GEN Korean BBQ House

 

GEN Korean BBQ House is a restaurant that specializes in Korean Style BBQ.  It offers all you can eat menu throughout the day with 3 different tiers.  The 3 tiers include lunch menu, dinner menu, and dinner premium menu.  Other than the price difference between the 3 tiers, the lunch menu only offers 32 items and dinner menu offers 64 items to choose from.  The dinner premium menu offers additional premium selections such as wagyu beef.  GEN Korean BBQ House opened its first Oregon location in Washington Square mall few years ago and we have not had the time to give it a try.  Since we had a day off right before Thanksgiving, we decided to try it out.

We got to GEN Korean BBQ House around 12PM and the restaurant was about half full.  The waiter led us to a table near the kitchen.  The grill was already prepared on the table for BBQ.  When we sat down, we could hear the fan blowing and it was quite loud.  In addition, due to the fan blowing at every table, it actually felt a bit chilly at the restaurant.

The lunch tier was $20.99 and it was the tier we chose since we wanted to give it a try first.  There were items for grill and items for appetizers.  We were only allowed to choose up to 4 grill items and 2 appetizers each round.  The waitress said this was to avoid people wasting food.  Once we finish all the food, we could order more.  We ordered the recommended items on the menu and also the Korean fried chicken and cheese corn as the appetizers.

The Korean fried chicken here was not very good.  It was very crispy and had good texture, but not much chicken in it.  Cheese corn was mediocre.  We thought it may be a tasty dish, but it was literally cheese placed on the corn.  We liked the thin slices pork and beef the most.  This is because they cooked very quickly and do not stick to the BBQ grill easily.  We did order bulgogi as well but it took much longer to cook and was quite salty.

After 2 rounds of food, we were already quite full.  $20.99 for an all you can eat BBQ was not a bad price especially when there are so many items to choose from.  We would definitely visit this place again but we would be carefully choosing the correct items for grill.

Tillamook Forest Center

 

Tillamook Forest Center is the visitor center of Tillamook State Forest in Oregon.  It is located about an hour West of Portland and also just about an hour off the Oregon pacific coast.  Tillamook Forest Center does not have many visitors usually, but it is a decently sized visitor center that provides a lot of history and experience in Tillamook Forest.

We drove to Tillamook Forest Center after having lunch at Tillamook Creamery.  When we got to the parking lot, there were only 3 other cars there.  As we got off the car, we could already see the high fire lookout at the front.  The staircase of the lookout was well maintained.  We were able to go all the way to the top and even visited the cabin and checking out the usual living items in there.  From the lookout, we could also see the entire Tillamook Forest Center from the top.  It was an amazing view.

As we entered Tillamook Forest Center, there were many interesting things there.  It had a lot of information about the tree specifies in this state forest and all the creatures living in this climate.  There were also replicas of tools, equipment, and tents used by the early explorers in the America.  There was even a small theatre going over the documentary of this place.

At the end of Tillamook Forest Center, the exit led to a long bridge that crossed the river.  During the summertime the river water is calm and clear.  People enjoyed having a swim in the water or even just dip their toes in there.  It was quite a soothing experience.

Tillamook Forest Center was a place that offered interesting experience for people to enjoy, especially for little kids after having ice cream at Tillamook Creamery.  We would definitely revisit again in the future when kids are older.