Bibibop Asian Grill

[Walker Evans]

geoyui said:
What is “Yum Yum” sauce?

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/yum-yum-sauce/

[squid]

So we didn’t realize this was open yet. One of the co-workers needed to stop in the Cell store so we stopped here for lunch. Yet another fast casual pick-your-poison type menu in the McBurito (Chipotle) style. It was OK, nothing outstanding.

The menu hanger didn’t match the order they were doing things in though. Might want to fix that and add the Rice as well.

Some notes:
-It has a Pepsi fountain, plus brewed un-sweet tea and some green-tea. For folks that live the Lewis Black “buckets of $hit” Coke joke, this makes a difference. No lemonade for those that like to mix with tea (though they did have sliced lemons out, uncovered) and nothing for children that I saw. Doesn’t mean they don’t have it, just that I did not see it.
-they also had some bottled beverages. Boylan?, bottled water, etc. Memory failing me here. Hopefully they add some milk cartons and/or juice pouches for munchkins, this was VERY important to some of the co-workers.

-everyone agreed the potatoes were rather tasteless. Needs fixed, though I would recommend the rice>>potatoes anyway.

-We all agreed the flavored rice was very good. I liked it with the black beans especially.

-they did have egg in the final toppings. sliced flipped over omelet it looked like. VERY thinly sliced.

-Yum Yum sauce. It’s much like the link above with no tomato in it. YMMV. None of the four of us liked it, I thought it was kind of nasty, YUCK!

-their “sriracha sauce” is NOT Sriracha. It’s a weaker, watered/vinegar-ed down version of it (probably to make it last longer, and make it easier to meter out). Luckily, they have bottles of the real thing for the tables. awesome! If you like that kind of thing, just put your own on afterwards.

-plenty of food for your lunch $. Value was good we all agreed. Much like Piada in terms of bowl size and burrito-style size.

Lot’s of tasting each others choices at the start. We tried several variations on the base+proteins. I had 1/2 tofu (good. brick?) & 1/2 spicy chicken(meh) with pretty much all the end toppings. I’m not sure if the cukes were flavored but I’m normally unimpressed by them and they were very good, or they mixed well with the overall meal. Others tried the Steak, veggie, and chicken. No vegans in this group, all agreed we liked the steak and tofu best.

Our grade is a B-. Overall good value, decent flavor, but not outstanding in any way. I think the other one like this (name escapes me at the moment) was better.
Is it real 비빔밥? Not really. Close though. We were mixed in ‘would we return’ with 2 and 2. There is better Korean in town, all over. And all 4 of us decided Piada was better, but it’s had more time to mature. We plan to return in a month or so and see if things have changed.

Can’t say I see it surviving long term on that corner with all the very very nearby competition. Tons of fast Asian food in the 5xNW area. But who knows? Perhaps if it fails I’ll invest in a Jamaican fast casual like Ena’s Jerkmania. (full disclosure: I prefer Island Vibes over Ena’s Kitchen due to rice and Jerk flavor, but Ena’s is less variable visit to visit and always a solid choice. And I have NOT yet been to their fast casual down Cincy way)

Check it out, let us all know what you think.

Squid

[drew]

I came to a similar conclusion – not bad, but I’d much prefer a real bowl of bibimbap from a Korean restaurant. At Lotte or Arirang, it’d even cost about the same and come with banchan.

Bibibop does have a convenient location and speed of service going for it. I have to wonder, though, how I would’ve felt about it if I didn’t know what the typical toppings are for bibimbap. I suspect I could’ve picked a combo that was far from enjoyable.

The genius of Chipotle is that everything on the steam table tastes good paired with everything else. To my mind, most of the Chipotle clones don’t understand that.

[GCrites80s]

These kind of places have high profit potential because they are basically cafeterias with small menus.

[placebohigh]

Some friends and I checked it out yesterday and all enjoyed it. Although I agree Piada is better, this place has some interesting potential with a little tweaking and additions/alterations to the menu.

I would’ve liked to have seen more sauces and sides. It’s kind of odd to order a salad bowl with yum yum sauce , sriracha or teriyaki when there’s no salad dressing option like a vinaigrette. The potatoes with the rice is way too much we learned…pick one or the other lol. After eating here we felt like we were in a food coma..but that’s normal for these type of places where you can order way too much without some restraint. It was similar to Fresh 50 but executed in a much more professional way.

All in all, the service was phenomenal. There were lots of corporate types milling about checking on your opinions since this is their first concept restaurant. And the interior reminded me of a combination of Piada and Fusian. I’ll definitely be back to see how this places evolves with customer feedback.

[Jack Faktor]

squid said:
-their “sriracha sauce” is NOT Sriracha. It’s a weaker, watered/vinegar-ed down version of it (probably to make it last longer, and make it easier to meter out). Luckily, they have bottles of the real thing for the tables. awesome! If you like that kind of thing, just put your own on afterwards.

The sauce is a combination of Sriracha and Gochujang paste. I was wondering how they were going to incorporate Gochujang to give it that hallmark Bibimbap flavor.

Thought that sauce was pretty money; but overall the taste of the bowl falls a bit flat to me because, unlike Chipotle and Piada, there is no truly saucy/creamy/savory element. It just doesn’t hit nearly the breadth of notes, textural differences, hot/cold as Chipotle and Piada do. Thought it needed salt badly as well.

Obviously the lack of dairy in Asian cuisine poses a problem of implementing those qualities into an Americanized fusion rice bowl and still keeping it strongly ‘asian’.

After eating here a few times now, I actually like combining all three sauces and adding KimChi to the bowl itself; which is odd because I’m rarely an ‘everything & the kitchen sink’ kind of orderer. But the bowl just flat out needs it.

Then again, half the people in line at Chipotle are plain-Jane ‘just chicken, rice and cheese’ kind of customers and will probably LOVE Bibibop’s flavor-profile.

[ColumbusTime]

I tried it last night. I liked it, but it isn’t anything special. It is fast, cheap, and healthy so I’ll be back, but it shouldn’t be confused in any way with serving bibimbaps, if that is what people are thinking.

[News]

Bibibop Asian Grill Opening Inside Easton Town Center
June 19, 2014 8:00 am – Walker Evans

The Easton location will be housed inside the mall in the former Cup O Joe / Mojoe Lounge spot, which closed in January.

READ MORE: https://www.columbusunderground.com/bibibop-asian-grill-opening-inside-easton-town-center

[News]

BiBiBop Asian Grill Opening Polaris Location
June 19, 2014 8:00 am – Walker Evans

Bibibop is working quickly to corner the market on fast casual Korean fare. Their original Fifth Avenue store opened last August, followed by a Henderson Road expansion in February, and next on the agenda is a Polaris location this summer followed by an Easton location in the fall.

READ MORE: https://www.columbusunderground.com/bibibop-asian-grill-opening-polaris-location

[geoyui]

Wow, it should do well in both locations, especially Easton.

[Miracle]

I wonder if the Polaris location, in addition to the Easton location, wipe out the possibility of a downtown location(Possibly the Commons) in the near future? I remember reading that after they withdrew their proposal to fine tune the plans, they were going to re-submit them for consideration…..but that was at least 3+ months ago.

[Walker Evans]

Miracle wrote:

I wonder if the Polaris location, in addition to the Easton location, wipe out the possibility of a downtown location(Possibly the Commons) in the near future?

I wouldn’t think so… they’re very different localized markets.

Will post an updated on the Downtown locale if we hear anything from them.

[ctonn]

Any idea where in the Polaris area that location will be? I work up there, and I don’t recall any new places being built other than the Firebirds and the new Roosters.

[Walker Evans]

ctonn wrote:

Any idea where in the Polaris area that location will be? I work up there, and I don’t recall any new places being built other than the Firebirds and the new Roosters.

I asked this morning and they haven’t said an exact location yet. Sounds like there’s some paperwork still to be finalized.

[foxforcefive]

I really like this place, and am glad to see it doing so well and expanding. I kinda wish they stayed open past 9pm during the week, but no biggie. The Grandview location is always packed. Good, fresh food.

[Author]

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