{"id":162390,"date":"2026-02-03T20:07:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162390\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:07:42","slug":"a-new-champion-of-korean-short-ribs-has-come-for-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162390\/","title":{"rendered":"A new champion of Korean short ribs has come for the king"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since opening in 2019 in Japantown, Daeho Kalbijjim (opens in new tab)<\/a> has regularly drawn hourslong waits for its signature dish: a humongous platter of kalbijjim, braised short ribs and vegetables draped in cheese, then flamb\u00e9d tableside. But the legendary beef stew specialist is no longer the only game in town for enormous servings of Korean comfort food. A restaurant in the Richmond, opened by a former Daeho chef, is serving a dish that\u2019s even more decadent \u2014 and slightly cheaper, too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 5-month-old Hwa Mi Won (opens in new tab)<\/a> on Geary Boulevard, a heaping, $87 platter of kkori anchors the menu. It\u2019s a mountain of sizzling short ribs, oxtail, rice cakes, carrots, onions, and potatoes in a gochujang sauce, hoisted onto the table and seared with not one but two butane torches so the top layer of shredded jack cheese browns and melts into the meat. Two rib bones poke up from either side, a carnivorous touch that makes the whole thing look like a helmet worn by a Norse god in some Wagnerian opera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the standout on a tightly composed and decidedly meaty menu. The kkori comes with half a dozen bowls of banchan and a choice of white or purple rice; glass noodles are $5 extra. Diners essentially take on the whole cauldron, chunky oxtail and all, armed with only chopsticks and spoons \u2014\u00a0once it has a few moments to cool off, that is.<\/p>\n

\"AHwa Mi Won\u2019s kkori, a variation on galbi-jjim, is an $87 showstopper. | Astrid Kane\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Elsewhere under the kalbijjim (\u201cgalbi-jjim\u201d on Hwa Mi Won\u2019s menu) category are two alternatives, one with short ribs that swaps beef tendon for the oxtail and one of short ribs alone. For each, amazingly, there is a $10 option to pile on yet more meat. Hwa Mi Won also offers seoulleong-tang (milky-white ox-bone soups) and galbi-tang (heartier short-rib soups), plus a handful of varieties of bibimbap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s Korean food scene may be on the up and up<\/a>, but it suffers from a lingering inferiority complex (opens in new tab)<\/a>in relation to the South Bay \u2014 which, in turn, contrasts unfavorably to that of Southern California. Hwa Mi Won \u2014 whose lofty name refers to the idea of \u201cflavors perfected in fire and crafted with care\u201d \u2014 isn\u2019t trying to upend the consensus. It\u2019s meant simply to gratify. No region of Korea is highlighted, no particular culinary strand is teased out, and you won\u2019t find delicate lettuce wraps with bowls of ssamjang. This is just hefty comfort food done well and offered in borderline-spectacular quantities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just cooking things that are popular in Korea,\u201d co-owner Ji Choi says. \u201cThings like ox-bone soup that people eat whenever it\u2019s cold. Party food for holidays or family gatherings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAlthough solo diners will do well, Hwa Mi Won is meant for large groups.\"AChanwon Park and Ji Hye Choi are Hwa Mi Won\u2019s owners.\"AMuch of the menu resembles the offerings at Daeho, a Japantown restaurant where Park worked.<\/p>\n

Despite the ample selection of shareable dishes, it\u2019s feasible to dine solo at Hwa Mi Won on a crackling, cast-iron bowl of veggies, rice, and a fried egg. But it\u2019s far better to tackle the kkori with three or more friends over a big bottle of Terra, a low-ABV Korean lager whose crispness cuts through all the fat. You don\u2019t have to finish everything; the staff will offer sturdy to-go boxes and seal any leftovers in plastic wrap.<\/p>\n

From top to bottom, Hwa Mi Won\u2019s menu is a stripped-down version of the one at Daeho Kalbijjim (which has grown into a mini-chain with four Bay Area locations). Both offer the same styles of soup, with similar accoutrements, and a limited selection of soju, the distilled rice drink. But when it comes to design, they\u2019re hardly clones: Thanks to Choi\u2019s background as a graphic designer, Hwa Mi Won\u2019s bright, geometric interior, with frescoed murals and white oak, bears no resemblance to the darker, slightly cramped original Daeho location on Post Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s a bigger portion in a prettier space, at lower prices. Your move, Daeho.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since opening in 2019 in Japantown, Daeho Kalbijjim (opens in new tab) has regularly drawn hourslong waits for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[35067,13807,9807,412,12462,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-162390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-eat-here","9":"tag-eat-here-now","10":"tag-korean-food","11":"tag-restaurants","12":"tag-richmond-district","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}