Category: Korean

There are always Kimchi dishes in Korean restaurants

Akiba

Review:

This week’s review is our first ever review of a restaurant in Canberra. Our choice went to Akiba, a restaurant located just outside Canberra Centre. Despite the Japanese name, the restaurant is a mashup of Asian dishes. It also seemed to be one of the more popular destinations in Canberra.

Our dishes for the night comprised of Thai, Korean and Japanese cuisines.

Kingfish, coconut, nam jim, coriander – $14

This is a carpaccio-style kingfish with Nam jim. Nam jim is a Thai-based dipping sauce that is a combination of spicy, salty, sweet and sour.

Smoky potato, dill, black garlic, mayo – $9

This side dish was recommended by our table attendant. It was humongous for a side dish. In addition to the smoky flavour, the potatoes were pretty slimy (possibly because of the cooked mayo).

In addition to the smoky potato, we also ordered steamed rice. I know $7 is quite steep but you actually got a large bowl of it and they were nice.

Charcoal roasted T-bone, garlic soy butter, gochutgaru (800gr) – $38

800 gr worth of T-bone for $38 is actually a pretty good value for money. The T-bone was already sliced to a ‘bite size’ (although the middle bits were a bit bigger than what we could chew). Gochutgaru is a Korean red chilli pepper powder that was made into a dipping sauce for the steak. I am quite fussy about steak and I quite liked theirs!

Japanese fried chicken, lemon braised onions, parmesan – $16

This was the only Japanese cuisine on the night. They are usually known as chicken karaage. The fusion bit came from the lemon braised onions with parmesan sprinkled on the karaage. Each element was pretty good on their own, but I don’t think the fusion works on this occasion.

Supercharged – $2

This is actually just an extension of the Japanese fried chicken. It is only a little bottle of Japanese ‘kewpie’ mayonnaise and Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. The absence of mayonnaise in the original dish has made this a mandatory. However, if you don’t like mayo and chili sauce, you can skip this altogether!

The final verdict for Akiba

Having an Asian fusion restaurant is pretty risky, especially when there are a diverse range of cuisines in the region. Akiba generally served pretty good dishes.

Did you know?

Akiba has a ‘just feed me’, an 8-course banquet, for $45 pp.

Rating for Akiba:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14 – $38 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

40 Bunda Street, Canberra ACT 2601

02 6162 0602

http://www.akiba.com.au/

Sep 14, 2015
Jeans Chilli Chicken Steaks

Review:

Long before I set foot on Jeans Chilli Chicken, my friends have warned me that everything was super spicy. So, when I eventually got to the restaurant, I braced myself for it. There were quite a few of us, so we also got to taste different dishes that each cost around $29 – $35 per plate.

The restaurant is located on the terrace of the Eastwood Hotel. It was quite a simple establishment. Being a Korean restaurant, you are entitled of two free side dishes (banchan). You will also get rice ball – self service depending on the number of dishes you ordered. If you need more rice balls, each bowl will only cost you $7.

Their signature dish (with three chillis on the menu) is Chilli BBQ Chicken. They were really (truly!) incredibly hot! It is so hot that you can even feel it as soon as it touches your lips! … But this is coming from someone who hates chilli. If chilli is your middle name, then you’ll love this dish. If you want a slightly toned down taste, you can order the Cheese Chilli BBQ Chicken. The cheese did a good job in hampering the devilish hot taste.

Chilli BBQ Chicken – $32

Cheese Chilli BBQ Chicken – $35

There are a few dishes with only one chilli image on the menu. I personally love the BBQ Duck. It is quite different to the Chinese’ BBQ Duck. Jeans Chilli Chicken version was pretty sweet, courtesy of the BBQ sauce. They also gave quite a portion of vegetables. Similarly, its Chilli Grilled Eel was the range of hotness that I could handle (probably after numbing my sense with the chilli BBQ chicken). Instead of green vegetables, the chilli grilled eel came with cabbage.

BBQ Duck – $34

Chilli Grilled Eel – $35

We ordered Ginseng Fried Chicken and hoped that it wasn’t as hot for the kids, but I think if you want a guaranteed non-hotness, you can order the EQ Honey Chicken. We ordered the last dish, Chilli Rice Sticks ($16), because we thought we were not given the rice balls. The portion was massive!

Ginseng Fried Chicken – $32

Chilli Rice Sticks – $16

The verdict for Jeans Chilli Chicken

Capital H-O-T should be the name for Jeans Chilli Chicken. You can seriously taste the spices long before the chicken is in your tummy!

Rating for Jeans Chilli Chicken:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $29 – $35 per plate

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

The Eastwood Hotel

115 Rowe Street, Eastwood 2122

02 9874 1100

Jul 4, 2014
KoFoo Korean Food

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Unfortunately, KoFoo has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

6.5 / 10 Taste: 6.5/10

Price: $7 – $33

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

We were actually quite interested in coming to KoFoo Korean Food restaurant because of the ad they put up outside. They have a massive $6.99 number in front of the restaurant… and for a Korean restaurant, it’s cheap! So, how did it turn out?

The restaurant has a nice industrial feeling to it and the usual Korean stainless cutleries and plates… oh and a gigantic stainless cup. KoFoo also had nice assortments of Kimchi. Our first dish was Seafood Shallot Pancake ($18). The picture didn’t do justice here, but the pancake was massive and it was overflowing with fillings.

The next two dishes were my favourites of the day, Honey Crispy Bulgogi ($20) and Cheese Tteokbokki. The bulgogi was undoubtedly the best dish of the day. It was quite a generous portion with heaps of beef. I quite liked the Cheese Topokki. There was an abundance of melted and chewy cheese and an extra chewy rice cake. The sauce was sweet and spicy.

I had a high hope for the chickens (Sweet and Spicy Boneless Chicken and Soy Chicken). However, they failed quite miserably on the taste department when compared to the other Korean restaurant I reviewed. If I had to pick, the sweet and spicy had more punch than the soy but it was still a mile away. The interesting part here is that you can opt to have half a portion for $18 or the whole portion for $33.

We also ordered Kimchi fried rice but we had to cancel because it wasn’t ready half way through our lunch.

The final verdict for KoFoo Korean Food

KoFoo Korean Food restaurant might have been slightly cheaper than most Korean restaurants in Sydney, but it did have a massive deficiency in taste. From the ones we ordered, its Honey Crispy Bulgogi was the only one to stand out against the rest.

Details:

Shop G02 / 35 – 39 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000

02 9690 1611

http://www.kofoo.co.kr/

Nov 4, 2013
Wow Bulgogi

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Unfortunately, Wow Bulgogi has closed its doors.

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Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $50 for the set

Place: 6.5/10

Review:

This will be a very short review of Wow Bulgogi Korean restaurant as we didn’t order individual dishes, but instead we ordered the BBQ plate set menu.

One of the bonus points of eating in Korean restaurant is the complimentary side dishes that they gave you. In Wow Bulgogi, there were five of them! Four of them were given as share plates that consisted of kimchi, marinaded tofu, mashed potatoes, and pickles and a plate of Korean coleslaw. They were all pretty okay with the tofu slightly better than the rest.

For the BBQ set menu, they have three options; easily named Special BBQ Set A – C. The set price starts from $50 and it is not advisable to choose set C unless you have more than two people. Just to let you know, you need to grill the meat yourself.

We ordered Special BBQ Set A and it consisted of marinaded beef ribs, marinaded beef with Korean traditional soy sauce, pork belly, ox tongue, and beef thin skirt. They were only lightly seasoned and didn’t capture my interest.

I was actually more interested in the dish we ordered for our son, steamed egg. It was nice and fluffy. There was another dish that I liked – but the name escaped my mind (such a slacker!!) – They were deep-fried nori rolls with glass noodle inside.

The final verdict for Wow Bulgogi

Wow Bulgogi restaurant is okay for an everyday dining, especially with five side dishes. However, there was nothing to warrant special recommendations to visit the restaurant if you are on the other side of the city.

Did you know?

There was a Korean restaurant in Rosebery that we used to go to that had very similar BBQ set menu. We went to Wow Bulgogi because we thought we would get similar quality dishes.

Unfortunately this restaurant has now closed down.

Details:

174 Anzac Parade, Kensington NSW 2033

+61 2 9697 9282

Feb 15, 2013
Arisun

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10

Price: $25 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

Arisun was the restaurant I always passed by on the way to Darling Harbour, until one day my friend suggested us to go there. Ever since that day, we always go there for a quick fix of fried chicken.

Did I say fried chicken? Yes, but not that kind of chicken joint you see in every suburb. The price seemed to be a bit much for a bowl of fried chickens, listed at $30 a bowl, but you did get a whole lot of chickens. Our favourite was the Sweet Soy sauce deep fried chicken. They were cooked to golden brown perfection and delight-ably crunchy. On the other end, you can get yourself Hot and spicy chicken with cheese: Melted cheese poured in a deep fried chicken with hot and spicy sauce. The cheese one will surely fill your tummy in no time.

If you want ultra-fast service, try one of their hotpots. They will bring it to you as soon as your waitress leaves you (I think they already have them prepared in the kitchen). My most favourite here is the Beef and Enoki Hotpot. It was a massive pot of soup with a generous serving of enoki and bulgogi (Korean beef). It was also filled with glass noodles and all kinds of vegetables. A seriously great options for winter.

The other two that we have tried so far are the Sausage Hotpot and Spicy Rice Cake, Mixed Tempura Hotpot ($24). Both of them were hot and spicy. Personally, I didn’t like either of them since there was a monotonous feel to it. The tempura one for example didn’t remotely look like a tempura. It’s more like fish cakes. The two tone noodles (rice noodles and instant noodles) were questionable at best.

Last but not least, their Seafood Black bean Noodles ($12) are to die for! I think this is THE gem that most food blogs missed out. It looked kinda gross with the dark colour goo, but taste wise, it was fantastic. There was also a vegetarian option for this.

The final verdict for Arisun

Well, there is only one verdict, isn’t there? Chicken! The front page of the menu said it, the first page of the menu showed it… There was one other dish I would recommend: Black bean noodles! I came back to Arisun because of these two.

Did you know?

Like any other Korean restaurants, it can be quite expensive if you eat in with just two people. However, if you are with a group of people, the cost can be significantly lower.

I don’t suggest their Seafood pancakes since they weren’t as good as other seafood pancakes in Sydney.

Details:

1 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Phone: +61 2 9264 1588

Dec 21, 2012
Madang Restaurant

Rating:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8 /10

Price: $15-$30 per dish

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, I will take you to one of the famous Korean restaurants in Sydney, Madang Restaurant. There is always people waiting in line at ANY dinnertime except when they just open or possibly late at night (they open past midnight). Sometimes the queue can be quite intimidating and it can also be seen as an indicator of how good the restaurant is.

We ordered five dishes – with the free-flowing Kimchi – and I think it was a little too much for the five of us. Had I been able to withdraw one of my orders, I would really have difficulties in choosing one. Unfortunately this review will have a freely translated dish’s names.

For our first dish of the night, I remembered the Korean name since this was the only dish that I constantly ordered here. It was Ggan Pung Ki (Deep Fried Chicken with special Korean sauce). I really like this dish – sweet and crunchy what else do you want? On top of that, the serving was really generous. Then came the Soft-Shelled Crab. Smaller in size when compared to the first one, the crab was cooked perfectly. The yellow sauce created a different dimension to the crab.

The next dish to arrive was also a ‘staple’ order in Korean restaurants, Seafood and Shallot Pancake. The pancake was flavoursome and jam-packed with seafood. Everything was perfect but one minor detail, it wasn’t crunchy enough for me. I know it might be a personal taste, but I like my pancake slightly crunchy. We also ordered the always-challenging Cold Noodles. It was noodles dipped in ice-cold broth with vegetables, eggs, and beef slices. Very rarely people would love to eat this dish. I quite enjoy its uniqueness.

For the big main event, normally you can choose between barbecue and soup. This time, we opted for the soup – Beef and Mushroom Soup to be exact. No less than four different types of mushrooms were served along the beef, vegetables and glass noodles. I believe in wintertime, this was the perfect dish to warm up our night. Its gigantic size might proof a little bit intimidating for some people. I love the different textures of mushrooms in this pot.

The final verdict: Every dish served that night was flawless. They weren’t mind-blowing, but enough to warrant a better than average score. In regards to the dishes,The chicken would standout against the rest.

Did you know?

Madang’s BBQ is also an option you should seriously consider. The dishes were slightly more expensive than the options in this review and for me personally, I have another place cheaper that I can go to for a nice Korean BBQ.

Location:

371A Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Jun 15, 2011