I was pleased to see this high rated Korean restaurant in Essen for my business trip. We made…read morereservations and i took my team, including a German friend, along. I was excited to expose him to Korean cuisine for the first time.
What a let down. We ordered the giant 4 course supper, at 30 € a head.
The worst thing was that, despiteSa Rang Bang's tiny size (it seats maybe 50), and plenty of wait staff, it took them over three hours to complete our meal! Since we had to drive to Frankfurt that evening this was awkward. We typically had to wait a half hour or more between courses. It cast a pall over the experience. They were not attentive either. They never checked on us, so we couldn't order additional drinks (a problem when our German ate the unaccustomed spicy bits and needed something to quench.
The restaurant is only marginally "Korean". Our sppetizer were cigarette-sized egg rolls with ground meat inside . Kind of tasty- reminded me a little of lumpia.
Second came a stir fry containing lots of vegetables & some miniscule (but tasty) shrimp. To one side was a tiny splotch of Kimchee. About this time I started to wonder where our panchan was. Turns out the restaurant doesn't offer it - are they worried Germans can't handle free refills? What the heck ?
Third was some spicy sweet & sour shrimp with lots more veggies . Definitely NOT Korean. "Ah well," I thought. "The last course is bulgogi. At least THAT should be authentic."
Instead of bulgogi, they brought barbecue trays with raw marinated meat and (again ) more vegetables than meat. We had to cook it ourselves . I have eaten at plenty of cook- it-yourself Korean BBQs but why all the zucchini, carrots, and such with my bulgogi?
I like plants as food but its okay to have them on the side or as a separate course sometimes. They basically fed us 3 courses of vegetable stir fry (with some meat). Two of the courses were the SAME meat (shrimp), just different spice levels.
The bulgogi was nothing like what I've had in the States and was far less flavorful.
From the menu i did not see other familiar Korean dishes such as seafood pancake, kimchee soup, bibimbap. I did see jap chae as a side in one dish.
we asked the owner, and he said he had "adapted" to German tastes. Well maybe so. Certainly the high ratings given Sa Rang Bang by the German Yelpers indicates he has hit it off with them.
However, if you are an American, looking for korean food in Essen, avoid Sa Rang Bang.
