Description
Transparent strip-mall exteriors, bare interiors and stoic service mark most of the area's Korean restaurants — but not Shin Sa Dong. Aurora’s swank shrine to Korean grill-your-own barbecue as well as banchan, the miniature bowls of Korean side dishes that include kimchi and jelly noodle salad and all sorts of other curiosities, is modern and elegant, with dark woods, melodic fountains and waterfalls, stone-cemented walls and hardwoods. But swanky aesthetics don't amount to much — you're not here to eat the walls of stone — if the food doesn't follow suit. Luckily, it does. Boiled oxen-head soup; sweet-potato noodles bobbing in a cold beef broth; steak tartare with toasted sesame, Asian pears and pine nuts; Korean sausage soup; bibimbap and bulgogi — those are the real stars of the show, and worth their weight in won.
