Kimko Bethany Seafood

"Dolsot Bibimbap!"

Bethany Seafood may be difficult to find your first time going there. A quick google search took me to the right address, but the website linked to that address is completely wrong. The restaurant itself sits in a shopping center off of Rt. 40 West, next to a "Bits and Bridles Saddlery." Random, I know. It's my family's default go to place for lunch on weekends. All of their lunch specials are $8.95. You can also get bento boxes for $10.95. I tend to go for the bibimbap or a kalbi bento. Every order comes with a wide range of banchan (side dishes) and the offerings are different every time we go. Everything on the lunch menu is offered for dinner as well, just in bigger portions and slightly more expensive.

Bethany Seafood also has sushi available, all of which is fresh and tasty. You can order anything from individual portions to huge sushi boats that will feed 6 to 8 people comfortably. I tried raw sea cucumber there for the first time. Wouldn't say I was a fan, but that's just an example of some of the "unique" delicacies that can end up on your plate, in addition to the standard sashimi.

Everyone who works here is really friendly, although not all of them speak English, so we do a lot of pointing and hand gesturing sometimes to communicate. It's also really brightly lit and clean.

Phenomenal food, exceptional service, with reasonable prices - why can't all restaurants be run like this?

Food: it's extremely difficult to order anything if you do not speak Korean. However, I recommend that you ask the owner (Susan?) for her recommendations for the number of people you have in your party. I liked the seafood pancake, short ribs with bone, Sashimi and Sushi platter, spicy tofu hot clay bowl, beef hot clay bowl with rice, seafood hot clay bowl with rice, and fried potato.

Service: very responsive! Just press the button!!!!!

Decor: clean and the place does not make you smell like cooking food afterwards.

Five stars.

I guess I should start out by saying my dads been talking about this new Korean sushi buffet that he found all on his own for some time now. They have BBQ as well as a few other options but he really wanted me to experience the buffet. I was in town for the day on saturday so we came in to check it out. Come to find They dont have the buffet on
Saturday. So we ordered of the lunch menu instead and was definatly not let down. Everything was amazing, i will have to say my dad did alright. Sometimes he scares me with some of his choices. Im just a little upset that there was never any good food in Ellicott City like this back when i actually lived therE.

The staff here at Kimko are more than willing to help you negotiate the menu and the resultant avalanche of food that you'll be confronted with. You will want to bring an appetite, or several friends.

We sat down to a menu chock-full of Korean standards, with the addition of a large column listing sashimi combinations. So, we ordered up a small sashimi combo that the waitress assured us was a good size for two people.

Which is when they tried to kill us. In the nicest possible way, mind you, but still.

Immediately - about 8 plates of banchan showed up. Kimchi, grilled sardine or smelt, marinated octopus, vegetables, salad, edamame, cold noodle, tempura calamari... I lost track in no time. The sashimi platter had over two dozen slices of fish of 5 varieties. Then, more side dishes - dumplings, other fried things I can't recall, marinated pressed tofu. Honestly, I should have taken pictures just to remember everything that hit the table.

After we thought the onslaught of food was done and we're groaning with stretched bellies, then arrives a simmering clay pot of spicy tofu fish-bone soup. And more rice. And egg. I felt bad for only having taken a ladle or two and leaving the rest. But I was incapable of putting any more food inside me.

For which I think we paid $60. You can easily feed three normal people with the "small" combo, I think. The "large" must be for when you've got to take care of your whole neighborhood block for dinner.

The only fault was that the snapper on our platter was obviously still partly frozen. I get it - almost all sushi-grade fish bought in the US is flash-frozen as soon as it's caught. But it shouldn't be when it lands on the plate.

Lunch Buffet from 11-3 for 11.95 (plus tax) per person.

Kimko's lunch buffet consists of: Abalone Rice Porrige, Miso Soup, a decent selection of sushi (from: nigiri pieces to various maki rolls [both cooked and uncooked]), and a decent selection of cooked Korean dishes (such as gambongee, banchan stuffs, fried fish, buglogi, tejibulgogi, etc). Sliced oranges to end the meal. The sushi here isn't made very well, but it might satisfy your sushi craving. The pieces here aren't crammed with lots of rice (which is good), but the pieces here are much smaller and bite-sized than their normal counterparts. This isn't really a bad thing, as it probably leads to less food waste. There were plenty of rolls to choose from (there had to be at least 10 different ones).

It can be hard to find this place. Located near Briddles and Bits, in the first Bethany Lane Plaza (if you're coming from 29), turn right when you enter the plaza and it's on the right side of the plaza. Green and white colored awning should say "KIMKO."

Great food - Great service - Good prices

Felt like they were glad we were here. Say hello to Susan. She is very helpful and can guide you through the menu. We have been here a half dozen times & it is our new go to Korean restaurant

I have no idea why this place has such high reviews. I went here for the lunch buffetsbecause of the yelp reviews, and I could not be more disappointed. Literally I have never been so dissapointed in a sushi buffet. I'm asian and LOVE SUSHI, and this was definitely the worst sushi buffet I've been too.

The food: Quality and taste was just awful. Literally the only reason I continued eating was because I was getting surgery on my mouth and I dindt know when I could eat next. The soy sauce made me want to vomit. The water tasted like literal shit. How can you mess up on water. The cup was also filthy.

Service: Service was not even service. They brought me a cup of water and I never saw them again. I had to get up out of my chair and go find them to find the check. Please dont go here. Its a waste of your money.

Bethany Seafood is a little hard to find but the food is worth the effort. They specialize in seafood, sashimi in particular. They have a great selection of lunch my favorite of which is the Hwae Dop Bap (slices of raw fish and vegetables served over white rice with Korean hot sauce). The sushi combo's are also pretty good: they are served bento style. If you come with a large enough group, you will receive several complimentary side dishes along with your ban-chan, the best of which is the fried fish (think baltimore lake trout with a light batter).

I have yet to try the infamous live lobster sashimi or for that matter any of the more high end items on the list but I have heard good things about them. This is a simple place to eat at for both lunch and dinner.

First, read AJ K's review about the live lobster sashimi. Then come back here. I can't compete with that.

You should go to Bethany Seafood Restaurant even if you don't want live lobster. The beauty of a Korean meal is the array of flavors and dishes. A table might have spicy kimchi and tender vegetables, pickled radish and steamed egg, broiled meats and miso soup.

Bethany makes my list because it pulls off that array of flavors in a single dish -- dolset bi bim bop (or "bob" as Bethany calls it). The waitress brings a hot stone pot filled with rice, cooked vegetables, and some pieces of meat. Bethany's is my new favorite because the meat is actual slices of kalbi rib meat and because the hot pot browns the rice, which becomes crisp against the soft vegetables and tender, charred beef. With dollops of the spicy sauce, the bi bim bop becomes perfect.

The irony is that I didn't even realize that the place specialized in seafood. I don't read Korean, and we came in through the rear entrance so we missed the fish tanks up front. I'm definitely going back for the house specialties -- although probably not live lobster.

Consider this on the level of Shin Chon Garden -- better main courses (kimchi pancake and bi bim bop), slightly less interesting panchan.

Since it's Friday, a few of use decided to go out for a nice long lunch. Honey Pig was the first choice but after one of them (white guy) expressed concern over the menu since he isn't familiar with Korean food, I decided to search for a buffet since that would allow him to try different foods without commitment. It had to be a Korean place since we had settled on eating Korean food.

Found Kimko on Yelp and some other blogs. Decided to give it a shot. Place was tough to find. It's on the right side of the building towards the rear.

The buffet is $12 and includes all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean food. The spread isn't huge but the food is decent. Majority of the patrons in there were Korean so that's a good sign. They have a menu so you can order from there instead of the buffet if you wish.

The young lady assigned as our server was very helpful in showing my white friend the different dishes and offered suggestions. It was really cool to see him try new stuff and actually enjoy it. So props to her (I didn't catch her name). She constantly checked on us and even brought our soups to us. I noticed this was happening only at our table. The sushi was pretty standard, nothing exotic. They has miso soup and rice porridge with bits of abalone. There was tempura vegetables, fried fish, spicy seafood mix with squid tentacles, rice cakes, and some pickled vegetables among others.

For some reason the water was ridiculously refreshing, tasty, and cold. They were super quick to keep our glasses filled. There must've been crack in it. Couldn't stop drinking it. Definitely coming back at some point.