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Very Best Restaurants: Woo Lae Oak

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Woo Lae Oak **
Arlington , $

Even when Korean food was less familiar, this fine restaurant, half hidden by large apartment buildings behind the Pentagon City shopping mall, won a large clientele of devoted followers. Koreans love barbecued beef, and at Woo Lae Oak you can choose from all over the steereverything from short ribs to tongue, liver, heart, or tripe. Your waiter will bring you a platter of the raw ingredient and show you how to cook it on the grill built into your table.

Those who like beef tartare also will like yook hwe, finely chopped raw beef in seasoned sesame oil. Raw beef is also the main ingredient of yook hwe bibim bap, made from raw beef and vegetables and one of several baps on the menu. The regular bibim bap has cooked beef, served in a bowl with a fried egg on top and a bowl of spiced bean paste on the side. Beer goes well with this food, but many Koreans drink soju, a Korean sweet-potato vodka, mild enough to drinkwith carethroughout the meal.

Woo Lae Oak , 1500 S. Joyce St., Arlington ; 703-521-3706. Open daily for lunch and dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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