Inconspicuously located in the middle of a Rosemont strip mall just a few miles away from the Sacramento State campus, it is easy to miss the Korean restaurant, Sa Ra Bang, if you didn’t already know it was there.

Nestled between the bright neon lights of a liquor store and the diviest of dive bars, the Mushroom Lounge, Sa Rang Bang both fits into its surroundings with its late-night hours and stands out with surprisingly good authentic food.

The second you walk through the door of Sa Ra Bang,] your eyes are drawn towards numerous posters of bikini-clad Korean women hawking all kinds of alcohol as well as Korean pop sensation Psy, stretching out the 15 minutes of fame that last year’s smash “Gangham Style“ made for him.

The owner quickly greets and seats us and a server drops off menus as well as a round of waters.  As we mull over the menus, we further examine our surroundings.

The interior has the typical Asian bamboo and straw hut décor with eight separate and fairly private wood paneled booths, each with walls adorned with the musings of previous patrons’ pen scrawled graffiti. At first glance, you might think this was an after school hangout for high school kids, but twenty-somethings seem to fill each booth.

A bored-looking server greets us and we put in an order for a handful of dishes. While waiting, we discuss sneaking next door to the Mushroom for a quick shot, but our first few plates quickly arrive and we instead decide to go “Gangham Style“ and order a couple bottles of Korean beer.

Our first dish, kimchee fried rice, hits its mark. It comes topped with a sunny-side up fried egg that we stir into the rice allowing the runny yolk and the perfectly cooked egg white to act as a sauce and enhance the flavors of the rice. We all grunt our approval.

Our second entrée, sliced beef with special sauce, is served on a piping hot cast iron dish that sizzles upon its arrival – while still steaming, – creating a delectable aroma that wafts over our booth like a delicious cloud. More grunts.

The owner tells us that our third dish is a local favorite, a green onion and seafood pancake. It is a batter mixture of diced Asian onions and seafood, which is then pan-fried and cut into squares – ours was crispy and full of flavor. I could not identify what kind of seafood was in it, but it was delicious nonetheless.

Our last two dishes arrive not long after we started eating. Bibimbap, a rice dish with beef and vegetables and a fried egg on top and a spicy pork kimchee soup. The rice in the Bibimbap seemed overcooked, but the flavors of the beef and veggies were good so we just ate around the rice. The soup was filled with kimchee, cabbage, tofu and pork and had a nice spicy broth with just the right amount of heat without being overwhelming. Our server, possibly thinking the dish might be too spicy for us, regularly filled our water and asked if we needed any more drinks.

Steven Senn can be reached at [email protected]