Vuz Lounge

Vuz is something pretty interesting in this area of Indiana.  A lounge that offers Korean spirits, korean food to share and karaoke rooms. =)

We entered and saw that the menu had English on it. That's not a dealbreaker for me if it doesn't, but then it makes communication sometimes a bit tougher.  It had English on it, and the staff were fluent too - good luck for us! =) We were seated in a comfy booth in large mood-lit room.  Very pretty, kind of dark and 'loungey' for sure.

They didn't have any craft beers for us - but! They do feature Korean spirits.

My history with sake is.. spotty.  *hangs head in shame*  The next day I feel little pickaxes in my head when I drink sake, but I was ready to take the plunge again!

We asked them about the spirits and what they tasted like.  A couple were 'grapey like wine' and a couple had ginseng in them.  Hm! I like ginseng!  I bet I'll like this!  I order us a bottle of Bek Seju.  It's sweet, but not too sweet, and unlike sake isn't warmed but is slightly chilled.

Oh friends!  This could be dangerous!  Luscious notes of spring flowers and spices went through my mouth and I smiled and filled up again. Tradition has it that one must never fill ones own glass, and that each glass must never be empty.  We followed tradition pretty well... *grin*

On to the food!

The menu had around 25 items, from finger food noshy items (sweet potato fries, mmmm) to more complex rice and meat dishes. We opted for the smoked pork and the 'chicken with cheese'.

The smoked pork were slices of pork through the skin and.. probably smoked, but not according to how we smoke meats in America.  Extremely good, with some kind of dipping sauce that the bek seju is making me not remember well.  Very good, and yes I did indulge in some of the rich pork skin!

Chicken with cheese is a chicken dish in a spicy sauce with carrots, cabbage and other luscious vegetable stuffs.  Sprinkled over it is a bit of white cheese, and it was served with a great amount of kim chee (which we requested and got seconds of).  Yes.  Yes the kim chee was good and yes I dream a little bit of this chicken.

The service was attentive but not to the point of hovering.  Everyone was very nice to us and very willing to help us make a selection.  A large table of Korean students was in back of the room enjoying food and drink and a couple more groups entered while we were there.

We did not enjoy the karaoke room ourselves, since I wasn't sure what the music would be.   The looping videos were K-pop - which I enjoy very much, but likely can't really sing along to.

I'm already reading up more on Korean spirits and plotting out my next visit to Vuz.  A nice lounge for a quiet evening, with plenty of Korean spirits, non-craft beers, and food to make you very very happy.

As frequent Hana market shoppers and Gaza Korean grill diners, we'd wondered about Vuz for a very long time.   We finally decided to give it a try and we were not disappointed.

We went in, made sure there were English descriptions on the menu, and got a table.

Decor is nice if fairly spartan.  I honestly didn't take much note of it either way - so it's neither awesome nor terrible. ;)  Next time, I'll take a better account of it.

We'd wanted to try Korean spirits, so we looked at the menu and then asked the server what some of them were like.  He spoke fairly good English, but he didn't really get what we were asking.  The real answer is that most of them are very much like Sake (rice wines) with different herbs and flavors added.

We chose one with ginseng, and they brought out the 375ml bottle; standard sake bottle, actually.   It was very good.  13% ABV, VERY smooth, nice flavor.  I'd definitely have it again, or try another of the Korean rice wines.

For food, we chose smoked pork thigh and spicy chicken with cheese.  I'm not sure how authentic the chicken with cheese is, but it sounded good. ;)

We weren't disappointed!

The smoked pork thigh was the full cross-section of the pork - from the skin/fat layer down to the yummy. yummy porky meaty essence.  I'm not sure how it was smoked - this isn't the American BBQ level of smoke. In fact I didn't taste smoke at all, but that was ok - the meat was GOOD.  Very good.  Very porky!

Spicy chicken with cheese, wow, this was the best part of the trip!  The dish contained a very nice amount of chicken, some vegetables, and the cheese was simply very, very finely shredded cheddar and some white cheese over the top.  VERY light amount of cheese, definitely good with the spicy sauce and chicken/veggie combo!  This is the dish we'll order again when we go back.

The pork dish also came with a dish of kimchi, a favorite of ours.  Very, very good kimchi - we even asked for more. ;)

Overall, a great experience and we'll likely be back.