Burger deliciousness

Upon coming to Korea I didn't think that burgers would be something one could get easily. I was surprised to find out that the idea of a burger rested in the realm of fast food. Burger King, McDonalds and Lotteria hold the monopoly as the Korean burger. Disappointing to say the least and for a long time I went without even eating or thinking of a burger.

Then one night, a few months back, my girlfriend mentioned Kraze Burger to me. My whole world changed. I could now get a real burger! Our first adventure to Sangmu was an adventure to say the least, it was our second time to use the subway here in Gwangju and thus it took some figuring out. But we got to Sangmu but we still didn't know exactly where Kraze Burgers was hiding. We eventually stopped into a Starbucks to ask for directions and the people there were really helpful, they directed us across the street and right to it!

On our way across a foot bridge and down the street we found numerous other little restaurants and stores. Then we found the shining beacon that is Kraze Burgers. It's right at the end of the street in the same building as a VIPS, and across the street from a Megabox. It is a magical place that has a great menu; a variety of burger styles and even a 'create our own' as well as different styles of french fries and Sprite. I was very excited when we got there, it had been a long time since I had a real burger and I wasn't disappointed.

After a few months of going to Kraze we started looking for other restaurants. One main place is TGIF that is located at U-Square Bus Terminal. But it is still a trek to get there. So with Kraze way over in Sangmu and TGIF at U-Square, it was starting to get to be an expensive trip. Then through the awesomeness of blogs we found another restaurant here in Gwangju that serves burgers: The Lemon Table.

Lemon Table is located downtown next to Geumnamro Park. If you are walking around in the middle of downtown, head to the street where Zara and ABC are located and there is an alley way next to ABC that will take you down and on the side there is a series of dry-cleaners and when you come to the end of the alley you will be next to a park, Lemon Table will on your right.

This restaurant is small, quaint, and awesome. The burgers there are equally delicious, grilled to perfection and served in four different ways. Like many Korean dishes though, they tend to drown their meat in sauce, so it is best to order the sauce on the side.

Along with great burgers, Lemon Table also has really good tea and also serves something rare to Korea, Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew.

For those that like cooking and are adventurous enough, you can take a two hour train ride to Daejeon which is the home of a Costco. For a cheap 35,000 won you get a Costco card which then gives you free reign to all that this wondrous Warehouse has to offer. It is a mere 3 minute walk from the SeoDaejeon train station to Costco and once inside you will be surprised by the grand scale compared to that of E-mart or Homeplus.

Here in Gwangju we have a foreign market that gets the majority of their food from Costco, so we decided to go check it out for ourselves one weekend.

One thing that drew me in was the rumor of hamburger meat. After scouring the vastness of Costco, we finally found the food and there was A LOT of food. It was all food from the west that we had gone near a year without seeing. We finally found the meat section and there it was, ground beef for a cheap 6,000 won. I jumped on that like a nerd on a math puzzle.

As awesome as Kraze and Lemon Table are, nothing beats a homemade burger. If you are here in Gwangju, South Korea, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to Kraze Burger or Lemon Table. You will be glad that you did.