Nam San - Surrey

In our continuing exploration of the area around 108th Ave and 148 St (the Alexander Road of Surrey?....well, not really), and always being on the lookout for good Korean food, Marie and I tried Nam San. It is a pleasant little comfortable place with friendly folks, located on a truly horrendous parking lot. We sat near a window and were entertained by parking chaos in the too narrow, too small lot. We decided however, that Nam San was worth that particular inconvenience.

We were served wonderful barley-corn tea and an interesting selection of Banchan.

We loved the slightly fishy fish cake and the slightly sweet daikon, onion and jalepeno. One thing that I enjoyed is that most of the heat is served on the side. Wasabi, Vinegar, gochujang and hot sauce came separately with the banchan and our hostess instructed us in their best use! Very nice!

We started with an old standby, Dolsot Bibimbap. While this dish was tasty enough, with some nice crunchy vegetables, it really did not build that lovely scorched rice along the bowl that we love, even though we were patient and gave it a few minutes. Not sure why...bowl not hot enough?

Next, what has become a favorite of ours, Gamjatang, spicy pork back bone soup. This one was rich and had lots of vegetables and two very meaty back bone pieces. I have learned to gnaw every morsel of pork from the bones without embarrassing myself too much! A wonderful version of this dish! 

In an effort to expand our horizons a little bit, we tried the Soon Dae Gook, a hot pot of assorted pork and pork sausage. This is evidently a house specialty. I am going to be honest and admit that the initial odor was a bit off putting (doubtless the intestines in the hot broth ) but much like my first experience with Durian, getting past that initial impression allowed us to experience another rich and tasty treat. Of course, intestines are largely a neutral experience, and provide a vehicle

for the sausage meat. Altogether, we were glad we tried this and will not shy away in the future. Lunch was $40 before tip but keep in mind that we always order too much and had some leftovers that we will enjoy today!

This was another nice experience that we would recommend that you try!