Bibigo Kitchen is a new “fine-casual” dining restaurant that just opened up in Fashion Valley. I was recently invited to come sample the menu at a media dinner. Jake was my date!
Bibigo Kitchen is located just under the AMC movie theater in Fashion Valley. This is where Boudin used to be.
The space has been transformed in a warm and comforting restaurants with a good amount of seating.
Bibigo Kitchen is a new concept from Bibigo. This is more of a “fine-casual” dining experience. Bibigo also makes products (such as mini chicken & cilantro dumplings that are sold at Costco – I’ve bought them a few times!) and their other “fast-casual” restaurant focuses on crafting your own Bibimbap bowls (there’s a location at UTC). Bibigo Kitchen focuses on grill items, shareable plates, and mandu Korean dumplings.
Drink menu!
And the menu for our media dinner.
I started out by picking this pretty blue tea called Blue Jasmine. It came in this pretty glass pitcher so you could see the tea leaves steep in the water that turned blue.
There was this tiny dish of crispy sesame honey coated lotus root chips that I looooooooved. They were so light and crunchy and I loved the flavor of sesame and honey on top of the chips. I don’t even know if this is something they offer on their regular dinner or if it was just made for our dinner but damn – I would want to eat these again!
We were given little bowls of kimchi to enjoy as well. I’m not a fan so I didn’t try this.
We did also get these Kimchi Cucumbers which are on the regular menu at Bibigo Kitchen. I was hesitant to try them but after one crunch of a cucumber I was hooked! It’s more like a marinated cucumber or some cucumber salad. There’s a dressing on top of the cucumbers but they stayed fresh and crispy and I quite liked the flavor on them. Also I was afraid they would be spicy since they looked like it was chilis or something but surprise – it wasn’t spicy at all. Hooray!
Next came the dumplings!
These were the steamed Bibigo Beef & Vegetable Mandu dumplings. They had a good mix of meat with some veggies instead. They were really juicy and steamed just right.
This is the Mandu Sampler. On the top with the shrimp tails poking out are the Galbi & Shrimp Mandu along with the Korean Galbi and the Galbi & Kimchi Mandu. These were pan fried to get a little crispy edge on them. Jake and I loved the galbi inside of the mandu – though neither of us cared for the one with kimchi, but that’s not surprising since we don’t dig kimchi. I got to have the shrimpy ones to myself! They were delectable!
The last on the dumplings we tried were the Bibigo Mini Chicken Wontons. These have a similar filling to the mini dumplings I get at Costco but these babies were fried. They have a yummy filling of chicken, cilantro, cabbage, and onion and the crispy edges were well enjoyed by me with that little dipping sauce. Jake said he preferred the steamed dumplings to the fried ones.
We each got to choose our own entree. Jake chose the Beef Bulgogi Plate with Perilla Multi-grains and Grilled Broccolini. Jake adored the bulgogi. The seasoning on it was just right and the beef was incredibly tender and juicy. We didn’t care for the perilla multi-grains – not sure what exactly was in the mix but it looked like a big mix of grains. The flavor was a bit bland on them.
For my plate, I choose the Crispy Pork Belly with mushroom rice and grilled root vegetables.
The pork was amazing – great flavor, really moist and juicy, with a crisp sear to the slices.
Though I think my favorite thing was the mushroom rice!! There’s a mix of slices and chopped mushrooms mixed into the buttery rice and well… quite frankly, it made me love rice for once. Oftentimes I find rice to be bland and boring but this rice just made me want to eat more!
The grilled root vegetables had a mix of carrots, lotus root, sweet potato and regular potato. There was a honey like glaze on the veggies that gave them a hint of sweetness. Yum!
At the far end of the table, they did a presentation of the Bibigo Kitchen BBQ Platter. This is a special dish meant for at least two people that comes with short ribs, honey soy fried chicken, pork belly, grilled veggies, and cheese corn!
We were given a mini BBQ platter to share which was crazy because we were already full. I did sample a little bit of the yummy crispy fried chicken and had like one bite of the cheese corn (which we also both loved – how can you go wrong with fresh sweet corn mixed with cheese?).
Now while I thought I couldn’t eat another bite, my dessert stomach kicked in once this dessert was placed before us. This is the Injeolmi Tiramisu.
Injeolmi is a Korean rice cake covered with powdered dried beans. In this case, the rice cake has been fried and then covered with the dried beans and placed on top of the tiramisu. The tiramisu doesn’t taste like the traditional espresso tiramisu with lady fingers – this version tasted more like a light, fluffy cheesecake filling! AND I LOVED IT! There’s a light sweetness to it and it’s really creamy, much like a mousse. The fried rice cakes vary in texture. Some of them were slightly chewy, reminding you that they’re rice cakes, while others were completely crunchy. I liked that the texture varied since it gave more contrast to the dessert.
I ate very single bit of this and I adored it.
I would come back to Bibigo Kitchen just to get dessert! You really must try this!
I also had a little coffee to go with my dessert – but not much, since it was in the evening and I wanted to sleep later. But this went to nice with the creamy dreamy tiramisu!
We had our leftovers packaged up for us. There were two of these – one for Jake and one for me.
These are my leftovers and I must say that the leftovers tasted FANTASTIC the next day.
I am seriously IN LOVE with that mushroom rice. I must learn how to make it!
All in all Jake and I were really impressed (and stuffed to the brim) from our lovely dinner at Bibigo Kitchen. Thanks so much to the staff at Bibigo Kitchen for hosting us as well at the PR staff from JS2 PR for setting up the invitation!
Already planning on going back soon…. cause I need another bite (or two…. or three….) of that crazy good injeolmi tiramisu….
Bibigo Kitchen
7007 Friars Rd. #357B
San Diego, CA 92108
Disclaimer: I was invited to dine at Bibigo Kitchen. Our meal was complimentary. I was not further compensated for this post and all opinions expressed here are my own.
How funny… Dennis just asked me if this restaurant was related to the bibigo dumplings we bought at Costco and 99 ranch! The make-at-home ones are really good! I guess we gotta try it here too! ?
Hi Lynn – Yeah! The restaurant is just as good! They also have a quick service restaurant in UTC that I want to try out as well but this place is awesome. I love the dumplings!
Place looks fancy. I’d like to try that fried chicken.
Hi Soo – We liked the food here a lot! The fried chicken was quite tasty though I was already full when I tried it.