The Golden Eagles – Ulsan, South Korea

Ulsan, on the southeast coast of the peninsula, is South Korea’s seventh largest city.  Known for the world’s largest automobile factory, the world’s largest shipyard, and the world’s largest oil refinery, it is where I found myself working in August.  As much as I love Korean food, the need for a burger could not be suppressed.

After research revealed a surprisingly high number of restaurants that serve Western style hamburgers, I set off with a pair of colleagues and a shortlist of locations to sample.  The directions were interesting – find the red building, walk away from it, turn down a small alley, etc. – but we were up for the challenge.  We made it to Seongnam (the old Downtown area) and found the first location, an ex-pat bar named Benchwarmers.  Unfortunately we had arrived too early in the day and it wasn’t yet open.  We then moved on to Samsandong (the new Downtown area) in search of IT Burgers.

With very specific directions in hand, we wandered up and down the street where IT Burgers was supposed to be, but wasn’t.  We asked a number of locals but everyone pretty much shrugged at us since we didn’t speak Korean.  So we resorted to the long shot of stopping a pair of foreigners who were walking along the street.  Luckily, they were not tourists but rather they were living in Ulsan, and even more luckily, they knew of IT Burgers.  IT Burgers had just closed up a couple of weeks before and moved across the city to a new location.  The couple then recommended a new gastro pub that recently opened on the next street over.  Short on time, we took their advice and headed around the corner to The Golden Eagles.

We quickly spotted our destination as the façade of the bottom two floors of the building was modeled after the British pub The Eagle in London.  With its black front, Guinness adverts, and bright red British mailbox at the stairs, you really couldn’t miss it.  Once inside the door, I was shocked to see a foosball table in front of the full-length wooden bar.  The interior was a bit dark but surprisingly open with stairs leading up to a large second floor.  We sat in the far corner by the billiards table and opened up the menu.

We weren’t sure what to expect from a Korean interpretation of a British pub serving an American burger but were eager to find out.  I ordered the Smoked House Golden Burger (W8000, about $6.70) and asked for a Coke.  The server gestured toward the bar and said, “self-serve, free.”  In sub-tropical Ulsan, the heat and humidity are oppressive in August, and the words self-serve and free nearly made me cry.  The menu listed Coca-Cola, Sprite, Orange Fanta, and “Fineapple” Fanta as costing W3000 ($2.50), but I was not about to argue the point.  The “Fineapple” was the only example of Konglish – misuses of English – in a quick read of the menu, although the pub’s name being plural is a bit odd with only a single eagle figure at the front of the building.

The burger arrived and appeared quite American aside from the decidedly un-American serving size of six French fries on the plate.  It was topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, lightly grilled onions, a Korean brown sauce, mayonnaise and mustard, all on a toasted black sesame seed bun.  The first bite was remarkably flavorful but both the pickles and the Korean brown sauce were too sweet for me.  The texture of the beef was soft as the meat was minced rather than being coarsely ground.  While the burger was good, the French fries were great.  All six of them.  They were thick potato wedges and nicely seasoned.  I could have eaten another six(ty) easily.

If you’re ever in Ulsan and are in need of a good burger, a pint of Guinness, or a mean game of foosball, The Golden Eagles can help you out.  A short walk from the Lotte Hotel, it’s worth the visit to watch a soccer game or grab a free Fineapple Fanta.

RATING: 3

The Golden Eagles
Samsan-dong 1525-12
Nam-gu
Ulsan 680-808
Republic of Korea
+82 (0)52 269-8822
www.goldeneagles.co.kr
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 12:00PM – 4:00AM
Closed Mondays

Tagged as: bar, British pub, burger, burger review, Golden Eagle, hamblogger, hamburger, Hyundai Department Store, Korea, Lotte Hotel, photo, photographer, photography, photojournalist, pub, Samsandong, South Korea, The Golden Eagles, Ulsan, Western style