Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published August 29, 2007 In Former India Palace Gimchi, New Korean Restaurant Coming Next Month In Metairie By all rights, we should have more than one Korean restaurant in New Orleans. We're familiar with the genre: Henry Lee's Genghis Khan served the food of his homeland for more than twenty-five years here, with significant success.* The noodle soups will seem familiar to anyone who likes Vietnamese food. The grilled meat dishes are accessible to anyone who likes, well, grilled meats. Maybe Jacky Chan can pull it off. He owns the popular and good Mikimoto sushi bar in the Carrollton section. And he seems enthusiastic about his new venture, Gimchi, which will open in mid-September. He certainly spent enough money renovating the building on North Turnbull just off Veterans in Metairie. That's where the India Palace once was**. The building had some damage from the Broussard Flood after the hurricane. But it's a nice restaurant property, originally built in the 1970s as Le Charcuterie.*** Chan says that the main attraction here will be individual Korean barbecue grills at each table. They'll be smaller than the hibachi grills in some local Japanese places (nor will they have the goofball chefs throw food around), and built with efficient exhaust fans so you won't choke on the smoke as you cook your own meats and vegetables. You will also be able to get the same dishes prepared in the kitchen for you, if you prefer. Gimchi will also have a full sushi bar. This is not uncommon in Korean restaurants around the country: Korea and Japan are close cultural cousins (although they don't like to admit it), and the two cuisines dovetail well. "Gimchi" is an uncommon (but authentic) spelling for kimchee, the universal appetizer-side dish in Korean restaurants. It's a cold, pickled, very spicy cabbage; sometimes radishes and other vegetables get the same treatment. Gimchi. 3322 N. Turnbull Dr. 454-6426. Opening Mid-September. *Henry Lee closed the relocated Genghis Khan well before the storm, after an impossible-to-fulfill lease agreement in the former Sears Building on Baronne and Common put him out of business. He now lives in Houston, but visits now and then. I doubt he'll ever reopen Genshis Khan, good as it was. ** No word on what happened to the India Palace owners. They have relocated, I heard, and have no plans to reopen anywhere here, to my knowledge. ***Many other restaurants, some of them classy and noteworthy, have operated here: Archie and Danny's, Romanoff's, The Regency, the Butcher Shop Steakhouse, and King Chinese, among them, plus the India Palace. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com