Saturday Night Korean BBQ

There are very few things that entice us to go outside the perimeter (unless it's by plane), but Hae Woon Dae is one of them. Derek took me to this Korean BBQ restaurant on Buford Highway on one of our first dates, and it was just as good tonight as the first time. A little background for those who haven't been to a Korean BBQ: you sit at a table with a hole in the middle of it. A brave young man places a catchpan, a pail with glowing charcoal and a cover that looks somewhat like a hubcap in the hole. Your order is cooked on the grill at your table while you snack on the 7 or 8 side dishes (called hanjungsik). Once the meat is done, you create lettuce wraps with bean curd, hot peppers, garlic, the meat and a dipping sauce.
Tonight, we started with a couple orders of the dumplings, which were delicious, but ended up being way too much food with our main courses. It was a little disappointing initially when they stopped serving Cass, but we found that the alternate Korean beer, Hite, is just as good. For dinner, we decided on the shrimp and the beef (we tried ordering just one dish to share one time, but it was discouraged). Derek threw a few of the garlic cloves and hot peppers on the grill (a technique he learned from the server/cook on our last visit) to spice up the lettuce wraps.
Although the meats are wonderful, I would be completely satisfied to just order the hanjungsik. The side dishes tonight consisted of the usual kim chee, marinated turnips or radishes, potato & carrot salad (probably my favorite), some sort of cooked green leafy vegetable and bean sprouts. We also had a couple of new dishes: broccoli with spicy sauce, scallion cakes and some sort of unidentified crunchy, spicy vegetable.
We were pretty much full by the time the meat was done, but I still managed to eat 3 lettuce wraps. I burned my tongue with the hot peppers, but not to the extent that Derek did. I think he is still recovering hours later. The grilled garlic added a lot of flavor to the wraps too. Grilling it definitely cuts down on the strong flavor (and smell--the first time we ate here, I insisted that Derek have a clove of garlic so I could eat one too ;)).
The meal ended with a couple of slices of watermelon and an easy-to-swallow bill of $53 (before tip). I can't remember the last time we went out for dinner for less than $80, and the meal is not usually this good. Why can't all restaurants be this good? If it wasn't so far away, we would add it to our regular stable of restaurants (which you will hear about in later blogs). Actually, it's probably a good thing, because now it's a special treat to go.
Oh, I forgot one thing: the watermelon wasn't the finale. Each visit to Hae Woon Dae ends with a trip (in the car with doors locked) to the end of the strip center, which houses an adult movie theater (yes, by adult, I mean porn). We check out the movie-goers, then make the loop around the cars to check out the steamy windows, hoping to not be flashed by headlights. Who says there's nothing fun to do in Atlanta on a Saturday night?