Joomak, Chatswood

Joomak is a Korean restaurant near the Chatswood branch of Fitness First. It's not far from the train station or the Victoria Avenue shopping strip, but it's still a little out of the way compared to the other restaurants and shops. It was thus surprising that the restaurant was half full on a week night - the food must be pretty authentic because the other diners were Korean.

Considering there are so many baby chairs, I'm thinking young families are most welcome...

The ambience was cosy, even with (or should I say because of?) the video clips of KPop bands that were projected onto one of the walls.

 

The Boy ordered a steaming pot of pork backbone immersed in pork bone and cabbage broth (ppyeodagwi gukbab). The meat was soft and came off the bone, but the stock was a little lacking in salt. You could regard that in a positive light - restaurants tend to add too much salt to food. Since the Boy's meal came with rice, small plates of condiments appeared in front of us- bean sprouts, chilli potato, lettuce and some onion. Sadly no kim chi.
 

Ppyeodagwi Gukbab ($13.00)

I'd selected the dumpling ramen, as I wondered at the time what the Korean equivalent to ramen was. It was pretty much instant noodles in a spicy stock (possibly instant noodle msg soup) with 5 boiled dumplings. If it did come out of a packet, I'd like to know what brand they use, because that was really satisfying - and it'd probably be heaps cheaper. I felt like Cheon Song-Yi in one of the scenes from You Who Came From the Stars, slurping down the noodles and gulping up the soup.

Dumpling ramen ($12.00)

Verdict? Undecided, leaning towards average. I need to pay another visit to figure out whether I like it or if I simply feel indifferent- instant noodles doesn't really require much cooking. Plus, the soju cocktails sound really yummy!