In many ways, Korean food is like a bastard child of East Asian cuisine. With THE big brother Japanese food enjoying tremendous success around the world with a million types of Japanese restaurants from conveyor belt restaurants to ramen stalls to supermarket takeaway, Korean cuisine is still largely represented by Korean BBQ places.
Most Korean restaurants look the same, a hold in the middle of the table, with an exhaust vent extended from the ceiling. With such specifications and most foods involving BBQ meat with full service, Korean restaurants are also typically out of many young adult’s budget. It became a bit of a one-in-a-while cuisine, like Japanese food 20-30 years, or French food today (and most likely, forever.)
KimichiHaru at Jaya One, PJ
Then there’s KimchiHaru, a quaint little restaurant located at the slightly less glamourous corners of Jaya One. I actually discovered this little restaurant while making my rounds in the parking lot looking for a spot. The photos and menu on the outside looks enticing and reasonably priced, hence we went in for a quick lunch.
Sam Gye Tang and Beef Bulgogi set
A quick look at the menu revealed the usual Korean BBQ dishes – the chicken, pork, and beef bulgolgi, kimchi soup, fish/pork cutlet, and spring rolls too. We ordered Sam Gye Tang (chicken soup with ginseng, RM 23) and Beef Bulgogi (RM 23).
Instead of the unlimited supply of banchan (side dishes) found at full service Korean restaurants, we were served with 4 small portions of them with kimchi and salad too.
While the kimchi was a bit lackluster and the banchans we had were nothing to shout about, the sam gye tang turned out to be pretty decent, it was a quarter of a pretty good size chicken with the typical ingredients you find in such dish. I finished the soup too. Haze’s beef bulgogi was commendable too.
Haze and KY at KimchiHaru
To me, KimchiHaru represents a step in the right direction for Korean food in this country, with it’s affordable menu (weekday bibimbap at RM 9.80, lunch set at RM 17.80), clean and modern set up, it is sure to attract younger crowd that will graduate to appreciate Korean food.
Address:
KimchiHaru
No. 13-LG1 Block D, Jaya One,
No 72A, Jalan University,
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.118298,101.635294
Tel: 03-7629 8020
Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant is probably no stranger to most who loves Korean food. My first visit to this chain was the USJ Taipan main branch at least 4-5 years ago. I went there again last week when the worms in my gut was starving for some Galbi.
Daorae Korean BBQ Garden at USJ Taipan
I’m not quite sure if this is the very first branch of Daorae, they have branches now at Hartamas, Penang Bayan Point, Kota Damansara, Kepong, Puchong Bandar Puteri, and another new one in PJ (the NZX branch has since closed). When we were there, there was an friendly old Korean guy who looked very much like the owner, and he explained that “Daorae” means many people, which translate to good business.
I must say they chose the right name. Daorae for Korean food is much like the Superdining chains for Japanese food (Rakuzen, Sushi Zanmai, Pasta Zanmai, Kura)
banchan – kimchi, salad, chives, cockles and more!
The one thing I always love about korean food is all the banchan (small dishes). Other than the standard kimchi, you almost always get something different on each visit. On this trip there were cockles, steamed egg in hot pot, salad, chives, fish cake, and more. I think we had some 10 different varieties. You can usually ask for refill too.
galbi (marinated beef), 3 layer pork
For the two of us, I ordered a portion of galbi (marinated beef short ribs) and 3 layer pork for the grill.
As usual, the expertly trained servers did the whole grilling right in front of us. Galbi’s best served with the ssamjang sauce (fermented bean paste & pepper) and wrapped in fresh lettuce. I like to add a piece of grilled garlic too.
The samgyeopsal (three layer pork) was lovely too. Grilled and usually goes either with the same ssamjang or gireumjang sauce (sesame oil and salt). Nothing like some pork to fill the stomach.
kimchi jiggae, Haze
Other than the two grilled meat and those free banchan, I also ordered a portion of kimchi jiggae – a stew with kimchi, tofu, pork, scallion, onion and such. This is typically served with a bowl of fragrant Korean rice, which I like.
It was as usual, a satisfying meal at Daorae, though one that isn’t exactly economical (RM 140) for the two of us, otherwise I’d do it more often. Galllbiiiiiiiii
Address:
Daorae Korean BBQ Restuarant
No.8C, Top Speed Business Center,
Jalan USJ 10/1J,
47620 UEP Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.048045, 101.585987
Tel: 03-8024-2616
With huge influx of international students each year taking advantage of some of the region’s best education system, Melbourne CBD is a place that is heavily influenced by what these students demand. When it comes to food, you can find almost as many Japanese, Korean, and Chinese food as you can with Western/Australian establishments.
Oriental Spoon, Korean Cuisine
Oriental Spoon, located just right across Melbourne Central on La Trobe, is one such places. Though labeled Korean Cuisine, like many Asian restaurants around the city, this place has assimilated to the demands of Australian and Asian alike.
What you get is not exactly authentic Korean food, the portions are huge, the kimchi less strong tasting, lesser variety of banchan, and generally tastes that are more “mainstream”. This isn’t something you’ll ever find in Korea, or even the little Korea in Ampang.
banchan, beef casserole, spicy pork bulgogi
While the purists might argue that it is a waste of time visiting a place that served heavily localized (some might even go to the extend of using the word bastardized) food, I prefer to leave the verdict after tasting the food. If Mellissa and friends like this place, it should mean something.
Even though it was a weekday night, Oriental Spoon was already packed when we got there. Customers consist of probably 60% Asian at this place. We waited for some 15 minutes before securing a table.
a big pot of boiling beef casserole, best for winter weather
Like most Korean restaurants, they offer a variety of grilled meats such as a few choices of beef, pork belly, and even seafood. There’s also your standard bulgogi, kimchi soup, bibimbap (mixed meal) and so forth.
Even though there was only two of us, we ordered a beef casserole ($30+) and a spicy pork bulgogi ($18 or so) to go with some steamed rice.
There were four types of banchan served, and seriously speaking, none of them worth a mention. The kimchi was especially disappointing.
best served with Korean steamed rice
The spicy pork bulgogi though, was absolutely marvelous. Generous portion of fatty stripes of pork soaked in spicy oil with some sesame, onion, and other seasoning makes the dish very rich and succulent but also come with a kick. It was very sinful yet irresistible. The pork went very well with rice.
The beef casserole is a rather huge pot of raw beef, mushroom, vegetable, glass noodle, and other ingredients stewed in a broth right on the table. The soup gets better and better with time and at the tail end of the dinner we had a very sweet and rather tasty broth to go with plenty of beef. It was very good, but it was also a bit too much especially for only 2 person.
Oriental Spoon is located right across Melbourne Central
We ended up having to bag some of the leftovers despite getting ourselves stuffed silly. It was a good meal and decently priced too. However, I think this place is best for a group of 4 and above.
Oriental Spoon is also not for you if you’re interested in really authentic Korean food, but if you want something different but yet still within most people’s comfort zone. This place is worth visiting.
Address:
Oriental Spoon
254 La Trobe St,
Melbourne VIC 3000,
Australia
GPS: -37.810017,144.961467
Tel: 03-9654 9930
Seoul Garden at Sunrise Tower is probably one of the very first Korean restaurants in Penang. I remember the restaurant being there as far back as my memory could remember.
In the back of my mind, I had always thought that dining at this type of place would be rather expensive, and at the time, something that my RM 2.20/hr McDonald’s job would never allow me to afford. I was just look at people going in and out while I was flipping burger in the same building.
plenty of banchan (side dishes) as usual
I made it a point that I would visit this place eventually, but little did I know that it actually took over one and a half decade before that happened. Together with Mellissa and my family last weekend, we had dinner at Seoul Garden.
As it turned out, Seoul Garden is just like most of the Korean restaurants I’ve visited in KL. A stove in the middle for grilling meat, a menu that includes all the usual suspects like beef bulgogi, kalbi, sam gye tang (ginseng chicken soup), kimchi soup, pork belly, and so on.
ox tongue, pork belly, and pork bulgogi
My brother and sister are both pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but tragically, my mom is a bit too conservative in the same department. Since this is the first time mom stepped into a Korean restaurant, I ordered something that would be a bit more familiar for her, sam giap sal (pork belly, RM 22), pork bulgogi (RM 25), and sam gye tang (ginseng chicken soup). I also ordered so hyeo gui (ox tongue RM 35) for good measure.
Korean ginseng chicken soup
There were about 6-7 types of banchan (side dishes) served with the main dishes we ordered. There was the customary kimchi which was rather potent and tasted pretty good, bean sprouts, vegetable, jelly thingy, green chili, and radish. I thought the banchan tasted just alright, nothing spectacular, but not bad either.
Our first grilled item was the ox tongue. Thinly sliced (about a dozen slices) without any marinate, the grilled ox tasted wonderful. The slight springy texture and the unaltered taste goes very well with just a touch of oil and salt. The pork belly was not overly fatty and came in 5 big slices, I think we had slightly overcooked it as it was a bit too dry by the time we hauled the pieces out of the grilled. Could have been tastier otherwise.
mom, brother, KY, Mell, sister, niece (Ryan, you have a challenger)
Pork bulgogi was pretty good, flavorful though a little salty. However, it does go very well with steamed rice. I always love Korean rice with it’s stickier texture and stronger aroma. The ginseng chicken soup too was a very good dish, the soup had a very strong ginseng taste and the chicken meat cooked to a very soft and tender texture. Mom liked the soup quite a bit.
Total bill came to about RM 160. Pretty good deal for 5 adults and a little girl (whom is cute enough to steal some lime light from suan‘s nephew – Ryan), say hello to Taasha! The same meal in KL would easily cost twice as much, though the portion might be 30-40% bigger.
Address:
Seoul Garden
1st Floor, Sunrise Tower,
Gurney Drive
Penang, Malaysia
GPS: 5.439805,100.30815
Tel: 04-229 8705
A couple of weeks ago a couple friends and I were in Mid Valley Gardens looking for a quick dinner. We stopped by Canton-i, Sushi Zanmai, and Fong Lye Taiwanese restaurant, they were all absolutely full inside, and with people waiting outside as well.
Time was of essence, so we stepped into this GoGung Korean Restaurant at third floor.
GoGung Korean Restaurant
Normally I love to have my grilled meat at Korean places, but since time is of the essence (Mell was waiting and it was the day before she’s was to fly off to Melbourne), we decided to forgo that luxury and go for something faster.
Unlike most other places, they serve no dinner sets, we ordered two Kimchi Jigge (kimchi soup) and a Kimchi Bo Kum Bab (kimchi fried rice) for RM 25 each, and 3 hot green tea. The food didn’t take too long to arrive, and to be frank, they taste ok. Not great, but not particularly bad either.
After hastily finished off our food, we asked for the bill. It came to RM 108.90. It kinda got me curious, I thought RM 75 plus whatever taxes and maybe a minimal amount for the tea bagged green tea we ordered shouldn’t amount to more than RM 100.
3 green tea for RM 24, what do you think?
Then, on closer inspection, I saw what they charged us for the drinks. RM 8 per tea bag of green tea (well you do get unlimited hot water refill!). Frankly speaking I find that very excessive for something most Japanese and some Korean restaurants serve for free.
I will never go back to this GoGung Korean restaurant again. If you plan to head there, I suggest you might want to check if plain water is free.
P/S: I’ve been questioned on why almost all food places written on this blog are good, the reason is that for those I usually don’t write about food I deem not worthy of recommendation (even if it was an invited review). But here is one of the few bad reviews, cheers! 
