Monday, March 1, 2010

Whoa, Mokpo has a Kraze Burger.

Thanks to hits from Google searches for "Kraze Burger in Yeosu," I eventually learned that they opened a Kraze Burger (크라제버거) in Mokpo back on December 24th. According to this map from Naver it's located in Hadang, near Peace Park roughly between Lotte Mart and Lotte Cinema. Kraze Burger is a Korean chain generally considered, by expats, decent but expensive.

Mokpo, a city of 244,801 in western Jeollanam-do, got its Kraze Burger the day after Gwangju got it's second. I visited the first, in Sangmu, in the fall and thought it was a pretty good burger. Commenters on the review page by the Zen Kimchi Food Journal point out the restaurant's pretension, and in my second comment I wrote:
It’s a place to go because it’s where people go. Koreans pay twice as much because they don’t know any better. The one at COEX is a joke, with the line out the door all the time. Part of the experience, part of the illusion of eating “western food.” A place where people can pay a lot, leave half their plate behind, and feel cosmopolitan.

But when you're way "out in the country," as people in Seoul describe this city of 1.5 million by virtue of it not being Seoul, your options are limited.


The K.O. Burger, from November.

Unless you're a loyal customer of McDonald's or Lotteria there's really no debate about the best burger in Mokpo. What's divisive is the pronunciation: the English leads people to say "craze," but the Korean is a tri-syllabic "Kuh-rah-jay."

5 comments:

Brian said...

Wow, on second read-through of this and the next post I found, like, five typos. Good thing everybody was watching hockey instead of reading about Jeollanam-do.

Nik Trapani said...

Theres a Taco Bell opening in Itaewon as well. Just so you know. That was big news to me.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I have been to the Kraze Burger in Mokpo and left unimpressed. The food was overpriced: I had to order french fries as a side dish, since they were not included in the price of the burger. The burger itself was tiny and had too much sauce. In the end, I will not return nor will I recommend the restaurant to friends.

Sucks, because I love a good burger.

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