Restaurant offers quick lunches, dinners and catering services
Published in the April 1-14, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Owner and executive chef Helen Kim prepares a meal in the kitchen of the Big Grill BBQ & Teriyaki.
Big Grill BBQ & Teriyaki is a 10-year-old Morgan Hill restaurant that can be a little hard to find but it’s well worth it for the traditional Korean food it serves. When customers call to ask the location, owner and executive chef Helen Kim usually tells them that it’s right next door to the new Lawson’s Bakery in the shopping center on the corner of Monterey Road and Vineyard Boulevard.
“I grew up in the restaurant business,” Kim said. “I love to cook. When I was 10 years old, I would cook Thanksgiving dinner for the family, I did the whole thing.”
Born in South Korea, Kim came to the United States in the 1970s and moved around with her family in various California communities such as Fort Bragg in Mendocino County and Los Altos. They moved to Morgan Hill after purchasing a home near Anderson Lake a couple of years ago because they enjoyed the “quiet, clean air and country living.” She spent time fixing up the house, but after that was done, Kim felt a bit bored with her life.
“I thought, maybe I retired maybe too early,” she said. “There’s too much time left and I needed something to do. That’s how I came to start the restaurant. I didn’t want something big, something I couldn’t handle, and this was the perfect size.”
Kim has worked at both Chinese and Korean restaurants in the past. She also worked for electronics firm Samsung as the electronics firm’s Silicon Valley chef for about six years. About half a year ago, she purchased Big Grill from the previous owner who had run the restaurant for about nine years. During that time, the eatery had developed a following of people who liked traditional Korean cuisine such as the popular dolsot bibimbap, which is rice topped with vegetables, marinated beef, and a fried egg served in a hot stone pot with chili paste. Her sister Sue greets customers as they come through the door while Helen and her son Eric Brown work in the kitchen preparing the meals.
Big Grill is open for both quick lunches as well as more leisurely evening dinners, Brown said. It also offers take-out and catering for parties and corporate functions.
“Customers really like the lunches,” he said. “They can come in and get served fairly quickly — and they like the taste of the food, which is different that Chinese food,” he said. “There are so many variations of Chinese food. Like every name for a Chinese food tells you from where it’s from. Korean food is really specialized and we focus on Korean barbecue with marinades and marinated meats. We also have a wide variety of soups.”
Brown started cooking Korean dishes when his mother took over the restaurant, and he finds it’s a fun way to learn about his Korean heritage and sharing that Asian culture through cuisine with other people.
The Big Grill’s marinade is what makes the meats stand out in flavor, he said. Asked what the special sauce might contain, Brown said, “It’s kind of a house secret. Everyone asks, but we can’t reveal what’s in it.”
Kim added: “We use a lot of fresh ingredients.”
Popular dishes keep bringing people back as regular customers, she said
“People like the boneless grilled chicken dish, and they can add their own spice to make it not spicy at all or extra, extra spicy.”
Among other traditional Korean cuisine offerings on the Big Grill menu are the Yakitori, which are grilled chicken skewers with squash, carrot, and onions, Tonkatsu, which is a deep-fried pork cutlet, and bulgogi, which is thinly slice beef that is marinated the restaurant’s special house sauce. House specials include the haemul pa jeon, which are Korean-style pancakes served with assorted seafood and green onions, and the ojingeo bokkeum, a dish made with stir-fried squid and an assortment of fresh vegetables in a spicy sauce.
“We provide a small dessert at the end of the meal on a complimentary basis to help cleanse the palate,” Brown said. “It’s usually fresh fruit such as fresh pineapple or fresh watermelon or strawberries when they’re in season…. At night, we serve a fruit-based ice cream.”
