There are literally a handful of Korean restaurants in Bangalore and Thran was the only one we had not yet visited. So one weekend, a little while ago we decided to cross it off our list and see how it compared to the others around. Thran is a small restaurant that  functions out of a home. Tthe hall has three tables of 4 and what was once perhaps a master bedroom, a couple of more tables. It seems like a cozy home run affair. The menus have photographs of each of the dishes with small one line explanations on what they are. I saw a few familiars and a few not so familiars and we got down to ordering.

Kimbap/Gimbap, seaweed rolls quite similar-looking to sushi is something we order at every Korean meal (yeah, we get repetitive like that!) and we asked for the Chamchi Gimbap or the tuna filled version. Filled with bell pepper, flaked tuna, zucchini and sweet omelette, this was served with a soy based sauce and turned out to be quite nice. As soon as we placed our order, the table started filling up with banchan or the little bowls of nibbles that are integral to a Korean meal - kimchi, sweet scrambled egg, blanched and chopped spinach, zucchini salad, silken tofu, a spicier version of the spinach and the customary shredded vegetable pancake and its dipping sauce. 

Banchan - above and below

Tuna Kimbap

Korean meals can be quite filling since you are constantly nibbling on something. For Anoushka we ordered the Omeu Rice or the Omelette Rice. It is normally drizzled with some tomato sauce, but I asked them hold that since little one does not like her food tainted with any sauce. The rice was filled inside the omelette and this held her fascination for all of five minutes. The rice had some nice diced carrots in it and is served with an egg drop soup and a pureed pumpkin sauce on the side. For Anoushka it was a large meal and we did have a small takeaway bag for later. 

Soo Ra Sang has an amazing pork gravy dish Jey Yuk Bokkum. It came in a small sizzler bowl and remains steaming hot till the end. I saw something similar on this menu and wanted to try it out. So we ordered the pork dish, the name of which escapes me. Its about the only pork gravy dish and comes with a side of steamed sticky rice. From the looks of it, the pork look pretty much the same. On tasting, it turned out slightly watery and with lesser punch than the one at Soo Ra Sang. Not that it tasted bad, but I had had better. We also ordered the Nakkji Bokkeum or the Octopus stir fry. This tasted more like a Chinese hot and sour dish, and while the octopus was there in it, the sauce and the veggies just seemed too overwhelming. We ordered another steam rice to go along with this, since the sauce was heavy enough to coat a bowl of rice. 

When we were done, the instinct to ask for a sweet of some sort took over. We were offered the cold cinnamon tea which was nice but again not up to the standard of the others we had. Also, cinnamon tea in all the places that offered it was served complimentary and here you are charged for it. 

Omeu Rice

Pork gravy

Nakkji Bokkeum - stir fried octopus

Cinnamon tea