Below is the best and worst of a recent meal at Gahm Mi Oak ((43 W. 32nd St.)
1. Poolside Putrefaction: The restaurant smelled like mildewed pool towels. Perhaps the spa next door shares an air vent? Perhaps neither has an air vent?
2. Too Tough Kimchi: Servers scissored the kimchi tableside, which was fine since forks and knives aren’t offered, but they needed to scissor every subsequent bite. These were some tough leaves! That said, a hint of effervescence from fermentation was pleasant enough.
3. Kimchi Bin Dae Duk: The Real IHOP Pancake: If only IHOP would start serving the world’s true bounty of savory international pancakes, starting with Chinese scallion pancakes and finishing with these delightful Korean mung-bean pancakes. Unlike greasy scallion pancakes though, these thicker numbers are delicate enough to make me forget what brought the goodness together, hot oil. An added bonus, here they’ll serve a single disk to a solo diner.
4. Bibim Bap. Presented beautifully with all the components segmented out into pie chart wedges. It was a childlike pleasure to swirl them together with bean paste and broth. Resulting flavors skewed towards the musty earthy side, which was fine, but a little more clarity of flavor components would have been nice. I could see the variety of ingredients but I couldn’t really taste it.
5. Best for Boys’ Night Out: Once again Korean food shows itself to be a less refined—artful edibles not edible art—and far more virile version of its regional competitors. It’s also a great reason to start, continue or recover from a drinking bout. That said, these virtues are possessed by many a Korean restaurant, and are better represented on the block’s barbecue and chicken restaurants.
Conclusions: Not quite a clip joint, but you’d do yourself a service to head to Queens for better-priced, better-spiced fare. There’s a reason so many diners here have rolling suitcases.
Gray and Grizzled Food Fan 
July 30, 2009 at 12:13 am |
Go Queens. As far as ethnic restaurants go, look for the strollers not the rollers/rolling bags. In other words, local babies not visiting businessmen are a sure sign you’re on to something.
August 5, 2009 at 12:45 am |
Where do you go in Queens?
August 8, 2009 at 1:06 pm |
I like the savory IHOP idea. Maybe they could do the Malaysian pancakes with peanut sauce?
August 10, 2009 at 4:59 pm |
There is some good Korean on 32nd street; GMO just isn’t it. Do a little searching on Chowhound then try again.