Ra Bok Ki

Palace Korean Restaurant serves true Korean BBQ. The real kind, where you have your own personal grill in the center of the table and all.

I asked the server what spicy dish she recommended. “Ra Bok Ki ($7.95). It has pan fried rice cake in spicy sauce with Ramen noodle,” she informed me. It sounded harmless, so Ra Bok Ki it was. And it was tasty.

Within this humungous plate of Korean spicy sauce swam thin, floppy pan-fried rice cakes and large tubes of what I can only assume was something of the pasta variety. Beneath the large “pasta” tubes hid a nest of Ramen noodles cradling one lonesome hard-boiled egg. The “spicy” sauce was far from anything that would burn my mouth. No peppery fire, no blazing chilies. To me it was a red sauce with cultural flavors, and that was that. — Steph DeRosa

[Palace Korean Restaurant, 8718 S Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.581.0880]

$3.99 steak

You don’t have to sacrifice atmosphere when dining on the cheap — at least every Monday when Paddy Coyne’s Irish Pub offers a $3.99 steak and fries in its beautiful Irish pub. Toss in a Guinness and the meal is $10. Good times are had by all, especially when you ask for a steak on the rare side, and it actually arrives rare. — Steve Dunkelberger

[Paddy Coyne’s Irish Pub, Monday $3.99 Steak night, 3-9 p.m., 815 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.6963]

Spinach salad

Just ask anyone and they’ll tell you that Johnny’s Dock is a direct representation of classic, traditional Tacoma waterfront dining. For more than 50 years Johnny’s has presented itself in grandeur, welcomed boating guests, served up fine hospitality — and even finer seafood.

Johnny’s spinach salad ($14.50) arrives with fresh spinach leaves, generous amounts of slivered almonds, bacon chunks, and hard-boiled egg pieces tossed in Johnny’s very own creamy Jamaica Mistake dressing and held together in a deep glass bowl. This dish had everything I needed in spinach salad. There were plenty of garnishments and toppings to chew on in every bite. — Steph DeRosa

 [Johnny’s Dock Restaurant, 1900 E. D St., Tacoma, 253.627.3186]