Of all the places in the H Mart Food Court; the one that really interested me was Bann. While I considered Bann to be a decent option for lunch on Miramar Road; the food was prepared fresh, the flavors, while on the mild side, was decent, with the Kimchi Fried Rice the stand-out. Still, with a more discerning crowd, I was interested to see what changes, if any Bann had made since the move.
And so I headed down to H Mart at around 11am. The place is not nearly as crowded as when the place first opened. Good for me....not sure for all the businesses.
Bann is located to the right of Myungran Hot Dog.
The menu is tight and dishes no longer have the superflous green salads and mandu added to the menu items. Prices are about the same; even a few cents cheaper than before.
Though if you chose to have beef with your kimchi fried rice; it would be almost fourteen bucks!
I placed my order for the Kimchi Fried Rice with Spam (of course) and had a seat at one of the table.
Soon enough, I heard the mechanized "voice app" go off, it's the same voice for all the stands. It seems that each stand has a number sequence, so you'll deal with numbers in the thousands; "order five thousand - six hundred - seventy - three"......
First off; the portion size seemed to have increased quite a bit.
Secondly, it's way more spicy than it used to be....quite nice, though it might mute some of the other flavors. Couldn't really make out salty - savoriness of the Spam, which might be a good thing for some, but I really like the flavor of Spam.
Good amount of kimchi used; though it's not good fermented kimchi as it lacks the complex cheesy-sour-savory tones of a good baechu kimchi.
Thirdly, the egg was a nice sunny-side up.
Overall, a nice version of straight-up Kimchi Fried Rice. It won't win any awards, but is a decent version.
I really enjoyed the nice folks that used work the register at the Miramar location, but did not recognize the young lady working on this day. She was fine, but not nearly as pleasant. This was a decent lunch and Bann seems less fusiony these days. Nothing to go out of your way for; but perfectly fine if you're shopping at H Mart and need to load up on carbs.
Bann Korean Cuisine
7725 Balboa Ave. (In the H Mart Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111
glad this was decent
Posted by: kat | Sunday, 18 August 2019 at 10:25 PM
Me too Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 19 August 2019 at 06:38 AM
That's good you didn't have to wait in a huge line.
Posted by: Soo | Monday, 19 August 2019 at 07:41 AM
Yes, getting there right at 11 works fine Soo!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 19 August 2019 at 08:15 AM
Is that mayo on the chicken curry? Hard to tell from the menu pic.
Posted by: Junichi | Monday, 19 August 2019 at 10:19 AM
Hi Junichi - I think it's the mayo based "white donkatsu" sauce that Bann used to serve with their chicken cutlet. There;s a photo of it in this post:
https://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2018/07/bann-cutlet-teriyaki.html
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 19 August 2019 at 11:37 AM