OKitchen Bar & Restaurant

OKitchen Bar & Restaurant is a Korean restaurant, make no mistake about it.  It may describe itself as a Japanese and Korean restaurant but all the heart and soul (or should that be heart and Seoul?) is in the Korean side of the operation. The sushi is just a nod to the ubiquity of the Japanese foodstuff and seems fairly perfunctory.

The Korean dishes, however, are the best of bowl food. Hearty, warming, sometimes healthy, but generally delicious. Gang jung, bulgogi, kimchi – these are not timid flavours. So in both bang for your bite, and bang for your buck, OKitchen more than delivers.

Top picks from the menu include dolsot bibimbap and bokkeumbap, two rice dishes (the latter fried, the former cooked in a big pot that leaves lovely crispy bits) topped with a selection of seasoned veg as well as other goodies and eaten all mixed together. It’s not particularly pretty but it is good.

The Korean BBQ experience is another must eat – although a bit messy for a first date. Tuck in to a platter of marinated morsels (the squid and pork option is particularly good), supercharge them with bulgogi sauce and a selection of pickles and wrap them up in lettuce.

The wholesome Korean casseroles are a good bet too with options like kimchi-jjigae, a hot chilli casserole with everyone’s favourite fermented condiment (sorry, sauerkraut) and dishes for sharing like haemool jungol, a spicy seafood stew packed with prawns, cod, squid, mussels, clams and crab or budae jjigae, a fusion spectacular from the Korean War, mixing traditional ingredients like noodles and spices with spam and frankfurters.

Army rations are not known for adding much to the culinary repertoire but this may be the exception. There’s no need to enlist – just quick-march to OKitchen Bar & Restaurant.

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