BSS Report: Koreana, Cambridge, MA

 Summary of the Boston Sushi Society Meeting of September 6 & 8, 1994.

 Koreana
 154 Prospect Street
 Cambridge, MA  02137
 617.576.8661

 Open Monday - Sunday 11:30 AM - 1:30 AM

 Nineteen members of the BSS turned in their scoresheets.  Six from
 Tuesday, and 13 from Thursday.

 Koreana is located on Prospect Street between Central Square and Inman
 Square (about 2/3 the way toward Inman Square).

 The interior is "functional" yet quite pleasant.  Seating is a
 combination of small tables and booths.  Eventhough Koreana is primarily
 a Korean restaurant (as one would expect), there is a small sushi bar
 tucked away into one corner.

 After we sat down a variety of small appetizers, such as marinated
 spinach with sesame seeds, or marinated bean sprouts, etc., were brought
 to the table.  These were very good and a much appreciated touch.  At the
 end of the meal too, everyone was brought a warm tea-like beverage.
 Since this was a couple of months ago, perhaps one of our other members
 with a better memory can give more specifics on this drink.  If my memory
 serves, it was sweet, as though it were a honey tea.  The glass also had
 some "things" floating in it I think (no, not cockroaches... sheesh!) -
 sort of the way they float coffee beans in Sambuca.  Perhaps it was
 barley.  In any case, I remember it being delicious!

 I received ballots back from 19 members.  So without further ado here are
 the scores:
             Overall                       Tuesday           Thursday

 Food Quality      8.21  (range: 7 - 9)          8.83        7.92
 Presentation      8.00  (range: 5 - 10)         7.83        8.08
 Service     7.10  (range: 2 - 10)         7.50        6.92
 Decor       6.64  (range: 4 - 8)          7.17        6.36
 Overall Rating    7.78  (range: 5 - 9)          8.42        7.49

 Cost average      $26.54      (range: $15 - $41)      $29.00            $25.64

 The scores seems reasonably consistent between the Tuesday and Thursday
 groups, except for food quality and decor.  It seems as though the
 Tuesday group may have had a better time, resulting in a higher overall
 scorethe decor.  It was also interesting to note the "range" on the food
 ratings ran only form 7 to 9 - this is very close spacing and seems to
 represent a high overall quality of food.  Finally, as this is primarily
 a Korean restaurant, the cost of the meal was less than what you would
 expect to pay for a meal at most Japanese restaurants.

 Below are all the specific comments people made on their scoresheets:

 Food Quality:

 Eel was excellent
 Octopus was very chilly & soggy - fresh out of the frezzer?
 Wonderful kim-chee
 Eel cucmber maki - wonderful
 The sushi was very good except for the squid, everything else was quite good
 The quality of the sushi was pretty good, although I wish each piece were
       a little bit bigger
 Food was nice and fresh
 Sushi was sometimes too warm
 Hamachi was chalky - if that's possible
 Unagi maki was too chewy
 The pickeled side dishes were a pleasant surprise
 Rice was well cooked with the right amount of stickyness
 Oyster scallion pancake - yum, yum!
 Unagi nigiri better than unagi maki
 Scallion pancakes and kim-chee were wonderful!
 Many excellent side dishes included with the sushi
 It *smelled* great!! at this end of the restaurant
 The oyster scallion pancakes were great
 Very good, lots of food, quite a bit of variety though we strayed some
       from straight sushi.  Sushi was very good too, though.
 Korean foods great!  Traditional Korean foods recommended: bulgogi, pancake
 The fish is very good in the sushi
 The food is excellent, I'm also surprised by the quality of the sushi
       being served here.
 The maguro was very tender
 I'm very impressed
 The bulgogi is very good also
 Very fresh fish, good rice
 Korean food was good too (heh-heh - ok boss, you caught me)

 Presentation:

 Gal brought black chopsticks - that turned me on
 Loses a point because they were out of sushi boards by the time they
       reached us

 Service:

 Much too slow.  Guess we overwhelmed them
 SLOW - nearly 2 hours to get all food ordered
 The kitchen is of limited capacity - 10 minutes per person capacity
 Our service was slow, but considering the size of our party, that is not
       so surprising
 The service was friendly and reasonably swift
 Service was fast and attentive, partly because we were at a seperate
       table of 3
 We were at the seperate table and got our appetizers, soup, and sushi
       nearly simultaneously
 Service polite, but liesurely

 Decor:

 Decor ordinary
 Minimal decor - psuedo "pub" with Japanese and Korean posters
 Looked like a neighborhood pub/steakhouse more than a sushi place

 Overall:

 All in all, I enjoyed the evening at Koreana
 I'll come back to eat at Koreana!
 I definitely would recommend this place, whether it be Korean food or
       sushi, to everyone out there
 I spent only about $15, but since it wasn't all sushi... I'd say it was
       cheaper than average though
 Very good, and a welcomed change of pace

 Because of the holidays, I won't be scheduling any "formal" meetings of
 the group before January.  However, if people are getting together
 informally, and you want company, you might want to post it to the
 mailing list at [email removed].

 We now return you to your regularly scheduled newsgroup.

 - David
 [email removed]