Tag: korean bbq

Categories
Korean

Dragon Palace Galbi Korean Charcoal BBQ – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

One of my fondest memories from 2015 was having Korean BBQ, possibly for the first time, with my then-best friend and current fiance at Se Joung in Campsie, next to Woolworths Campsie on Evaline St. Though almost all mention of this restaurant has been scrubbed from the internet in the seven years since, long time internet food people like Grabyourfork’s Helen Yee and Aimee Chanthadavong still maintain primary evidence that our boozy KBBQ meal here, where we sat cross-legged on floor mats and had our food cooked for us by Koreans who only meant to protect us from our own incompetence was not merely a fever dream.

Alas, on our recent visit the restaurant space had been renamed into Dragon Palace Galbi Korean Charcoal BBQ and revamped, and probably not for the better.

Perhaps as a holdover from past uncertainties where there were two extremely similarly named Korean BBQ restaurants in the same suburb, the woman who picked up the phone at Dragon Palace Galbi Korean Charcoal BBQ answered with “Dragon Palace Galbi Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant next to Woolworths Campsie.” Having customers intending to go to your restaurant Se Joung but ending up at local competitor Se Jong must have really left a mark.

There was nothing particularly bad about our meal, but probably at least a little due to nostalgia, the experience of dining just didn’t feel the same. We ate close to closing time, and there were only two staff left by the time we were there. If there was still traditional mat seating on offer, it was in an area that we couldn’t see from where we were.

Helpfully though, ordering was online via a scanned QR code. We had this vague wagyu beef, not-further-characterised, which was pretty good.

We also had some pork jowl, inexpertly cooked by us on this grill. They offered to bring us the pork cooking grill to avoid flareups, but we wanted to maintain variety throughout the course of our meal. There was sadly not much greenery offered with the pork. It would’ve been nice to get some perilla and some lettuce to wrap it in.

This short rib soup was also alright.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Our experience was confounded by nostalgia so difficult to rate accurately, but I do think that the meat was of a higher quality (though more expensive) than Se Jong on London St (the extant one, not the one that was where this current restaurant is).

Dragon Palace Galbi Korean Charcoal BBQ
Shop 3/68-72 Evaline St, Campsie NSW 2194
(02) 9789 1588

Categories
Korean

Mapo Galbi Korean BBQ – West Ryde NSW Restaurant Review

We had a pork based meal at this West Ryde Korean BBQ restaurant allegedly known for its beef ribs.

The banchan offering was diverse for 4 and included marinated raw crab, which neither I nor my Indian gastroenterologist friend were game to eat. Our Korean gastroenterologist and intensivist were game. Banchan was not refilled through the meal.

We had 3 servings of marinated pork rib ($29 each) between the four of us. Cooked skillfully by a Korean born Korean, I have no complaints.

Perhaps the only thing is that when I eat with these guys we only ever get multiple orders of the one meat. See related review of Stoneage BBQ, also in West Ryde.

The miso stew ($17) with a bit of clam inside was a nice thing that I never get to eat when I eat with my partner, because she just hates anything clammy. I’m told not bad with rice, but it was also not bad without rice.

Mapo Galbi Korean BBQ
999A Victoria Rd, West Ryde NSW 2114
(02) 9807 2278

Categories
Korean

Pork Over Flowers (꽃보다 삼겹)- Strathfield NSW Restaurant Review

Pork Over Flowers differs from most Korean BBQ restaurants in that it focuses on grilling a majority-pork based menu together with kimchi, bean sprouts, and shallots, allowing the rendered fat and meat juices to soak through the vegetables as they cook.

Banchan selection was broad, but was not refilled even though we fully cleared most of the plates.

We had the fresh pork belly set ($89) with an additional serving of pork neck ($26). The meat was cooked at the table for us, and just as advertised the rendered pork fat and meat juices did combine to add a umami flavour to the mix of kimchi, bean sprouts, and shallots. This was pretty good, and also a pretty novel experience for us three Chinese guys who hadn’t had broad experience in different styles of Korean BBQ.

The Kimchi Pancake ($25) was not as bad as people online indicated it would be. It certainly didn’t stand out, but reading what others hand said you would think that it was poisonous.

There is allegedly soft serve ice cream included for all customers at no extra cost, though the machine was not working during our visit.

One problem I do have is that I noticed while writing this review that this restaurant offers freebies for positive Google reviews, which I feel really defeats the purpose of the review process. It’s already hard enough to find nice places to eat with all the social media influencers with undeclared paid partnerships, but when the Google review system is gamed it makes it really unfair. (On that note we did witness like five Instagram girls spend an extremely long time taking photos of their mountain of food only to not eat it).

Categories
Japanese Korean

Suminoya – Sydney NSW Restaurant Review

My partner’s younger brother took us to his favourite Korean-run Japanese BBQ restaurant in Sydney. We had the $89 pp deluxe BBQ buffet with a 70 minute ordering window and a 90 minute seating time and access to the restaurant’s full selection of meat and non-meat foods. The meat quality was good, and he ordered a literal kilogram of wagyu straight off the bat, which was definitely too much, and kept us well occupied throughout the entire meal.

Alternative meats were of course available, and we did sample some pork jowl as well as some duck. I didn’t love the duck, which I found chewy. but respect that this could’ve been a result of my poor cooking skills.

We did eat other things. We had an unusually large amount of aburi wagyu nigiri (too rare for me), aburi salmon nigiri, one single slice of salmon sashimi (my partner had difficulty understanding the ordering quantities), some mushroom, some garlic butter, and all of the available desserts, of which the calpis jelly was our favourite.

It was overall a good experience, though I have a major complaint about this seemingly unnecessary charge for a new grille. Rather than pay the $2-3 per BBQ grill change on top of our already $267 bill between three, we just chose to have more cancer.

Why nickel and dime?

Suminoya
1 Hosking Pl, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9231 2177

Categories
Korean

Stoneage Korean BBQ – West Ryde NSW Restaurant Review

My partner and I have a lot of Korean BBQ, but it is rare for us to do it with actual Koreans. Recognising the experience of our senior Korean colleagues HWJ and CJP (both PGY8 medically and PGY30-ish Koreanly), we put our faith in them to lead the meal.

We started off with some pork belly. During this encounter I learned about the difference between the two main types of cooking surfaces used in Korean BBQ. The above pictured grill plate, contrasted with the mesh-type grill plate pictured below, is used preferentially for high-fat cuts like pork belly. The reason for this is that it has far fewer holes for fat to escape into the fire through, reducing the frequency of flare-ups. How did I sleepwalk through life not knowing this until now?

The second part of our highly-focused Korean BBQ experience was the rib eye. The meat was fresh and highly marbled – generally a delight to eat. Our friends knew exactly what they wanted meat-wise, and stuck with it. One pork option and one beef option, and both were very good.

The marinated baby octopus was cooked on the other type of grill – the same type as the beef – that allowed greater direct contact with the heat and more evaporation. I wasn’t a big fan of this octopus, despite it having been ordered at my request. They were large babies.

I just generally love steamed egg. (But I think BBQ Biwon‘s was softer and better)

This soft tofu chilli pot ($10) was cheap (commensurate with its lack of animal protein) but otherwise not much to write home about.

I enjoyed this cold noodle soup ($10) but wonder if in Korean culture these are not meant to be shared. One of my colleagues certainly acted like it was the personal order of the other colleague, but in the end no one stopped me from taking some. Actually very good value.

Other Feelings
The banchan was good, plentiful, and quickly resupplied. The grilles were swapped out meticulously, so as not to leave too much burnt char on them for too long. Service can therefore be considered to be quite good. We paid a total of $55 per person for a very big feed for four humans.

Would I come back? Why not. The nearby Juwon Butchery is also a great place to pick up some wagyu Korean BBQ cuts to take home for a repeat meal a few days down the track.

Stoneage Korean BBQ
1B Chatham Rd, West Ryde NSW 2114
0401 167 688