Cheap Eats 2007: Gamascot

Reviewed by Cynthia Hacinli , Michele Kayal , Todd Kliman , Ann Limpert , Don Rockwell

Gamasot

6963-C Hechinger Drive
Springfield, VA
Phone: 703.256.0780

Cuisines:
Korean

Opening Hours:

Wheelchair Accessible:
Yes

Nearby Metro Stops:
Franconia-Springfield
Van Dorn St.

Price Range:
Inexpensive

Dress:
Informal

Noise Level:
Intimate

Reservations:
Not needed

Special Features:
Late Night

Best Dishes
Sul Leung Tang; beef-and-scallion dumplings (steamed and fried); buckwheat noodles with beef; barbecue pork; blood sausage; soy-marinated Asian pears.

Price Details:
Appetizers $4.95 to $11.95, entrées $9.95 to $19.95.


Slip inside this handsomely appointed Korean restaurant with frosted-glass windows, Brazilian cherry floors, and an open kitchen, and you’ll forget you’re in a strip mall.

Meals begin with generous plates of panchan, which include standards such as kimchee but also items like marinated Asian pear, its acidity balancing a rich blood sausage accompanied by seasoned dipping salt. Soups and fresh produce are standouts—yook kae jang combines both in a spicy broth with shredded beef and rice noodles. Sul leung tang, a creamy broth stewed from beef bones, is cooked for 48 hours in a gamasot, or traditional metal cauldron. Even a simple dish of stir-fried kimchee, shredded pork, and tofu produces waves of intensity and flavor.

For all the dozens of Korean restaurants in the area, including several terrific ones in Annandale, Gamasot is as good as it gets.

Open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.