We were on 52nd St by 6th Ave for lunch, and were looking at Gobuki’s menu to see if there was anything new.
While there was nothing new on the menu, we realized that we’ve only had meat dishes at Gobuki, and never tried the fried udon noodles with vegetables. Easy enough to remedy, especially at $7.
In 2011, Korean food trucks exploded, with 4 opening within a short period of time. They all serve Korean proteins in taco, burrito and rice bowl form.
What’s not mentioned as much are the Korean food carts like Gobuki and Bapcha that serve more traditional Korean fare – bulgogi, kalbi, spicy chicken and jap-chae.
Fried noodles are also pretty traditional, and we asked for them spicy.
A bunch of noodles were boiled, then tossed onto the grill. Several sauces were mixed into the noodles, as well as various veggies.
After grilling for a few minutes, everything was scooped into a container and topped with chopped scallions.
The sauces squirted onto the noodles seemed to be soy sauce, sesame oil and a red hot sauce, although we wouldn’t categorize this dish as spicy.
There were grilled onions, red cabbage, peas, corn, carrots and string beans. The latter few looked like they were taken from a package of assorted frozen vegetables, but the onions and cabbage seemed to be fresher.
The noodles had more life to them than expected. We know these were not freshly-made noodles, but they were not mushy either. Their was a little spring in their step.
If you’re a vegetarian, this was a good lunch and a decent value at $7. However, in our opinion, the meats are the way to go at Gobuki.
Our favorite is the kalbi, grilled marinated short ribs, which you can get in a lunch box or over rice.
Gobuki is on 52nd St just west of 6th Ave every weekday for lunch. They don’t tweet, or have a website or facebook page, but they serve a solid, dependable lunch in one of the more expensive areas of the city to eat lunch.
