"Paksanbal only has one item on its menu — beef gukbab (rice in beef and cabbage soup) — and it’s served either regular or spicy. The plain version boasts a richer beef flavor that gets eclipsed by the gochugaru in the spicy version. Owner XY has always kept the menu tight with only one or two dishes coming and going in the decades since she’s opened her restaurant. A lot of things have stayed the same though: the tried-and-true gukbap, the old-fashioned way of piercing a stack of toasted seaweed with a wooden toothpick, the self-serve water and green tea at the front, and the nonstop broadcast of golf." - Caroline Shin