본죽&비빔밥cafe (Bonjuk Bibimbap: Well-being Rice Cafe)

     About a week ago I read an article on Cnngo about Seoul's 5 best bibimbap places and one of them is a chain called Bon Bibimbap. There are over 126 branches all over the country and there are even some located in the US, Japan, and China. There's a place near my house that I had mistaken for being Bon Bibimbap! I checked the place out today to discover that it is 본죽&비빔밥cafe (Bonjuk Bibimbap: Well-being Rice Cafe). The plate design is the same, so maybe they're affiliated?
     Anyways, the menu is decent and offers the classic 비빔밥 dishes, from the meat loving crews to raw preferred me! They specialize more on the 죽 (juk), a palatable soft rice stew consisting of veggies and other ingredients. You can get shrimp juk, veggie and cheese juk, veggie, etc. The 비빔밥 selection is varied, they offer tuna, pork 김치, 도토리밥 (dotori bibimbap!), boiled vegetable, and raw veggies. I went in hopes of some dotori, but they were out so I went with the 야채. The place was really packed so I decided to go with take out...not as pretty, and I'm thinking not as tasty.

야채비빔밥~ measly veggies (photo taken by VeganBeats)

     They weren't very generous with the veggies. There were the classics involved though, shredded carrots, sprouts, cucumber, chives, purple cabbage, and green cabbage (I can't take anymore of it). The rice they spooned on the side had small yellow beans in it, which was cute, but...not a rice girl. I wish they had a brown rice option. Considering they were a bit busy, there were a lot of people working the counter and kitchen. It took much longer than planned to get this thing packaged up and on the go, I waited for over 20 minutes. People coming in after me were served first.

post mix (photo taken by VeganBeats)

     The 야채뱌뱜밥 came out to 6,000W (about $5.20). This would have been reasonable if there were more veggies. When I got home I threw in some more greens and steamed soft tofu...rice I can't eat very much of (if any) but for sustenance I threw in a spoon of it. The flavor was lacking, it was pretty boring. I added more 고추장 and was still disappointed. I didn't finish this...I won't be back. The wait was too long, the quality lacking...but for something cheap, this is more than affordable. Nothing is more expensive than 7,000W. 

Location: 서울특별시 서초구 서초동 1572-15. (Seoul Teuk Byeolsi, Seocho gu, Seocho dong 1572-15)

Directions: Seoul National University of Education system (line 2 and 3) go out of exit 9. Walk straight for 3 minutes, take your second Right, it'll be on the corner diagonal from a 7eleven. 

Phone #:02-525-2909

Website: http://www.bonjuk.co.kr/bj_intro_07.asp (in Korean)

서울특별시 서초구 서초동 1572-15