(photo by wm. christman)
There are plenty of Korean restaurants in the Bay Area. They fall into three camps: barbecue smorgasbords with at-table grills and chill-tables full of different raw meats for your hunter-gatherer inclinations, down-home joints with Korean soups, hotpots, grilled meats and rice standards, and finally outfits that combine the best of both worlds with at-table grills plus all of the comforts of Korean home food.
Although the all-you-can-eat model allows you to eat until you collapse into a heap of chili'ied-out garlic goodness, these places often suffer from quantity over quality, just as it is at a regular smorgasbord, like say, Hometown Buffet. Nothing wrong with that per se, but if you're going to spend your hard earned ducats on some K-vittles (which are somewhat universally, at least in the Bay Area, on the spendy side) opting for mediocre is just silly.
(photo by wm. christman)
Oakland's Ohgane is anything but mediocre. It is one of those best-of-both-worlds Korean restaurants with table grills, large platters of great quality meats, and enough feed-an-army sized entrees to feed, well, an army.
I was first attracted to Ohgane by a dish described to me as a "Korean steak tartare with crunchy Asian pear". I was a bit concerned about the fusion-ish sound of of this...enough to nearly write it off. (I don't dislike "fusion" Asian places, I just think that there aren't many that do this type of thing well...) Then someone mentioned that they served forcemeat dumplings in soup, and my comfort food Spidey-sense went nuts and it was on. I couldn't not go.
the ubiquitous and plentiful panchan (photo by wm. christman)
Ohgane is a decently large place and you get hit with a nice waft of grilled meat smell (a great smell, by the way) on entering. The layout is strictly old-school and the place may well have been a family style, booth-laden eatery in former life. There are in-table grills laid out semi-strategically underneath large exhaust fans. The circulation is not quite optimal which means that you may be tempted to burn your clothing after eating here but arranging a date with your laundry will be easier. You'll live.
Foregoing the barbecue (for another time), the soup and tartare were the choices of the day. It didn't really sound like enough food for two so we added a dol sot bi bim bap to the list. Food ordering frenzy trumped actual stomach volume considerations and we knew from the first dish that we were only an army of two, about to eat for an army of four or five.
yep, forcemeat dumplings inside... (photo by wm. christman)
The soup with forcemeat dumplings (man du kal guk su) was a large bowl of soup with scads of thinnly julienned vegetables, still slightly crisp floating in an almost gelatinous,thick broth. If you're thinking hot-and-sour soup consistency, you're on the right track. The dumplings (four of them) were large triangular affairs with a smooth mixture of slow-cooked beef and chives wrapped in thick dough skins. They had the hand-made taste and texture of Mom's home cookin' and they matched with the soup's subtle beef taste.
beware the sides of the smokin' stone bowl (photo by wm. christman)
The dol sot bi bim bap was up next. "Dol sot" means stone bowl and typically, these are heated over a high flame for 20-30 minutes (maybe longer). The rice is really the main attraction in a bi bim bap and it crisps nicely on the bottom of the blazingly hot stone bowl. The vegetables, meat and egg, along with a nice squirt of thick sweet-hot chili sauce, all get tossed together as the bowl hisses angrily with all of the new surfaces to sear. The effect is a mixed rice that is reminiscent of fried rice without the oily sheen. The chili sauce adds a thick, head-clearing kick, especially if you opt for more directly on your portion. As you dig down for more, the crispy bits of rice are the added treat.
(photo by wm. christman)
The steak tartare (yuke hwe) was really the sleeper of the meal. (Ohgane had some pacing problems here with the tartare listed as an appetizer but it came last...) A large pile of thinly sliced, and nicely marbled and marinated beef sat atop a pile of slat-like Asian pear pieces. An egg yolk (for mixing) nestled into a divot pressed into the top of the beef.
Like with most tartares, you push and prod the egg yolk into the meat to gently mix it up. The marinade and yolk (and some of the raw beef juice) combines to make a orange-ish dressing that coats every strand of beef. Instead of the smooth texture of a classic tartare, the steak offered a more of a chewing challenge which in turn brought out its flavor. The slightly bitter taste of the uncooked egg yolk, the tang of the marinade, and the sweet note of the crunchy pear made this a rich, decadent treat.
Ohgane's draw isn't innovation or flash - it is their straight ahead renditions of classic Korean food. It's not fancy or perfect but if you need some Korean style beef lovin' (!), it's a good bet.
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Ohgane, 3915 Broadway (at 40th), Oakland, 510.594.8300
