IGK - Seafood Pajun

It's been a long time since I tried anything new at IGK, but I recently went there and saw that they were offering a lunch special for seafood pajun. If you've never had it before, pajun is a Korean scallion pancake made with egg, rice flour, and scallions. It's similar to a Chinese scallion pancake, but it's a little denser and chewier. The seafood offering from IGK also added in pieces of squid and a couple shrimp as well.

Seafood Pajun

This wasn't the best seafood pajun I had ever had, but it was still pretty good. Texture-wise it was a bit softer than I'm used to. Most likely that was caused by the fact that it was a bit thicker in some places than others. The pieces were also a little flimsy. Flavor-wise this was pretty good. It wasn't too salty, and the crispier charred parts were nice. I wish it had been cooked a little longer so that more of it could have crisped, but it took a little while to make this as it was. The squid didn't get overly chew either so that was a pleasant surprise.

The pajun came boxed with a spicy soy sauce as well, but I didn't get any heat at all. I don't think it was fully necessary, but it added a little different flavor to the mix. Would I get this again? Sure. It's not bad, but it is a bit more expensive than the other things I usually get. It's not an every time type of thing, but it's a nice treat here and there.

IGK - Spicy Curry Udon

It's been a very long time since I reviewed something new from IGK. That's more a product of me not trying anything new to be quite honest. This is pretty much a weekly stop for me on my lunch runs. I love this place, and I'm glad I have something new to talk about from their offerings.

Granted, this offering is from their weekly special menu so I'm not sure how often it will be available, but I will seriously have to consider it every time I see it.

I wasn't sure what to expect with the Spicy Curry Udon. For some reason I was picturing some sort of curry-based soup with udon and chicken added. I honestly have no clue why I thought that considering the sign clearly states curry on top of udon noodles and not noodles in curry. Regardless, I was very pleased with what I got.

The curry came loaded with carrots, onions, and potatoes and was heated with the chicken before being layered on top of the udon noodles. They finished the dish with a drizzle of teriyaki sauce, scallions, sesame seeds, and pickled radish. The curry was a very fragrant and flavorful Japanese curry. It wasn't too spicy, but I could definitely get some latent heat prevailing through the dish. I've had many Japanese curries in the past, and this one was a very good offering. I've never had it on top of noodles before, though, so this was an interesting new experience. It was, sadly, also a bit of a messy one. My poor shirt has some new curry spots that will need to be addressed later. Overall, I really enjoyed this dish, and I'm looking forward to getting it again when I get a chance. I'll just need to remember to wear a bib next time!

IGK Banh Mi

I went back to IGK to test out their Banh Mi sandwiches since I've tried basically every other Asian dish they serve there. While this wasn't a bad sandwich, it was a little pricey considering its size and extremely pricey when compared to the price vs size for their noodles.

Honey Glazed Pork Banh Mi

The sandwich itself was okay. It's not as packed as the offering from Chicken House, but they add in the traditional pickled radish and carrot slaw, cucumber, and sliced hot chili peppers. You can also add Sriracha sauce if you want additional heat (I did). The bread was a bit odd for a banh mi. It was a baguette like all others, but because it was pre-made they didn't warm/toast the baguette prior to putting the ingredients in. Instead they took the fully loaded sandwich and put it in a panini press. It certainly crisped the outside nicely while keeping a good chewiness, but the bread was compressed a bit too much. I like a little more breadiness for my banh mi. In the end it was a nice offering, but I think if I want to get a banh mi in the future I'll stick with Chicken House. For my Asian noodle needs I will continue patronizing IGK until they tell me I can't come in anymore.

IGK Kalbi Tacos

In the past I've written plenty of posts about IGK and their Asian food station. There's actually another post I keep forgetting to write concerning their spicy chicken over rice, but that's a different story. I've been there so often that all of the cashiers recognize me. In fact, when I came up with my kalbi tacos, the cashier I talk with the most joked that I was actually trying something from their new menu as opposed to one of the items listed in the above posts that I always seem to get. Yes, I love this place.


Box with 3 kalbi tacos

Cross section of a taco
M and I have had plenty of kalbi tacos in our days so I had plenty with which to compare. The tacos offered by IGK were bigger than ones you might get from one of the various food trucks here in NYC or in LA. They came loaded with pre-cooked and then pan warmed kalbi chunks, spicy sauce, and a cabbage slaw.

The slaw was quite tasty. I saw the person mixing it up fresh, and it looked like soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. The pre-cooked and warmed kalbi chunks were a bit tougher than I prefer for tacos, but they were flavored well. The spicy sauce wasn't gochujang like I thought it might be, but it added a nice heat and some flavor to the taco. The tortillas were heated on one of those hot plate things, and I think they heated them for too long because they were a little dry and a little too crispy.

Overall the tacos were tasty, and they certainly satisfy a craving that I've had ever since NYC utterly crapped on food trucks in Manhattan. I'll probably get these tacos again at some point, but I'm sure I'll stick with my noodles and rice dishes for the most part still.

IGK Rice Box

At some point I finally decided to try something other than the noodles at IGK. Every day I kept seeing this "weekly special" for their Jae Yook Bok Eum. It was funny to me since this weekly special was the special since I started coming here. As it was, I had tried their noodles plenty of times, and I felt it would be a good idea to try one of their rice dishes.



Jae Yook Bok Eum
The spicy pork is very tasty and is heavily flavored by gochujang, a traditional Korean spicy/sweet sauce. It's cooked with long-cut scallions, mushrooms, carrots, and is finished off with some sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and a pinch of pickled ginger and pickled radishes. If you don't know what gochujang tastes like I don't know that I can do it justice in words. I would just recommend seeing if you can try some of it at some point to see if you like it. This dish was good enough to me that I got it again right before the holidays. I'd be interested to see if it's still a "weekly" special after the new year.

IGK Pad Thai (Revisited)

So a few weeks ago I tried out the pad thai a new midtown deli-style location called IGK - International Gourmet Kitchen. In my review I found the dish to be a bit dry compared to other pad thai I have had in the past and also that the grilled chicken took a little away from the dish as the char flavoring didn't match well in the dish.

I tried it out once more, and I have to say that they either read my little review or they just opted to change how they made it. I know, they also could just have had a different chef making it behind the counter, but I'd like to think they read my review, took it to heart, and changed things up to suit me better. This time around, the noodles were coated in sauce, and it was definitely not dry at all. The flavors exploded like last time, but the extra sauce made it that much better. The chicken also tasted less charred. It was still grilled, but there was little to no char flavoring, and overall the dish tasted amazing.

No pictures this time around since it looked pretty much the same as the last time I tried it. Every time I go back to IGK, it reaffirms why I should just make it my go-to place.

IGK Soup Noodles

Last week I wrote about IGK's Pad Thai. I've been there two other times, and I figured I would combine the two write ups together:

I've been on the lookout for a good Midtown pho restaurant for the longest time. I tried Boi Noodles in the past, but their pho, while it satisfies a craving, isn't really the best. When I found out that IGK served pho as well, I knew I had to try it.


Beef Pho
It's a good sized container of soup and noodles. The broth is good, but it's not as rich as some of the better pho places that I've had in the past. I didn't expect it to be since those places really specialized in pho, and it's not economical to make a hearty and rich broth every day. The noodles were nice and thick and had a good chewiness to them. I noticed that they used the same noodles for both pho and udon. They throw in the noodles first with some beef, then they throw in bean sprouts, basil, onions, sliced chili peppers, a lime wedge, and some more beef, and finally they top it all off with the broth. I was a little annoyed that the lime wedge went into the broth as by the time I got back to my desk to squeeze it out, it had soaked up a ton of broth and was way too hot to handle. I probably should have thought of that prior to burning my fingertips off, but I was hungry. Another thing that was missing, at least for me, was the hoisin sauce and sriracha. While they are not necessities for pho, I've found that over the years I've enjoyed adding them for an added dynamic to the dish. Also, they make a nice dipping sauce for the meat. Speaking of which, the beef was all well-done and not a mix of well-done and rare. It was a mild disappointment, but I have yet to find the rare beef mixed in outside of an actual Vietnamese restaurant.

Overall I like this pho more than Boi Noodles' offering, and for the price it's more than worth it. I think next time I might ask for some hoisin and sriracha on the side to see if they have it, but if not then it's not the end of the world.


Chicken Ramen
The ramen comes in the same-sized container as the pho so it makes for a filling lunch. I got the chicken ramen for no reason other than I wasn't in the mood for beef. They ladle out the broth into a pot with the chicken and add the ramen noodles in to warm. After the broth is bubbling for a while they dump the entire steam content into the container, throw in some mushrooms and scallions, and then close it all up. The noodles they use are actual ramen noodles, and they're "fresh" as opposed to the deep fried blocks we all fell in love with during college. The broth is nice and seasoned. It's not as salty as those aforementioned college ramen packs, but it's definitely saltier than the pho broth. Aside from the overriding concern of sodium content, this ramen really hits the spot. It has all of the subtle ramen seasoning that makes it great, and it comes at a great price as well. If only I could get some of those swirly white and pink fish cakes with it too...

IGK - International Gourmet Kitchen

For lunch today I went to a new-ish Midtown Deli called International Gourmet Kitchen. The thing that sets IGK apart from all of the others, at least for the ones I've seen, is that they have an awesome made-to-order pasta station AND a made-to-order Asian noodle and rice station. So today, I ordered the chicken pad thai.

Flat take out box for the noodles and rice
It's hard to describe how large the box itself is, but the best way for me to describe it is that the amount they give is enough to fill me up, and I'm a big fattie.

Pad Thai
My first impression just on looking at the noodles was that this was a "drier" pad thai than I had just had the last time I ate pad thai. What that means is that there's less sauce associated with the noodles. The flavors for the dish were good but not spectacular. The tamarind flavor that is normally in the sauce was definitely evident, but it was subdued. That could have been from the less sauce, but again, this was still tasty.

The chicken was a bit odd. All of their chicken is pre-grilled prior to cooking, and I think that actually takes away from the dish. The chicken doesn't absorb enough flavor from the rest of the dish because it was pre-cooked not with the sauce. The grilling also adds a nice char to it that I normally would like, but it doesn't match well with the pad thai itself. I felt that the sprouts were a little lacking, but I'm wondering if I had just asked for more if they would have obliged. Maybe next time I'll do that.

Overall, it was actually satisfactory. It obviously wasn't the best pad thai I've ever had, but I like it enough that I would go back and get it again. IGK doesn't have a hot/cold bar, and it may not have pizza, but it more than makes up for it by having the made-to-order stations.