A trip to Hee Been Restaurant.

A few days ago, a few friends of mine decided to drive to Northern Virginia (a few minutes away from Washington DC) for Korean food. I tagged along for fun. The driving distance from Richmond to DC is approximately 1.5 hr. Yes, we went there only for food.

Things turned out to be, that was the best Korean food I've ever had (although I've only dined out in Korean Restaurant 3 times). You'll never go wrong if the place is highly recommended by Korean.

Name of the restaurant: Hee Been Restaurant. Picture showing the first page of their menu.
They claimed that their food is MSG-less.


I've always wanted to dine in a restaurant have settings like this. Very Japanese kind of seating arrangement.


You can ask for a room if you want more privacy. Good for a bunch of people having a blast.


The conspicuous colours at the bottom of the toothpicks caught my attention instantly. As well, the steel spoon is covered by a cover. I've never seen things like these before.

THE FOOD

Ample servings of Korean side dishes are definitely some of the key elements in a meal. These elements are crucial in making a Korean meal go from good to fantastic. Picture shows (clockwise, from upper left) potato (kimchi style), bean sprouts, sweet mash potatoes (very Americanized, indeed), sliced lotus roots, something-like-kuih with bean paste, pickled scallions with pepper, two types of sauces, kimchi, and zucchini.

On the table, having the griller ready to go. We had bulgogi on one grill, and kalbi on another one.


Kalbi, grilling in-the-process.


Ready to be served.


Rice. Notice the steel bowl with lid. So unique (well at least I haven't seen anything quite like that before).

We had a few more dishes.


How can you ever go to a Korean restaurant and not have Japchae? This is my forever favourite Korean food. Hee Been did a great job in making this dish. The glass noodles was the superior type (it's wider than the normal one), and the flavour was superb!


I can't recall the name of this dish, but it's actually sweet and sour beef - the Korean way. Very similar to Ku Lou Yok (Sweet and Sour Pork) in Malaysia.

Complimentary dessert: Korean Cold Cinnamon Tea. This sure is something exotic for me. It was sweet (not overly done), cold, and aromatic (how can you go wrong with cinnamon and pine nuts?). Very interesting.


We all left the place feeling contented.

So people, if you're ever visiting Washington DC in the near future and planning to have authentic Asian food, this is the right place!