foodadelic

Queens! And live Octopus! The best Korean restaurants can be found here! Even better than Manahattan’s mini korea town on 32nd Street. This place is unique. It’s a restaurant but has a drinking/loitering feel. Very relax and décor is very different. I was extremely excited about coming here for days, and I’ve been here before, but tonight, I had a peculiar feeling. I knew I wanted to do a write up but never anticipated this to be soooooo good. I haven’t had this feeling in a long time, by that I mean maybe a month. It truly is The perfect meal- tasty, entertaining, full of wild surprises and overall…I was happy. Really, really happy (and way too excited, I thought I was going to die of a heart attack from too much of it).

We spent 3 hours here so there’s a lot to cover. Make sure you have time to read it all. We started out with the ever so popular octopus plate. Not only is it raw, BUT LIVE! They bring you a plate of cut up tentacles and its squirming! Its suction cups are grabbing onto the plate. Even great chopstick holders may find it difficult to pick those suckers up and they are pretty damn strong. The thought of eating it grossed me out. It took me awhile facing it and tasting it. Everyone on the table was so quick to eat it. I can hear comments like, “Oh man, its sucking onto my cheek in the inside of my mouth”, and “Just try it already! AND make sure you chew fast so it doesn’t grab onto you and chew hard!” I am such chicken shit. I mean, who in their right mind after hearing those comments can feel perfectly fine eating this sea creature?!?!?! It’s crazy!! But I did it for the sake of being opened to try anything and for this post. It was a bit crunchy, probably slimy but I drenched it in so much sauce I couldn’t tell. I also chewed it fast so it wouldn’t have a chance to grab onto the insides of my mouth.  It didn’t taste bad or good. It doesn’t really have a distinct taste. I think it was more texture and the way it looked. Man, it took a lot of mental will power to do it. But it seems that I was the only one who had such a hard time. It was a table of 9 people. I WAS THE ONLY ONE BEING “DRAMATIC” as they called it. Whatever.

Moving on to the next is the “Octopus Pot”. A giant pot of seafood in a spicy stew. It had everything in it. I LOVED IT!! AND I LOOOOOOVE SEAFOOD! It was a dish and a show in itself. The lobster and the octopus was placed on top so we could see its slow and dying death. The lobster was cut into pieces and twitched every now and then until it was fully cooked. The octopus was put on top at our table and it just squirmed away, even finding its way onto the table off the pan. It made me think of Ursula from The Little Mermaid. The pan also had a giant conch, mountains of shrimps, crabs, mussels, clams, veggies, lobster, octopus, and noodles. AND IT WAS ONLY $80! What a steal!

Live Octopus plate. Not so appealing, eh?

Stuck on the plate. Still very alive.

Holding onto the plate and fighting for its life!

Why won’t they just give up and die?!? You can see the close up here; suction on the thumb.

Korean style spicy clam pancake.

Octopus Pot” - it should really be called the “Seafood Pot”. The waitress comes over to top it off with live octopus.

It’s sitting on top of a burner embedded in the table and slowly cooking.

Giant Conch?!?!

During the course of our meal, there must have been 5 birthday celebrations. The waiters all get together and sing. Not like your typical Applebees; they put the music on their speaker systems so that everyone in the restaurant can hear. They also bring over a giant afro and put it on the birthday person and have poppers. It’s a huge spectacle. All the waiters are dressed uniformly in their store t-shirts and santa hats.

Then, this guy comes over. He has a giant bag of toys, and goodies. He walks around promoting his brand of Soju and gives out facial masks to the ladies; keychains for the men. Furthermore, if we buy a bottle now, we get this new drinking game!! It’s a crocodile and everyone takes a turn to press down on its tooth until it randomly shuts its mouth and bites you when the trigger tooth is pushed. Then that person drinks. Clever!!

That’s the brand of Soju he was promoting, which we bought on the spot!

We really just wanted this free “drinking game”. People can turn anything into a drinking game.

So we play! Immediately!

After a few, rounds and shots, some people needed a cigarette break. So I go for fresh air, and find that the restaurant cleverly created a cigarette room that’s outdoors but indoors at the same time!

Yes, that is someone’s gi-normous lighter.

Cigarette room that’s outside.

The tank!

The leftovers!

Sik Gaek 
157-16 Northern Blvd
Queens, NY 11354 
(718) 321-7778