Yesterday was Doug and I’s two year wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it has been two years, time goes by so fast. I was lucky enough to marry a guy who is always willing to try new foods and for our anniversary dinner we went out for our very first Korean BBQ. Oh my heaven! I fell in love all over again... with both Doug and the food, haha!

As I said, this was our first Korean BBQ experience and it was our first time eating at Rice Restaurant and Lounge here in Tampa. We had so much fun trying all of the different side dishes and sauces. They gave us 10 different banchan, side dishes, to try with our rice and meat. Just look at all that food!

Along with the banchan we were each given a bowl of rice, 2 different dipping sauces, a plate full of lettuce leaves for making wraps, and a bowl of soup. She even gave us different soups so we could pass them back and forth. I was in “new taste” heaven!

For the meats we chose pork belly and beef galbi. Both were fantastic! We must have tried every combination of meat, sauce, and vegetable. One of the best parts about the whole experience was our waitress. She was truly a gem. We never felt uncomfortable asking what things were and she helped us choose interesting combinations of flavors and was always available with a story and quick with a joke to make us laugh. It felt more like dining at her house than being in the middle of a restaurant. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

To top it all off we were each given a cup of cold sweet rice tea for dessert.

There was so much food so, of course, we took home some leftovers. Most of the banchan were gone (the kimchee was the first to go, it was so good) but we had enough leftover pork belly, a few pickled vegetables, sweet black beans, and marinated hot peppers to make a bento for lunch today.

I have fallen in love with Korean BBQ! I can’t wait to get the chance to go back to Rice. In the meantime I’m going to try to expand my culinary skills to include some of the wonderful Korean foods we’ve been lucky enough to try.

What is your favorite Korean dish?

Happy Bento-ing!

Tags: bento, lunchbots