Sleepless Travels Reloaded

A new Korean restaurant opened up right in the middle of Adelaide’s Chinatown, on Moonta Street.

No photos of my own as I forgot to bring my camera :/
But the blog looked a bit too plain otherwise, so here are some Korea food-related photos I grabbed off flickr ^^.

I thought it looked rather promising seeing as it had a traditional-looking front, with Korean-style gates and a Korean-looking roof. A peek inside revealed lots of those clayware pots and stuff. Seemed authentic enough. Finally, an authentic Korean restuarant in Adelaide! Although I heard there’s another one around somewhere out of the city…

Opening night was tonight (7th Feb). The menu list wasn’t very long, only about 5 stewed items. They said the proper full menu hadn’t come out yet. So to apologise, all menu items were 50% off, even drinks o.o

We had a beef backbone soup/stew and a seafood soup/stew. The food comes in shallow pots and they are put on portable gas burners to cook a bit more. It’s all well and good for the customers, but those gas burners get used up pretty quickly! I think they should have gone for a more permanent option, with gas piped into gas stoves that are built into the table tops. On the other hand, if these stew thingos on the menu today only comprise a small part of a more varied menu, then I guess having stewed dishes won’t be so common, and they won’t go through gas canisters so quickly.

I was very surprised to see fresh kaenyip in the beef backbone stew!! I had to ask a few times where it came from; they must have been very busy or something, the waitresses never got back to me >.>

The service staff were friendly and helpful, but I think they were a bit forgetful/hurried. Actually today is their training night too, so I didn’t mind much - I got what I wanted in the end. Also, we tried paying by credit card at the end but actually their machine wasn’t set up. They apologised for not telling us earlier, and said the dinner would be free! But we didn’t feel nice about it so we told them to give us a call to pay once their machine was set up, which they accepted only after much persuasion.

Anyway, turns out that they order the kaenyip from Sydney everyday 2 weeks or so. They also said that if I wanted any, I could put in an order with them O_O!! So nice!

The beef bones were stewed together with some potatoes (undercooked, duly reported) in a slightly peppery broth with some other vegetables like carrot/onion. Not too bad, not the particularly earth-shattering though.

The seafood soup was okay too. There was a flower crab, some octopus and some prawns. No fish, surprisingly. They added in a couple of tablespoons of fresh garlic and red pepper to the soup stock. It was nice and pungent XD

I wouldn’t have ordered seafood soup because crabs are always a pain to eat “>_>
But it wasn’t too bad.

Basically, none of these dishes are what I would choose normally, so I wasn’t expecting much. I do hope they have naeng myun or chijimi though >.< Or maybe proper gimbap!

Oh, the sidedishes/kimchi stuff was okay. I don't expect it to be as generous as in Korea of course, but it would be nice if there was just a little bit more! There was new kimchi (huh, don't know what you actually call it, because the cabbage wasn't even fermented yet, seems like they just marinated it today), but no proper cabbage kimchi. I guess in a few weeks they'll get their kitchen in order.

I ordered ?mullju, the Korean traditional cloudy rice wine (hey, everything 50% after all!). It wasn’t as nice as in Seoul. It tasted as though they used artificial sugar or something to sweeten it. I can’t bear aritficial sweeteners. It also seemed much stronger >.> Anyway, it was $15 for a larg-ish pot (maybe a litre?) so it’s still rather generous I think. My family of 3 couldn’t finish it, and it felt like a bit of a waste to leave it behind (because of alcohol regulations or something). It would have been nice to let my boss try some of it >:D

Yeah. So because I’m Chinese and hate to leave stuff behind, I tried to drink as much as possible. My mother only had a cup or two and she was red. My brother had about a cup and he wa pinkish. Apparently I was red. I’m not disputing that. Though I constantly denied it at the time, on further reflection, I guess I was pretty drunk. I downed quite a number of cups in quick succession. I skolled it because I didn’t want to taste it >.>

Anyway, I think I didn’t really notice it but I ate/drank a lot. And when I came home I felt queasy. I just wanted to lie down, but I had to take a shower first…Burping wasn’t good enough (or maybe it triggered a chain reaction) so in the end I threw up. A couple of times. >.<

Wow, this food review doesn't seem very appetising at all does it?

Rating
10 being best, 1 worst. I’m rating on what I experienced today, not what I think is their potential once they get their act together, so the scores will be lower than normal.

Service: 6.5/10
(points taken off for forgetfullness)

Food: 6/10
It’s a new thing, and varied, and that’s what stops me from saying it’s mediocre. Also, there was kaenyip! But overrall the taste is not that special, and I wouldn’t order those particular dishes again - that is just because of my personal preferences though. I’m eagerly awaiting the full menu. Also, the serving sizes were rather good.

Value for money: 10/10
Well, this score is abnormally high because of the opening rates >:D
If they don’t call us back, we may never pay!
But anyway, I think even without the 50% discount, it’s not too bad.
The 2 medium-size soups that we got was good enough for all three of us.

The beef back bone is $20 normally, seafood $28. Mullju $15. Total $63, after discount $31.50, after no credit cardit facilities, $0 XD

Conclusion
Overall, it’s not too bad, I’d go back again. There is alot of potential I think. They will open for lunch next week too! So I think I will wait till the full menu comes out before going back again.