Ham Ji Bak Cafe

Found a new bossam spot!
It’s comparable to todamgol’s!
Also, been wanting to try the fresh eel bbq for a while and I was esthetic that I found a place that offered this dish. Though it was okay, it wasn’t quite what I had expected…
Would recommend to stick with bossam~

We ordered the first two combos listed on yellow poster board on the wall of our booth. One combo was pork belly bossam. The second combo was fried pork laid over lettuce, kind of like a salad. Delicious! Each combo comes with a bottle of soju, spicy soybean beansprout stew, mung bean pancake, a platter of raw oysters, pickled lettuce and radish kimchi. The raw oysters that came with our combo were inconsistent. Some were frozen, still thawing. Portion sizes are huge. One combo can easily feed 2 – 3 people. Ban chan was minimal. It was alright.
Service could be better. No service bells like other Korean establishments like Iron Age, Seo Ra Beol, etc. You’ll have to leave your booth to get their attention. Definitely come with a Korean friend or two. Everything on the menu and walls is Korean. Make sure you get a bottle of soju with each combo. Our group never got them. We definitely got taken advantaged of. I docked a couple of stars for that. :(

My boyfriend and I ordered a platter for 2 people that included the pig’s feet which comes with napa cabbage, raw oyster, and kimchi. It was pretty good, nothing outstanding though. The raw oysters do kinda gross some people out, because it does have a pretty distinct taste, but I do not personally mind it. The banchan here was pretty good also. The service isn’t bad, but it helps A LOT if you have someone who can speak korean. There is also a tripe salad that is SO GOOD (and I also can’t find it anywhere else in Duluth yet).
What I didn’t like is that you’re allowed to smoke inside here. Luckily, we were there early enough where there weren’t many smokers.
I would personally still prefer to go to Jang Su Jang for their bossam platter for the same price.

Ham Ji Bak Café is a Korean restaurant that opened in the old Nari Lee Sushi space inside the Satellite Square shopping center (same shopping center as Yummy Place) circa 2013. Conveniently, this shopping center has its own stop light on Satellite Blvd. It’s one of two stop lights on the stretch of Satellite in between Steve Reynolds Blvd. and Pleasant Hill Rd.
This is one of those Korean restaurants with very little to no English printed on the menu and older Korean lady servers who hardly speak English. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to come here with someone who can read and speak Korean. Otherwise, you might get taken advantage of, which is what happened in our experience here.
Ham Ji Bak is a small restaurant with very whimsical, fairy-​tale-​esque décor. If you’ve ever been to Sun and Moon Café (Korean BBQ) on Gwinnett Place Drive (near Jeju Sauna), it’s the same setup with all sorts of faux flowers and plants galore. It like you’re dining in a cottage in the woods. The space is cozy (cramped?) with about a dozen tables in private or semi-​private booths and rooms.
We had five in our party, so we were seated in one of the private rooms where each table seats six. The smaller tables «outside» each seat four. Once we were seated and our orders came out, our server lowered the curtains to our «room» so we had privacy. Unlike other Korean restaurants, Ham Ji Bak does not have buttons at each table to call a server’s attention. If a server doesn’t check on your table, you’ll have to go fetch one.
The restaurant specializes in «black pork» (presumably the Jeju black pig or similar breed), Korean pancakes (jeon), blood sausage, seafood (e.g. octopus, blue crab, anglerfish), assorted soups, bossam (pork belly wraps), hot pots, stews, casseroles, and more unique items such as sea snails, chicken intestines, and beondegi or cooked silkworm pupae («pupa» on menu). Needless to say, this isn’t your typical Korean BBQ restaurant nor tofu/​noodle house.
English descriptions on the menu are rather poor and prices tend to be on the high side. Expect to spend at least $ 20 – 30 per order. We decided to go with two combos written on a sign on the wall. We explicitly pointed to the two combos on the wall to our server so there was no mistake what we ordered. We ordered:
* Combo 1 ($ 45.99): Pig’s feet bossam, kimchi beansprout soup, one bottle of soju
* Combo 2 ($ 43.99): Thinly sliced pork belly salad, kimchi beansprout soup, one bottle of soju
The combos were written in Korean with no English translation. We relied on our server who barely spoke any English. I took a picture of the combo descriptions and asked a Korean friend to translate (after our meal), which is how I came up with the above descriptions. It turns out we did not receive the two bottles of soju (alcohol) as described. I’ve heard stories and been told this type of unfair treatment to non-​Koreans is not uncommon at certain Korean restaurants. We were the unfortunate victims this time.
The foods that came out were hit or miss. Banchan (side dishes) included cooked broccoli with red chili sauce, radish kimchi, apple slices with mayo, spicy pickled boiled daikon (radish), and pickled bean sprouts and scallions. The banchan quality was OK. I wasn’t a fan of any single banchan in particular. The radish kimchi was quite big and thick, almost like slices of pear.
The bossam was delicious, though I think we received pork belly instead of pig’s feet (jokbal). A small stove was brought to our table. Then out came a circular platter of already cooked (boiled) pork slices attractively garnished and seasoned with sesame seeds, scallion, red pepper flakes, and chopped onion and jalapeño. The purpose of the stove was to keep the plate warm. The presentation was rather nice with the slices of pork neatly laid out in circular fashion along the outer edges of the plate with a ring of raw onion in the center containing a small leaf of green lettuce, additional slices of jalapeño, and cloves of garlic.
The bossam was accompanied with a plate of shredded pickled and spicy radish, oysters, baek kimchi (white kimchi), and dipping sauces. We never received any lettuce or cabbage to use as wraps for the meat. The oysters, which are commonly eaten with bossam, were ice cold (previously frozen) and tasted bad. I love oysters, but the flavor and consistency of this batch were repulsive.
I liked the pork belly salad. It was tasty. The thin slices of pork belly were appropriately cooked and not too fatty, though a bit oily. I enjoyed the simple salad of chopped Romaine lettuce tossed with dressing, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes.
The other foods that came with the combos were good. They included gaeranjim (steamed egg soup), kimchi kongnamul guk (spicy soybean sprout soup with rice and kimchi, large portions), pajeon (green onion pancake with dipping sauce), and purple rice. And instead of the soju we paid for and never received, we drank barley tea instead.

Ham Ji Bak is a popular Korean restaurant name. At first, I thought it was the same restaurant as the one in LA Koreatown. I was hoping it was since I loved that place. But it wasn’t.
I also heard that there is a Ham Ji Bak in NY as well. But all three are different. I found out that Ham Ji Bak is not a chain but a popular name for a Korean restaurant.
So what is this place? Well they seem to specialize in bossams and other Korean dishes. They do have a huge menu. Not only that, they have tons of specials written on the walls. It will help if you know Korean when you come here. They don’t provide many good English translations.
I tried one of their combos. It came with 1 soju, jokbal bossam, and bean sprout kimchi soup (kong-​kim). Not only that, they gave us some pajun and egg jjim as a service. This was a ton of food for 2 people. I think the combos can feed 3 people. When you order the soju combo, you can choose the type of soju. I had no clue which one to order so I let the waitress decide.
I loved the jokbal. It was nice and smokey. They also gave us a huge platter of it too. Like I said, you need more than 2 people to finish everything.
The whole combo came with pickled nappa cabbage and raw oyster to wrap it in. They were good.
The kong-​kim soup was very spicy. It tastes spicier than it looks.
The rest of the banchans tasted all good. It was a nice, Korean meal. The staff were old school, FOB aunties, but they were very nice. They also don’t have doorbells as other Korean restaurants. So it’s harder to get the server’s attention.

Ive been here twice and both times the service and food were great. The first time I went, I got the combo which consisted of 1 soju, jokbal bossam (steamed pig feet), and bean sprout/​kimchi soup. It was sooo good. The pig feet had a slight smokey taste to it, and it just went sooo well with the pickled lettuce, raw oyster, and radish kimchi. Dont come here with people you’re not comfortable with (I.e. first date) as there is no pretty way of eating this. The wrap is so huge and it only tastes right to eat it whole. Some people prefer eating it separately, but I always always lay a lettuce on my plate, dip the meat into the shrimp, put an oyster on top, and radish kimchi. Then, wrap up this beautiful creation and stuff it down!
The 2^nd time I came, I had the regular bossam (steamed pork). It was still just as good, though I prefer the pig feet. I will definitely keep coming back to this place. :)

Ham Ji Bak Café is a recently opened Korean food. They focus more on meat dishes, stews and soups, and rice bowls.
I had their bossam (steamed pork) with fermented/​pickled cabbage and it was really good. They had other soup dishes like boo dae chigae (ramen with hotdogs, spam) and potato pork soup. It was all really good and well done. It’s captures authentic Korean food well.
Service was good and friendly. Two thumbs up!