Korean Pro

This hole-in-the-wall is Korean Pro.

By now, you’ve doubtless come to know of my true appreciation for the folks at Midtown Lunch. What can I say? I work in Midtown, and those folks are on top of the scene. And once again, they inspired me with a write-up of a Korean tacos at Pro Hot.

Looks like a good offer to me.

What’s not to love about what’s on that sign? Talk about a chocolate/peanut butter moment. I love tacos. I love Korean BBQ. I also like cheap eats! Fabboo. But what lurks within?

Dishes are set up on a hot metal counter and kept warm.

Inside the modest, orange-walled space are a few hot counters, where packaged meals (presumably having just been prepared in the kitchen) are arrayed. However, the tacos are made to order. I opted for one galbi, one spicy chicken.

Looks pretty good, no? That's the spicy chicken on the left, btw.

For $4.99, that’s not bad, portion-wise. It looked pretty fresh and tasty to me.

The Galbi taco. Yum.

I started with the galbi. It was very tasty, with a surprisingly good smokiness. I tried applying some of the cilantro(?) sauce, just for the heck of it, and it was surprisingly zesty.

Side order of pork dumplings.

I’m not wild about the presentation of the pork dumplings (wrapped in cellophane and all that). I also have a slight thing about cellophane touching the food. Somehow in my minds eye I always imagine it leaches the flavor out of the item – or makes it taste “airplane fresh.” But that’s my own issue. Either way, these were in fact very tasty, but by the time they landed back at my desk merely tepid. I fear that just about anything you’d get from Pro’s table might also suffer from that affliction: tasty, but tepid. And a tepid dumpling can be a bit tough and chewy.

The spicy chicken taco adorned with tasty veggies.

The chicken was good and spicy. Not “break out in sweat” spicy, but “get a little misty” spicy.

All in all, the meal was a bit heftier than I usually eat these days, and clocked in (all totaled) at around $8. I felt it was well worth it, and would be happy to go back. I confess the boxed lunches are less appealing to me than having something made to order, especially since the Bapcha cart can make it fresh, but nonetheless, I am susceptible to the craving for delicious Korean food from time to time. Next time it comes up, I’ll feel fine about going back.

Korean Pro