Korea House: Honest food made fresh everyday

Korea House Restaurant is located on the second floor of Winchell’s Donuts in Susupe. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)

Korea House Restaurant, located on the second floor of Winchell’s Donuts in Susupe, prides itself with preparing only the freshest food and serving them in generous portions to customers they treat as honored guests.

Manager Jongsook Oh said that Korea House has served as a de facto kitchen and dining room for many Korean families on Saipan since being incorporated under Shine Star Corp. on Aug. 18, 2004.

“Korea House Restaurant’s food is always fresh. We don’t use ingredients that we are afraid of consuming ourselves. We make food for families and our own families eat our restaurant’s food. We are always developing new items to serve our customers,” she said.

Oh is also proud that their chefs use traditional Korean cooking techniques to get the most of the flavor out of Korean authentic ingredients and never use artificial flavorings.

“Our food is known for its clean taste. …It’s honest food. …Korea House always stands by the quality of its food and refrains from using artificial ingredients. We make side dishes fresh every day. We are also known for our fresh kimchee that we make daily. Our portions are generous and good for sharing,” she added.

Korea House counts among its bestsellers its caviar wrap (alsam), which delights a lot of their female customers and is fun to eat, squid and pork belly bulgogi (osambulgogi), flying fish roe (albab), octopus over spicy rice served in hot stone pot, mushroom/beef shabu-shabu (bosot jeongol), and marinated pork bulgogi (ganjang dwaeji bulgogi).

Lately Korea House has drawn more customers due to its Korean barbecue—boneless beef ribs, marinated grilled beef ribs, and grilled beef tripe. “It’s a taste that you won’t forget once you taste it,” said Oh.

Add to this, she said Korea House’s spicy buckwheat noodles and spicy noodles are the best on island and their sashimi is always fresh and melts in your mouth.

Korea House Restaurant’s food is made from the freshest ingredients and only uses natural flavors.

“After every meal, we also serve iced coffee or plum drink as dessert, free of charge,” she added.

Currently, Korea House also has a special take-out menu promotion for lunch that Oh wants busy office workers to try.

Like the rest of the CNMI, COVID-19 has affected the business tremendously, Oh said

“We were closed for months and when we finally opened we did have take-out menus, cleaned our facilities thoroughly, and developed special take-out menus for our customers. But still with no tourists it is difficult to stay afloat,” she said.

Oh said the business is suffering, but is thankful that they still have many loyal local customers who have not forgotten about Korea House.

“Just as our customers have stood by us during our most difficult times, Korea House will stand by its quality food and its customer service. We always greet our customers with a friendly ready smile. Please don’t hesitate to ask for menu suggestions to enhance your dining pleasure.”

Korea House can sit a maximum of 105 diners under the Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force’s guidelines and is open from Monday to Saturday, 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-9pm, and Sundays for dinner only from 5pm to 9pm.

For more information, advance orders, and for reservations, call 235-7781. They can also be reached through Facebook and Instagram: KoreaHouseRestaurant.