2 story Kitchen

Surprised nothing written about this place, at least a search revealed nothing. We watched a small review of it on channel 3 at home and seemed to good to be true.

Arriving Dumaguete yesterday we tried it for lunch. Nice and clean with friendly very attentive staff. Decided to eat upstairs as very cosy and one has the privacy of their own little cubical. Ordered a couple of shakes which promptly arrived with a smile, tasty without small lumps of ice...yummy. Next came sushi which is named kimbap no wasabi but the Korean version which was delightful. Lovely lunch with excellent service.

Went again evening, pleasantly surprised zero wine corkage, again friendly excellent service which is rare in Dumaguete, in fact everywhere. Enjoyed a nice Korean soup with home made noodles and a typical Korean main which was mildly spicy and very tasty. Menu is large and we were assured everything is available.

Prices are reasonable for what one receives and I consider good value for money, we shall return next visit.

 

What is the name of the restaurant. Is it Soban, haven't been there yet, but will give it a try.

 

Tried the 2 Story Kitchen restaurant for lunch with the wife last week. No customers were evident on the 1st floor, so we grabbed a table. Took a bit for the menus to arrive, but no big deal. We ordered a mango-vanilla shake, caramel-machiato iced coffee, Deok Boki and Chicken (in a frying pan). I worked in Korea for 5 years, so was hoping for some authenticity in the Deok Boki!

About 20 minutes passed and we received the iced coffee. Taste was okay... Another 5 minutes or so and the wife's mango-vanilla shake arrived. Looked fantastic, but there was absolutely no flavor! Neither she or I could discern any hint of mango or vanilla by taste or smell. Asked the waitress to have the shake re-manufactured as surely there should be taste that goes with the shake. It came back about 10 minutes later and had a mere hint of mango, but no vanilla at all.

The Deok Boki arrived in a dish and the Deok (duk), otherwise known as rice cake, was chewy and not out of date. The problem was the sauce was not Korean red pepper paste. It was some tomato sauce with a bit of red pepper added to it. Along with that was slices of expired fish cake, small bit of cabbage and that was it. Not at all similar to the dish I'd experienced in Korea. :(

The chicken in the frying pan arrived about 5 minutes later and the chicken was edible, but nothing special. Actually the chicken was incredibly oily and there was a puddle of oil in the frying pan. Potatoes were okay. Vegetable (green beans) were also okay.

All-in-all, I'll not be returning to this restaurant. Another Dumaguete restaurant off my list of future places to visit.

 

It's like that everywhere. Korean restaurants serve a Japanese version of Korean food. Chinese food in the U.S. is almost completely unrelated to Chinese food sold in China. Japanese food in most places outside Japan is usually limited to poorly made sushi and none of the other menu items you will fund in Japan. Or, you will find jack-of-all-trades Japanese restaurants that serve sushi, tonkatsu, tempura, ramen - all of which are totally different restaurants in Japan.
In all of these cases the restaurants serve food that is palatable to their local customers. In Japan both Thai and Korean food is very toned down in spice as the Japanese can not tolerate hot, spicy food as the people in Thailand or Korea can.
The Japanese find it strange for an ice tea to be sweet and a Filipino squirms at the bitterness of it in Japan. We rarely get the real thing, be it food or drink.
There's a brewery (Baird Beer) in Japan who serves authentic American bbq- low temperature oven for 12 hours, probably to attract more people to check his beer.
In my experience, unless these restaurants have something that they really want to sell like what Bbeer does, they can't do the extra work.

 

After over 100 trips to Japan and traveling / living in 49 out of 50 states in the USA, I'd have to say that there are quite a few very good Japanese restaurants in America, especially in California.

I went to the 2 Story Kitchen to evaluate if they had authentic Korean food, not to find out if they used Korean food as an idea for their own brand of cooking. They do not have authentic Korean food. Same idea when I went to have Mexican food here. If it's not authentic, then I'm not interested.

To date, after eating at various restaurants in Dumaguete for the past year (every week at least 1), I can only say that Casablanca, Andy's Grill, Happy Jacks, Ludwig's Bakery and now MPS French Bakery are reliably good.

 

I have tried authentic ones at big hotels in Manila, they can afford it but I thought 2 story kitchen is just down the street. Sadly, the Chinese chain restaurants called Bamian here in Japan can not even compete with the ones I've tried in the streets of Shanghai. When I go home, I eat Filipino food. Also, I haven't been to the US or anywhere in the west, I just hear stories but I do have some confidence on Japanese food since I was hired to cook stuff assisting a chef. That would be great if Californian restaurants serve freshly grated wasabi for their sushi and not the ones in tubes with all the peservatives. Thank you for the list of Dumaguete's best places to go.

 

The color, carbonation and temperature were good? Serving glass was cleaning? Straw appropriately tucked under the pull tab?

I had a coke there yesterday along with there hamburger both were good. I do not think the hamburger was of the Korean type, but I do not think the coke or hamburger was described that way on the menu. It has been a little hit or miss there at times more recently, but I give them a chance once in a while. as they used to be very good. There seem to be a few good restaurants in town but not enough so that I do not keep repeating meals at the same places quite frequently. I am not really into Korean food.