Bibimbap Rice and Noodles Mix Bowl @ Bibibop Asian Grill

There is a New Bibimbap Spot, Bibibop Grill and It’s Excellent!

Last updated:
4.4
NOMs

A new casual fast food lunch spot called Bibibop serves an excellent Bibimbap (4 NOMs), quickly making it a must-try place in the Washington D.C. metro area. This chain soon takes over the area by serving a great lunch and dinner for all those hungry nomsters. They’ve opened several locations in the past couple of months, so there might be one near you.

Bibibop may sound a bit like Shophouse, which recently closed its locations. Silver Spring Bibibop took over from Shophouse. Unlike Chipotle’s failed endeavor, Bibibop won our hearts and tummies in the first bite. We’ve visited their locations three times: Rockville Pike & Rose and downtown Silver Spring. They might be new to the area but bring big competition, and all the other lunch spots should be worried. Bibimbap is coming for them! You can skip to the bibimbap review below.

In case you don’t know, bibimbap is a South Korean rice bowl dish often served with different veggies, meats, and sunny-side-up eggs. We are big fans of this dish, so we have high standards. At this place, they were able to capture the essence of this traditional dish and make it into a good fast food nomnom. Of course, this is not a high-end restaurant, so one has to remember they are eating at a quick-serve place. However, you won’t hear us say no to anyone who suggests going there.

How It Works. It’s Simple!

Let’s talk about the ordering processes, similar to many build-your-own fast food places. Start by picking your bowl size, regular or small, where small is still enough to fill you up. We’ve had a regular-sized bowl every time and never felt overly stuffed. You can choose your base of rice, purple rice, salad, or noodles. We just loved their purple rice and ordered it with every bowl. A nice tip is to mix two bases, like purple rice, with noodles. Then, you can choose different meats, tofu, and other toppings like potatoes, daikon, kale, and more. You must never forget an egg. One different thing is that the egg is diced and not sunny side up. It would be hard to make so many eggs and trust us. It still tastes great. Those who are extra hungry can also order sides like kimchi and edamame. The final step is to pick from several great sauces like cucumber Wasabi or Yum Yum sauce, our favorites. Don’t worry if you are unsure about your choice because all of the sauces are free, so make sure to get a few to try. The saucier you get, the better. You can also get a bowl of free miso soup. Just in that rare moment, you might still be hungry.

Here are some of our creations from this place 🙂

Purple Rice with Tofu Bowl

5 NOMs

Purple rice is like magic; surprisingly, this casual fast food place makes it on par with many other more fancy places. It goes well with any protein or sauce; this time, we went vegetarian with tofu. It doesn’t hurt sometimes to go outside the meat box. Their organic tofu is just as good as all the meaty goodness. The tofu is cut medium-sized and fried, making it a little crispy without being too oily. We tend not to order potatoes very often, but here they are so good we just had to. Even if you add every single topping, you can still taste them. They are worth it. We also added bean sprouts, daikon, cucumber, carrot, corn, cheese, and eggs. Combined with all other toppings, our sauce is Korean Red. It’s red for a reason and has quite a kick to it. So make sure not to add too much.

Rice and Noodle Chicken Bowl

4 NOMs

If you can’t decide, have no worries – mixing is allowed. For example, combining purple rice and noodles makes for one excellent bibimbap lunch bowl. Their purple rice is so addictive that we ordered it again and again. Though we wanted to try something new this time, we added the noodles. You aren’t charged extra for ordering two bases; you might get a bit extra food. We went with the standard toppings like carrots, kale, cucumber, red cabbage, cheese, and eggs. Never forget an egg when it comes to ordering bibimbap. In another bowl creation, we also tried the great potatoes. That’s one of the things we like about this place so much: even with so many toppings together, you can still taste everything. Everything is portioned the same, so no ingredient overpowers the other. You might not taste kale since it has a smaller flavor profile, but we eat it more for health reasons than taste. While we went with the Yum Yum sauce, which is very light and creamy, we also added Cucumber Wasabi for that nice extra kick. That might be one of the best sauces you will ever taste. The two sauces went so well and made the dish much better. Still, everything tastes so good, and you might not need any sauce. But we love our sauce!

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Nomster
4.4
NOMs