pancakes were only about 2 inches diameter). They served: brown rice, white rice, and barley rice. I like their condiments and pickes which were: spicy red bean paste (samjang), kim chi, and pancake soy sauce. They also had rolled pickled radish around red bell pepper and beansprout which I like since it tasted refreshing. Most of their dishes are flavorful, tasty, refreshing, and not oily. However, Korean like spicy food so don’t be surprise that most of their dishes contains Korean red peppers.
We helped ourselve to fresh cut up oranges at the end and I tried the Sweet Rice Malted drink which was delicious. By now we were already so full. The bill was $21.63 for both of us. Lunch was $9.99 per person plus tax (green tea included). Dinner is $10.99 per person.
The restaurant was pretty busy for a Sunday afternoon. Most of their customers were Koreans. We were one of the 3 tables who were not Koreans. There were about 50 – 60 people having lunch when we were there. During the weekdays, they probably are serving business clienteles as I found out that they also serve breakfast from 8 a.m. – 9 a.m. We will probably come back again since we love Korean food and this is the only Vegan Korean restaurant in LA area.
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
Last Edited Debbie on 20-Jun-2005 10:04 AM
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