Seoul Soul: 323 Victoria St, Abbotsford, 0478 768 760
My score: 3/5
It’s not that I suspect the emperor’s naked or anything, but there’s something NQR about a char-grill restaurant that builds itself up around a funky barbecue set-up then doesn’t let you use it. The grills at Seoul Soul are there but they’re off, stone cold, unused, meaning one of the big attractions of a Korean grill restaurant (cooking your own meat on a tabletop grill) is unavailable. Our waiter tells me the barbecues are just for decoration. Wow, that’s meticulous and expensive theming – they’ve even gone to the trouble of installing exhaust hoses and a rangehood.
Oh well, Seoul Soul still stands out, a gleaming, glam sliver of a place with mostly communal seating in a land of easy-wipe Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. The six-month-old restaurant flags itself as an innovator by offering ‘Korean tapas’, but most of the tapas are the dumpling and pancake appetisers found in other Korean restaurants. The less-common dishes are street-style snacks, such as simple but smashing bite-size rice cakes speckled with sesame seeds.
The seafood pancake, an old stager in the Korean repertoire, has the right balance of exterior crunch and interior chew. Among the larger dishes, good grilled pork belly comes with a duo of dressings: thick, fermented soybean paste and a sesame-oil sauce, adding layers of flavour to the rich, thinly sliced meat. Usually, there would be lettuce to make wraps, but not here. Slices of boneless beef rib are well marinated and tasty, though I miss cooking the meat myself and scissoring it from the bone. I have no reservations about the char-grilled eel rice, a version of the all-in-one bibimbap. Smoky eel, pickled vegetables (kimchi), chilli paste and rice are prettily arranged in a hot stone bowl for the diner to mix into a flavourful mess. The highlight of a bibimbap is scraping the crunchy rice from the pot ‘the crust is exemplary: crisp, chewy and worth the effort of prising away.
So, Seoul Soul serves good food in a pleasant setting but it’s dragged down by an unfinished feeling. This food wants beer so the lack of liquor licence is an issue, and there’s that cold grill to stare at throughout the meal. On the upside, there are keenly priced lunches, quick service and some fine flavours, making it a great addition to the Victoria Street smorgasbord.
More Korean:
Wooga, 270 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, 9328 1221
The DIY barbeque is a drawcard, and the seafood pancake is good, too, but I love the spicy and super-sized soups.
Gami, Shop G, Healeys Lane, 535 Little Lonsdale Street, city, 9670 3232
When it feels like a ‘œchicken and beer’ night, this is your place. Crunchy fried chicken with flavoured batters and marinades can only be washed down with crisp Hite beer.
Carnegie Korean BBQ, 23 Koornang Road, Carnegie, 9563 6608
The concept is as simple as the decor: choose your meat and sauce and whack it on the tabletop grill. (Also in Box Hill and the city).
First published in The Age, August 5, 2012
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