BeWon

[October 17th, 2007] 1203 NW 23rd Ave., 464-9222. Lunch Monday-Friday, dinner nightly. $$-$$$ Moderate-Expensive.

When you think “Korean food,” you might picture heaps of sizzling meat, cooked at the table. But the fare at BeWon is anything but a Seoul-less Benihana. In fact, it’s a green machine—primarily veggie-powered. From the gu-jeol-pan appetizer (“eight different foods to be wrapped in bite-size crepes”), which resembles a miniature Asian taco bar, to the doobu-yachae bokkum main dish, a tofu-veggie stir-fry that comes with nine different vegetables, roots and fungi on nine different doll-sized plates, BeWon is, above all, about infinite combinations of complementary, unexpected sensations. Here, you can treat your taste buds to a whirlwind tour of Korean gastronomy without feeling bloated afterward, thanks to the diminutive portions and focus on plant life. Don’t worry about being distracted from the meal by your surroundings. (SC)

Signature dish: Korean classic galbi bibimbap combines BeWon’s trademark—small, colorful mounds of assorted vegetables, sprouts and pickled things—with something Westerners will recognize as a meal: tender, marinated short ribs and rice.

Standouts: One of Portland’s best prix fixe deals: seven courses for $25.

Regrets: Many of the veggie-based choices are not actually vegetarian. And the dining room, while not unpleasant, is an atmospheric vacuum in the cellar of a Northeast 23rd Avenue shopping center.