San Jose restaurateur opens Los Gatos’s first Korean restaurant

Finding a place in Los Gatos to launch another of her Danbi Korean restaurants had long been a goal for Janet Soh.

The 54-year old entrepreneur has two other Danbi locations, one on First Street in downtown San Jose and the other, Danbi Korean Santa Teresa, on Snell Avenue. She’d been wanting to add a third in downtown Los Gatos for well over a year and finally found the space on Montebello Way formerly occupied by Grocer + Goddess, complete with all the kitchen essentials and completely furnished.

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Although the menus are similar at all three locations, the Los Gatos Danbi is slightly more upscale. The printed menu does not currently have images, but that might change.

“Some people think it’s tacky to have pictures on the menu,” said Soh, a resident of San Jose’s Almaden Valley. “But I think it helps give an idea of what each dish will look like.”

Illustrated or not, the menu is packed with Korean street food favorites including fried chicken in three flavors: savory, spicy and soy glazed. There’s the old standard Bi Bim Bap—rice topped with bean sprouts, spinach, egg and your choice of chicken, beef, pork or tofu—and Bulgogi, thin-sliced beef infused with a sweet and savory soy-based marinade. From the Korean grill comes Kalbi—grilled beef short ribs—as well as grilled pork and mackerel, plus Meat Jun, which is marinated thinly sliced beef fried in an egg batter.

All entrées are accompanied by six small side dishes called Banchan. These include Napa cabbage kimchee, spicy fish cake, pickled daikon radish, marinated bean sprouts and pickled jalapenos and carrots. Speaking of kimchee, you can also order a flour pancake with kimchee and green onion, or pancakes with vegetables or seafood. They also serve spicy Korean-style ramen soft tofu soups, as well as several spins on fried rice. There are multiple stir fry options, including spicy calamari and Danbi stir fry with vegetables and your choice of spicy pork, beef, chicken or tofu, served over rice.

We took Soh’s advice and ordered the Japchae, a stir-fried dish of shiny glass noodles with spinach, Bulgogi beef, sweet onion and cabbage. She also recommended the hot clay pot, which is essentially a sizzling version of Bi Bim Bap, served in a hot stone pot that cooks the rice until it’s crispy on the bottom. The version we ordered was topped with shredded carrots, bean sprouts, radish, spinach, diced chicken and a fried egg. The cheese stone pot has spicy pork, bell peppers and mozzarella.

The Danbi menu also offers signature Korean soups and stews, including the Tteok Mandu soup with pork dumplings, egg, beef and rice cake, as well as old-style Bulgogi, which comes in soup version with clear noodles. A nod to the conflict that brought Americans to Korea—and subsequently, many Koreans to America—is Budae Jjigae, also known as Army Stew, which combines ramen, kimchi, sausage, pork and tofu with spam and American cheese.

The only wrinkle thus far has involved the liquor license, so they are currently unable to serve wine or beer or offer corkage service. The downtown San Jose location serves a selection of Korean and Japanese beers, as well as Koji, sake, Korean berry wine and rice wine.

Sunny Choi, Soh’s longtime friend and manager of the Danbi Los Gatos location, looks forward to obtaining the liquor license so they can more fully participate in popular Los Gatos events like Jazz on the Plazz and Music in the Park.

Soh, who came to the US from South Korea at age 18, initially bought a beauty supply store, then a Baskin Robbins. Investing in a Togo’s franchise proved so successful that she and her husband acquired a second one. That led to acquiring three Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken restaurant franchises. These proved so popular that she decided to expand to Korean street food with her first Danbi location, which opened post-pandemic. She has plans open a total of five Danbi restaurants in the area.

Choi said Danbi is Korean for sweet rain. “More like that wonderful first rain after a long drought,” Choi added.