Kaya Korean Restaurant – Westminster CO

Friday the 13^th July 13, 2012

I had never been to a Korean Restaurant, but have had Korean food that my mom learned to cook that has always been one of my favorites.  This place was rather confusing the name anyways,  on the menu and yelp it says Kaya Korean Restaurant, the sign outside just said Korean BBQ, the google map says Korean Garden and their business cards and the to-go bag said Dae Gee.

They have some of their tables have grills right in the middle of the tables, but we didn’t really want to cook it ourselves, so we took one of the regular tables.  We were going to just order one of the family dinners but they said we could only order that at the grill tables because I think they only let you cook the Galbi at your table.  So we just ordered 3 different meat dishes Chicken, beef and pork bulgoki as well as Jhob chae (I’ve also seen it spelled chap-chae or jap-chae) which was listed as an appetizer.  We all also got cokes.  The whole place was empty when we got here at about 5:30 but as we waited for our food the place started filling up and there were quite a few Koreans.  After a bit our waitress started to bring out the food. 

First she sat down some small plates that were kind of half bowl half plate.  She also brought out rice in individual bowl type things.  Then she came with a tray of side dishes that she went through the names but went kind of fast, there were probably about 10 of them.  Fish cakes, kimchi cakes, kimchi, spicy cucumber, bean sprouts, beef garlic and peppers, broccoli, mashed potato, a salad with cabbage and carrots and onions.  Some of these like the kimchi and the cucumbers were a little spicy, but not as hot as I would have expected.  The Kimchi I thought was really good, and I didn’t think I liked kimchi before, but the last I had was out of a jar.  This was like the difference between a jar of salsa and fresh salsa.  The potato salad I thought was a little weird how it tasted like normal Asian flavors but in potatoes which I hadn’t had anything like it before.  All of these were pretty good, except I didn’t really care for the fish cakes.  They also brought out a plate of lettuce and some kind of sauce, for eating the meat with but this was harder for me to do than just eating it with a fork.

Right after these came out; the entrees came one at a time.  The last thing to come was the jhob chae which was an appetizer.  Other bulgoki that I’ve had that my mom makes she cooks it longer.  All of these dishes were lighter cooked, and all had very good flavor, but it was the low quality of meat that I didn’t like. 

It was a little tough, chewy, and grisly in places.  The pork was spicy, probably the hottest thing we had that night.  The chicken and the beef were not spicy at all. 

The jhob chae dish was great, the noodles were clear yam noodles  with stir-fried veggies which were carrots, cabbage, onions, mushrooms and spinach with a little bit of beef.  This dish was what I expected it to be and it was delicious.  I really liked how they served the meal with a bunch of side dishes, which is traditional for Korean food. So you would get a lot of variety.   I probably would have given this place a 5 star rating if the meat would have been better.

 7570 Sheridan Blvd  Westminster, CO 80003

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