To experience the pinnacle of Hanwoo is to dine at Born and Bred; this is a definitive truth. Born and Bred is, without a doubt, an institution in Korea. Its four-story-tall building stands out among the rest of the meatpacking district—a clear sign of its status within Majang Market.
Locals and others can argue about whether it is really that good, and whether you can get better Korean BBQ elsewhere, but you cannot argue that the experience of Born and Bred’s speakeasy is definitive. With 21 different courses lasting close to three hours from start to finish, this meal was a marathon of different cuts of Hanwoo and ways to experience it. You will leave lugging a belly full oozing with Hanwoo juices. But that’s it. There’s nothing more to the experience, which left me hoping for more.
Let’s get back to that point in a bit and talk about Hanwoo. Hanwoo is uniquely positioned in the world of beef. Its marbling can easily go toe-to-toe with Japanese Wagyu, the differences being its flavour is typically beefier and with more of a bite. The unique position with Hanwoo is that its production is limited, so Korea generally does not export it. This relatively limited exposure means that unless you go to Korea, happen upon it in Hong Kong, or purposely seek it out in Macau, Malaysia, or the UAE, it is unlikely you would have eaten Hanwoo. This leads to an interesting phenomenon, there is a limit to who is exposed to Hanwoo, and thus the number of people who know how to handle it is capped. I say this because, while this meal was fantastic and executed at the highest level, there is a cap to its creativity.
I am not going to break down all 21 courses—which you can find below—instead, I will discuss the general themes of the courses. The meal flow started with starters, then the showcasing of the various cuts using a Korean BBQ, occasionally including pairings with pickled items and a palate cleanser every couple courses, followed by a rice course, two carb courses (a pie and pho), and finally a dessert course.
Outside of the tri-tip paired with citrus-truffle soy topped with black truffle—which was a standout dish—I found the meat pairings with the pickles to be one of the major highlights of the meal. However, I would have loved to see how they could build on traditional pickling techniques to create a more layered pairing to complement the various cuts.
Trip-tip with citrus truffle soy, topped with black truffle
The rice course was of such high quality, I thoroughly enjoyed it, paired with various seafood banchans, bone marrow soup, galbi, bulgogi, and ssam.
Galbi and Bulgogi, served with rice, bone marrow soup, radish, samjang, various seafood banchans, and ssam
The pie and pho courses left me confused. I don’t want to detract from how good they both were—the pie was delicious, and the pho’s broth hit the spot—but they didn’t add to the overall meal. Neither was mind-blowing, and it felt like a missed opportunity for the team to continue showcasing the beauty of Hanwoo.
And this is why the meal left me wanting more. If the team has already put in the effort to highlight the beef in forms like pie, pho, various curing methods, and tartare, I don’t see why they don’t try something new to further push the flavours and textures of Hanwoo to the next level.
If Born and Bred is the pinnacle of Hanwoo, then I would expect them to also push the boundaries and showcase its beef in as many forms and in unique ways. Wrapping it up, while this meal was fantastic, the operation here is a well-oiled machine that executes the same routine night after night. I have no doubt that if I were to return in two years, I would have the exact same meal with just some minor changes.
As a business, this is clearly a model that works, but as a restaurant highlighting Hanwoo, it’s clearly stagnant and complacent as an institution. It is sad to see that an entity with the ability and capital to push the boundaries of how good Hanwoo can be is not doing so, as that would make the world a more interesting place. But alas, what we have is just a really good meal of overwhelming, well-executed Hanwoo overload. 79.
