Koreana New Korean BBQ
58 Victoria St
Richmond
03) 9421 1002
Korean Restaurant
Tucked away just 200m from the North Richmond train station is “Koreana” New Korea BBQ, a little dollop of Korean on the “great asian eats” strip of Victoria St Richmond.
I have always liked Korean food, especially Korean BBQ but I usually stuff up the cooking so I am left with char grilled meals that even my dog would not touch. Thus I will go, but normally avoid the whole BBQ experience.
One of the nice aspects of this restaurant is that they actually do the cooking for you right at your table.
Now before we get into the mains tho, a introduction to New Korean BBQ.
I suppose the essentials are moderate prices, BYO wine only, beers start @ $6 and it’s important to make a booking on busy nights.
For me the food is fantastic but due to problems with the staff the experience is somewhat of a let down.
Variably helpful with english skills slimmer then the sliced beef, the staff project an image that is pretty disorganized.
Nobody will stop if you flag them down and every time I made eye contact trying to get help they would look the other way or even worse, smile and do nothing.
We were going to a movie after our dinner and the whole process of paying the bill was painful to say the least. Thankfully we made it to the movies but missed the tram we where planning to catch and had to grab a taxi.
If you can tolerate the hit and miss service, well you are in for a great eat. May I suggest book on a week night and give yourself plenty of time.
The entree’s on offer are tasty.
I love the Korean pancakes. They come in vegetarian and seafood and are great.
We also had the gyoza, and calamari tempura as I was starving and as the restaurant was filled to the brim with what must have been “bring your screaming secretary” night I was worried the food would be slow to come out.
Thankfully it was not.
For mains we opted for one of the three meat BBQ’s.
Our’s included teriyaki chicken, pork belly and fillet steak.
($45 for the plate you see)
This is presented with Kimchi, spicy chili cabbage, sweet caramelized potato, cucumber pickle and lettuce.
I gather the idea is to put some meat into a lettuce leaf add some of the extra’s and enjoy. I did 
We are big fans of kimchi so we also had the kimchi fried rice. ($10) If you like chili this is a great variation on the standard fried rice and the added egg on top gives it that “authentic Korea” feel.
Thankfully we were full as the dessert menu is crap and the secretaries had just popped another bottle of champagne bringing the noise level up to a point where I was not able to hear my partner across the table.
Overall the food here is good, but as I have tried to convey the service here is very hit and miss.
From a food perspective I give it a thumbs up. As for the service, well you may have a tolerance threshold higher then mine but really I don’t think I am that much of a princess…
George
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Our service was ok, restuarant wasn’t very busy, especially for a Friday night…Portions though were disappointing, could’ve had more meat, I felt. Flavours were good, so would have loved more of it.
went there last night for the bbq, wasnt impressed, paid $47 for d assorted a : mix of pork belly, chicken, scotch fillet, d portion was so small, we thought maybe we will get 2 or 3 round of it, but that was it, had soybean soup, was really average, also had bbq mushroom, but that was d mushroom with cheap bbq sauce,side dishes was average, overall disappointing experience, been to other korean restaurant was far better than that, wouldnt go back there at all.