The big red letters on the window outside the strip mall slot that is home to E Ado describe the eatery as an “Asian fusion meat restaurant.” The sign seems to conjure an image of a Thai/Viet/Chinese carnivore fest over an open fire.

Instead E Ado, which opened almost a year ago, does traditional Korean food, and does it quite well.

It is a great place for a big meal with all the ceremony of traditional Korean but a little bill, and it may be the best place for exotic platters of delicacies that test what Americans are willing to eat.

The spacious restaurant has walls covered in black tile, high ceilings, a small bar at the rear and a small stage at the front. It feels a bit nightclubby, and a little bleak, but every time I’ve been there the service is friendly and the booths along one wall are filled by well-heeled, middle-age Koreans having pleasant conversations over little dishes of kimchi.

The menu runs a familiar gamut from noodle soups to grilled meats like bulgogi. Order sparingly because, as is the tradition in Korea, each entree is preceded by a fleet of small dishes called banchan, and many entrees include soup to boot.

The banchan at E Ado (I asked the Korean waitress what “E Ado” meant, and she smiled and said, “No idea, maybe Japanese.”) usually include eight or nine saucer-size plates of cold appetizers that change from time to time. On a recent visit they included crisp, fiery and sweet cucumbers in chili sauce; chunks of potato in a soy glaze; shredded, seasoned squid jerky; cured, chewy black beans; zesty, almost lemony strips of fish cake; and sour, complex kimchi slaked in a fermented chili paste called gochujang. Together, the banchan were a meal in themselves — delicious, interesting, and full of flavor.

But they are just the start. Soon, the main dishes arrive.

So many customers order in Korean that the servers often are not familiar with the English name printed next to each dish. Even so, after peering at the menu to check the dishes’ Korean names, they will sometimes steer Americans away from items deemed too authentic. When a friend tried to order “spicy vegetable soup” the server described how it was made from a boiled and dried anchovies base that was likely too strong, and instead suggested a spicy seafood soup with vegetable that she considered more tame.

I’ve had this happen a few times before at stringently authentic Thai and Vietnamese joints — usually places that become favorites.

It was a good move. The soup ($10) arrived in a helmet-size bowl loaded with mussels and tiny squid bobbing in a hot, brick-red broth with onion, squash and fresh, chewy noodles made by hand in the back.

More-mainstream options such as chicken or beef bulgogi ($10 at lunch) also hit their mark. The sizzling, well-seasoned Korean version of fajitas is marinated in garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and a touch of sugar, then charred on a hot grill with onion and green pepper. Here, beef bulgogi is a tad oily — not the best in town, or even in this little “Korea Corner” of Academy Boulevard,  but cut with hot white rice, the strong flavor is addictive. The chicken, with a hint of chili paste, is better. Both meals include a hearty bowl of miso soup, but unlike the wan, watery version offered free at most Japanese restaurants, this one is shot with hot chili paste and thick with squash and onion.

The fact that you can get soup, banchan, rice and bulgogi all for a 10 spot may be the best deal in town. Expect leftovers.

There is treasure here for real foodies, too. E Ado is one of those immigrant restaurants with a big table in a side room to serve banquets and other special community occasions. As such, it has a special menu on the back page, full of splurge delicacies from back home with rare ingredients and prices to match. Spicy goat with vegetable casserole ($35), spicy blue crab stew ($56), “broiled small intestine of cattle” ($30), and a lavish chicken soup spiked with Chinese medicinal herbs ($40) all beg intrepid diners to discover what is hidden behind the translation.

I must admit, I was so smitten with the first four pages of the menu that I never got to the back-page specials. Foodies who do should write in (and send photos) to let us know how the goat casserole or broiled intestine is.

For the rest of us, E Ado is a well-priced, pleasant foray into the elaborate cuisine of Korea.

E ADO3 STARS out of 5(Interesting and well-priced)Address: 296 S. Academy Blvd., Suite FPhone: 591-7809Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. dailyEntrees: $9-$50Vegetarian: PlentyAlcohol: YesCredit cards: Yes

Bowls of banchar — a dizzying array of accompaniments such as kimchi and cured black beans — as well as soup and rice surround a main dish of Beef Bulgogi Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE