Music Bank plays notes on taste buds
Music Bank Restaurant in San Jose started as a karaoke joint before the owner transitioned to the food industry in 2010.
Owner Sunho Jacob Kang said karaoke used to be a big thing on Saipan, but things have changed, which is why they transformed their little karaoke joint into a Korean restaurant 10 years ago.
“This place was Music Bank Karaoke before, but we changed it into a restaurant,” he said, and since the name “Music Bank” already has a lot of recall on island he decided to keep that and just switch “karaoke” with “restaurant” in the name.
Nowadays, Kang said Music Bank Restaurant serves traditional Korean food and is quite known for their Korean barbecue and three kinds of bibimbap and healthy soup.
“We keep making health food. For example, our basic soup dish calls for boiling original seafood with dried pollack head and onion and dried seed and other ingredients,” he said.
Currently, Music Bank Restaurant is offering 15% off on its Korean barbecue menu. For instance, beef ribs is now only $21.25 from $25, marinated grilled beef rib is now only $19.50 from $23, and beef brisket in now only $15.30 from $18.
For a limited time only, they are also giving away a free roll of toilet paper for everyone who dines at the restaurant. They are also giving 10% off on to-go orders.
Kang also said that they were forced to close their business due to COVID-19 concerns in March. “We never closed before. …We had such a bad time when COVID-19 first started on the island.”
As far as following the guidelines of the Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force, he said Music Bank Restaurant strictly adheres to them as well as the advice of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to practice social distancing, hand wash and use hand sanitizers frequently, and the wearing of face masks.
Music Bank Restaurant is located at the back of San Jose Mart in Oleai. It is open from 11am to 2pm for lunch and 5pm to 9pm at dinner. For reservations and for more information, call 235-7726.
- Music Bank Restaurant’s fish roe soup. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
- Music Bank Restaurant is also offering 15% off on its Korean barbecue menu. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)