Hannara Korean BBQ – All you can eat

Stop the press! Run, don’t walk. Hannara Korean BBQ cuisine is now doing ‘all you can eat’ Korean BBQ.

I had dragged my friend to Hannara at the beginning of the year when they had just opened but nothing really stood out from other Korean restaurants. We tried a variety of dishes including japchae, fried chicken and bulgogi but what made me have food regrets was smelling other people’s Korean BBQ sizzling away. So when I read that Hannara was now doing an ‘all you can eat’, it was the perfect excuse to go back.

There are three buffets to choose from: ‘Premium Wagyu and seafood buffet‘ ($69.00pp), the ‘Wagyu BBQ buffet‘ ($59.00pp) and the ‘standard BBQ buffet‘ ($49.00pp). The whole table ordered the Wagyu BBQ buffet which included Wagyu meat, some deep fried seafood and bibimbap as well as everything from the standard BBQ buffet.

There are some terms and conditions attached: The menu you request can be sold out. Age under 10 is $20 pp. There is a penalty fee for leftovers. ALL food’s quality is the same as the single menu. Take out not available. Limited to 90 minutes from the first serving.

Ordering the Wagyu BBQ buffet meant that we could have delicious Wagyu meat as well as all the Korean fried chicken, japchae and corn cheese that we wanted!And so it began, our ‘all you can eat’ adventure included some very delicious Wagyu meat, crunchy fried chicken, some judgment from the neighbouring tables and ended in a lot of belts being undone.It might not look very pretty, but the meat was delicious.Korean BBQ is the perfect winter warmer and a fun delicious way to catch up with friends. I’m a huge beef fan so the Wagyu beef was my favourite, the Korean fried chicken was nice because the sauce came on the side and came with the perfect pickled vegetables. I thought the bibimbap was a little sad looking and disappointing but I would definitely come back again! I had lots of fun and didn’t leave smelling like charcoal (their extraction fans work quite well).

The service was prompt as there is a bell on each table, the meat didn’t take long to cook and 90 minutes is ample time to order, cook, stuff your face and repeat as many times as needed.

Venue: Hannara Korean BBQ cuisine

Address:  Shop 1,2&3 – 16 Moore street, Canberra ACT 2601

Phone: (02) 6193 3016

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Spotted… in Civic

TimmyC sent me photos of Hannara, the new Korean BBQ restaurant in Civic where the Turkish restaurant used to be (on Moore street). I’ve heard they do some pretty delicious fried chicken. I must put this on my ‘to eat list’!He even included trading hours, it seems I’ve taught TimmyC well. Now he just needs to take me there.

Chez Kimchi

When my friends wanted to know what I felt like eating for dinner Friday night, I knew exactly where I wanted to take them, to Chez Kimchi for some Korean fried chicken. I didn’t anticipate a line at the door and a 20 minute waiting period but we were there and I had already promised my stomach fried chicken, so I left my name on the wait list and browsed through the menu. Continually throughout the night people there were people waiting for a table, so you knew it was either A) really good and popular or B) new to Canberra, I was hoping a little from column A and a little from column B.

We were given condiments and bone bucket. We were ready to start!Gogi-gunmandu deep-fried Korean dumplings filled with pork mince and vegetables (4 pieces $6.80). These dumplings were crispy and cooked perfectly, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what was inside the dumpling. I didn’t think these added much to our experience and I wouldn’t bother ordering any of the dumplings again.Saewu Jjinmandu steamed Korean dumplings filled with prawns and vegetables ($6.80). You could tell that these had prawn inside, but they weren’t particularly good; skip the dumplings and head straight for the fried chicken!Ginger iced tea and Lemon iced tea (around $4.50?). It is not your typical iced tea, think more preserved lemon and ginger. I think I preferred the ginger one more because it was more refreshing.Bulgogi Bokkeum beef stir-fried with vegetables in a Kimchi’s specials sauce served on a sizzling plate ($18.50) served with steamed rice. This is one of my favourite Korean dishes and I wasn’t going to pass it up. I don’t know if it was traditional or particularly good; I’ve never had a bulgogi that I haven’t liked.Japchae stir fried glass noodles (sweet potato noodles) with vegetables in a soy sauce ($15.80). I’ve always liked Korean sweet potato noodles (easy to cook at home too) and these were really nice but I wasn’t a huge fan of the cloud ear fungus.Now to why we really came here, fried chicken!

Spicy chilli chicken smoked chilli spicy sauce (half chicken $18.00). When we ordered this, the waitress stressed that it was spicy, yes that is why we were ordering it, then she stressed that it was really spicy and that made us a little worried but my friend was adamant that she wanted this fried chicken, so we ordered it anyway against our better judgement. I am not a good judge of spiciness because my tolerance for chilli is on the lower end, but man! For me it really spicy (and subtly smoky) but I made it through and even ate two pieces out of spite (yes waitress, we ate the whole thing!). So maybe for other people who LOVE spicy food, it might not be too bad.Soy sauce chicken perfect combination of garlic and soy sauce good with beer (half chicken $18.00). This by comparison seemed really sticky and sweet. Easy to eat and very messy (not a first date food) but I don’t know if they gave us the right one because I didn’t taste any garlic at all. I think next time I’d choose another flavour of chicken, one with a fried coating rather than a sticky marinade and one that won’t make me tear up and blow my nose.

Despite being very busy and borderline overwhelming for the staff, they were still very friendly and attentive. Chez Kimchi have 14 flavours of fried chicken and I am super keen to come back and try more! I imagine when they aren’t crazy busy that it would be a place to grab fast dinner before a movie.

Venue: Chez Kimchi

Address: 70 Bunda Street, Civic

Phone: (02) 6247 5525

Cook your own at Tosung Charcoal BBQ

——-20/04/2012——-

After searching for this restaurant and doing a big loop around the block before we realised Tosung Charcoal Restaurant was across the road from where we first started, we were hungry and ready to eat! I have always been a fan of Korean BBQs and don’t mind the smokey BBQ smell that lingers in your clothes and hair afterwards.

Each table is fitted with a BBQ and exhaust fan.

We are all ready to go!

It was almost like being in a foreign country when they placed complimentary sides  for us and we didn’t ask what they were and instead we just hesitantly tried them all.

Starting from top left: shallot pancake(?)- it was cold and not that great, onions in a brown sauce– it had a raw texture but it didn’t taste raw, potato salad with apple (no photo)- so delicious! Just like how my grandma used to make it; a salad with a mystery pink sauce– the sauce had a really subtle faint hint of sweetness before really quickly leaving your mouth with no taste, how odd; a variety of sauces (no photo) and of course the national dish, Kimchi (no photo) which was really spicy.

Pan fried dumplings Gun Ma Du 5 pcs ($10.00) Delicious but really expensive for what it is.

Duck salad ($17.00) the duck tasted like a cured ham and the salad was covered in a really strong sauce but I couldn’t put my finger on what the flavour was. Definitely not worth $17.00 though.

Let’s start cooking! I ordered pork ribs, marinated chicken with teriyaki sauce and thin beef skirt. I was really disappointed that they didn’t have chicken wings on the menu (not very Korean I know) but it is one of my favourite things to eat.

Pork ribs ($19.00) the nicest meat we ordered.

Marinated chicken with teriyaki sauce ($19.00) I must have been doing it really wrong if the waitress had to come up after giggling and take the blunt scissors away from me after I attempted to desperately try to cut up the fatty chicken breast. She cut the chicken into smaller portions but it was still really fatty.

and thin beef skirt ($23.00) this was really fatty which I usually wouldn’t mind but not if half of the strip is solid fat.

The meats seemed a little bland even after dousing them with the random sauces provided.

Just in case cooking ourselves didn’t really work out I ordered marinated BBQ beef (So Bul Go Gi-$14.00) and rice. I had to get the rice topped up several times otherwise my friends wouldn’t get any. 

The staff were really attentive and I do like how they have a buzzer at every table to ask for staff but their English isn’t very good and they struggled to respond when I asked them something about the dish.

My friends and I might have failed at the cooking part and not really knowing what to do with the sauces didn’t really help either, but I wouldn’t come back here even with a Korean explaining everything to me. I found the meats poor quality, not much flavour in the food and everything was crazily overpriced. It came to around $35.00 per person and I left feeling really hungry still- disappointing.

Venue: Tosung Charcoal BBQ

Address: 15 Flinders Way, Griffith ACT 2603

Phone: (02) 6295 2627