Korean in Florida

While visiting my old home base of Florida for my lovely friend Jenn’s wedding, I was determined to meet up with as many of my old Floridian friends as possible. Being the wonderful friend that Sean is, he kindly offered to make the long haul all the way from Orlando to Tampa (where my trip was based) to meet the rest of us for lunch. It was a fun reunion of the Florida gang who used to drink and be merry in years since past. However, we are apparently now older and wiser, and meet up for lunch rather than for binge drinking while watching Monday Night football at the local ale house. Wow, how times have changed. 

After deciding on Korean food as our cuisine of choice (which of course we were all up for), Sean selected a Korean Restaurant he had heard good things about. Sa Ri One …a tiny little hole-in-the-wall kind of place in Tampa, freeway adjacent. Why not have Korean for Sunday Brunch?! The place looked kind of sketchy from outside, but we were pleasantly surprised by the interior décor and privately screened, oversized booths. Once inside, it’s actually quite a quaint little place. It was very clean with decent ambient lighting and seemed to be family run. The service was fast and attentive, which was important, given that we were in a time crunch to make our early afternoon flight.

After receiving our food, it was perfect! We nearly ordered one of everything from their menu, since none of us at the lunch are exactly food shy. The crispy egg rolls were cooked to perfection and accompanied with a sweet chili dipping sauce that was to die for. We even asked for seconds on the sauce. The Ba Bim Bop shrimp dish with fried egg on top was gloriously toasty. The Korean short ribs were sweet and succulent. The only lackluster dish was the bland cold plate of soba noodles. Of course we ordered far too much food as there were definitely plenty of leftovers for the local Floridians to take home.

Sa Ri One is certainly is not the place to bring a business client to impress but it definitely works for a family style friendly get together! As always, we chatted like we see each other all the time, like great ‘old’ friends do- just like no time has passed since our last reunion. After departing the restaurant with full to the brim tummies, I definitely enjoyed a sleepy happy plane ride home to LA.

-Jean