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Green entries Completely vegetarian Brown entries Veg. + Non-veg. Our full list of vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Our short reviews of veg-friendly restaurants. Other restaurant review sites: * Austin Chronicle's restaurant guide
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owntown)•
11-10 M-Sat • |
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The first thing you'll notice is the impressive garden that Koriente put in between the sidewalk and the street. Since Koriente is located in the concrete jungle of downtown, it really stands out, and is a nice touch.
Koriente prides itself on its natural preparation. Their website invites you to actually peek inside their kitchen so they can prove that they don't have any microwave ovens or deep fryers. Most dishes are low in oil and sugar. Strict vegans should note that Koriente uses honey as a substitute for sugar. (They also use fruit juice.)
Matthew was excited to share his special knowledge of the dishes and the customs. "This one was my favorite food growing up," etc. But then I started to suspect that he was just making stuff up, like when he said, "Normally at a Korean dinner, any non-Korean girls have to kiss any guy who is actually Korean," and, "Traditionally in Korea, whoever owns a website is the one who picks up the tab." Luckily I brought my credit card.
Instead of getting an appetizer from the menu, Matthew suggested we get a regular entree and split it four ways. He said this was very traditional, but who the hell knows? We got the Japchei entree as an appetizer, which are sweet potato noodles with julienned veggies. This isn't finger food like American appetizers -- you'll definitely need utensils of some sort.
Speaking of that, I was a bit disappointed that despite their natural focus, there's no corresponding environmental ethic: The chopsticks are wooden, disposable. China uses 25 million trees a year to make throwaway chopsticks, and at its current level of deforestation, its last forests will be gone in a decade (which is why China recently imposed a tax on disposable chopsticks).
The menu thankfully lists the vegetarian selections first, of which there are seven:
- Noodle Garden, $6. A nest of spiced mung bean noodles on organic spring greens, with avocado, red bell pepper, red cabbage, and cucumber in our own balsamic soy sauce. (no rice)
- Garden Handroll, $7. Avocado, cucumber, Korean radish, red cabbage, red bell pepper and carrots with dried seaweed wraps. Soy wasabi sauce or balsamico for dipping. Add smoked homemade hummus for $2. (no rice)
- Ka-re, $6. Gourmet vegetarian curry. Tomatoes, button mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, and onions are added to a light curry sauce for a light and wholesome meal. Add tofu for $2, or avocado for $1.50.
- Spicy Noodle Salad, $6. An entrée portion of chilled mung bean noodles and veggies tossed in a zesty pepper dressing. Add tofu for $2. (no rice)
- Japchei, $6. A full-sized serving of clear sweet potato noodles and an assortment of julienne veggies. Add tofu for $2. (no rice)
- Silk Tofu & Veggies, $7. Tender Japanese tofu pan-seared with our light homemade teriyaki sauce, served with veggies over rice.
- Mixmix Bibimbap, $6. A traditional Korean offering turned even healthier (the normal version features vegetables fried in oil, ours are fresh), this is a rice dish served with julienned vegetables to be eaten mixed well with one of our two sauces- the spicy red pepper paste sauce or the milder wasabi soy sauce. Add tofu for $2, avocado or free-roaming hen egg for $1.50. Rice can be substituted for mung bean noodles.
Many of these can be made spicy on request. In the dishes where tofu is an optional add-on, meat is also an optional add-on, but I didn't list that since these reviews are geared towards vegetarian diners. Not counting those dishes, there are only six meat-specific dishes, so this restaurant is more vegetarian than not.
I suggest looking at the pictures of the entrees on their website, which are beautifully rendered, because there are no pictures on the actual menu like at another popular Asian veggie restaurant (*cough* Veggie Heaven *cough*).
I was happy to have read on their website before we arrived that they offer brown rice as an option, but unfortunately I learned the hard way that you have to ask for it, unlike at Veggie heaven where they ask which you prefer when you order. At Koriente, if you don't specifically remember to ask for brown then you get stuck with white. And actually, only 3 of the 7 veggie entries come with rice in the first place.
You know me, I'm not much of a food critic -- I can describe the experience a lot better than the fare. With the actual food I'm pretty much limited to grunting, "It was good," or "I didn't like it." In the case of Koriente it was the former. I got the Ka-re (curried vegetables), which was even better than the picture suggests. It seemed like it was in a bigger bowl which included some salad. You can get tofu or avocado for a little extra, but because I'm a pig I got both tofu and avocado. Asian food is stereotypically unfilling and that's often been my experience as well, but after this meal I was completely satisfied, both in fullness and in taste. I'll be back.
by Matthew Kim
Koriente is not your usual Korean restaurant. In fact, it's not Korean at all, but what I think of as "Korean-inspired" -- they don't claim to serve authentic Korean cuisine. Though I am a serious fan of "true" Korean food, I was quite impressed by Koriente's variation on the traditional theme. I was equally impressed with how inexpensive the choices were (although Michael Bluejay was picking up the bill).We (Michael, Maria, Melinda, and myself--all M's I just now realized) started with an order of Japchei (noodles and vegetables), a very standard first course in any Korean meal. Here was my first clue that something was amiss--though not in a bad way. Typically, the noodles and vegetables are fried together, but these vegetables were uncooked: odd, but tasty. After all four of us had a portion of the Japchei, I got a second (and third) helping. I think I also ate the remainder of Melinda's portion later in the evening.
For the main entree, I ordered one of my favorite dishes--both to eat and to prepare myself--Bibimbap, which consists of rice served with a variety of vegetable side dishes, all mixed together in the bowl with a spicy red pepper paste sauce. Again, the vegetables are usually fried (sometimes steamed, then oil is added for flavor), but this time I knew what to expect. I ordered my Bibimbap with a side of tofu, which turned out to be some of the best-prepared tofu I've ever eaten.
Does Koriente serve "authentic" Korean cuisine? Not at all. But the real measure of a restaurant should be how tasty the food is. Koriente is quite tasty, and I can't imagine getting a good-tasting, good-for-you meal at a lower cost.
Reviewed August 25, 2006
Restaurant opened circa Nov. 2005
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Restaurant opened circa Nov. 2005
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