MY GO TO KOREAN JOINT >>>

Most of Lakewood's Korean restaurants are housed along South Tacoma Way, and many of them serve a cookie-cutter menu of barbecue and soup dishes common to Korean restaurants in this country.

But Palace Restaurant and Cafe is a clean, open concept with a décor that mixes dark woods, purple and yellow halogen lighting, and modern touches with hokey red ribbons on plants, Korean advertisements and Korean programming on large plasma screens.

The Palace's menu is divided between noodle dishes, seafood, chicken, barbecue, lunch boxes and casseroles. The goat casserole - more of a soup with a marvelous sesame oil and chili paste brother (rather than served with fettuccine noodles and topped with crumbled potato chips) - takes 25 minutes to prepare so they prefer you call ahead.

My Palace favorites are the mandu guk, a rustic soup stocked with meat-filled dumplings, and dolsot bibimbap, a pot of crunchy baked rice in which colorful raw veggies, a pile of chopped beef sporting a fried egg.

The palace also houses modern-ish bar that features exotic cocktails, Korean liquor and beer.

[Palace Restaurant and Café, 8718 S. Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.581.0880]