Mukunghwa Korean in Glebe

Best Korean I have had in Sydney. The food, ambience and service are all fantastic. This is not fine dining - it is casual, fun but very delicious and fantastic value for money! Kate and I went along last week and had the banquet, they kindly allowed us to swap one of the dishes for another, and they were all superb. The beef bulgogi was fantastic, and all the side dishes were great too. The home made dumplings were near perfect, and the seafood was pretty good. And the Bek Se Ju was quite nice - much more flavour than the normal SoJu.... Below are a mix of pictures from the night.

Above - the beef...

side dishes, clockwise from top left its a bean sprout dish, sweet flavoured potatoes, vege pancakes and seasoned garlic stems.

spicy seafood stew

a mash up photo kate did on her fancy camera

above and below the bek se ju

The waitress (possibly also an owner) let us keep these two shot glasses! Even before this, she was so wonderfully sweet, helpful and friendly. It really was the best service i can recall at any casual restaurant in Sydney. I cannot recommend this place enough.

Kam Fook Bondi Junction - Yum Cha

I had high hopes for Kam Fook Bondi Junction - their shop in Chatswood is the business, i had heard good things about this one, and BJ is a nice mall... but i was really really disappointed with it today.
My list of gripes:
- it is over priced
- it is over 'Western'
- the service was crap
- the food was just passable on balance
- and did i mention the service and price?

Ok, so firstly there was hardly any food going around, and the waitresses and floor attendants in general were quite rude - in fact one flatly ignored us, whilst others seemed to choose not to respond or remember orders. Complaining about service at yum cha is odd - it isn't really known for top service - well not the traditional western style that some expect - but it IS known for being very efficient and fast, even if not all smiles and small talk. And I don't want to come off as an ignorant prat (my complaints are compared to the dozens of yum cha places I have been to in Aus and abroad) or like a pompous expert (well I'm at least not an expert), but its my opinion and blog. This was the worst yum cha I have been to, anywhere.

It is trying to be more western - and it's working, with most of the clientele on Friday lunch time western business people and tourists. The seats are plush, a nice view, not too many tables in the place, and it is all quite orderly... everything you don't really want at yum cha! It was not frenetic, energetic, cramped, noising and exciting. It was boring and crap.

The food was far more expensive than their competitors or sister store in Chatswood. The dish of vegies was $8.80 - I would expect around $5-6, and all of the seafood dishes were over $6... Again way too high. And they were not very good! The Har Gow (prawn dumplings) were plump enough, but were not a patch on East Ocean or Marigold, and the prawn rice rolls were ridiculous... at most places, including the chatswood store, they have three whole large plump prawns per roll; here there was 1, maybe 1 and 1/2 diced up throughout the roll - the rice paper was thick and gluggy, and not enough soy based dressing... really poor.

The bill (which initially came overcharging for 1 more tea that we had people) came to $62.40 for 3 people... normally you'd expect to spend under $20pp, and that is eating significantly more than we had that time... we ended up finishing and leaving as we were sick of it. We expressed our displeasure to the manager (i.e. complained), to no avail - except getting the 4th tea taken off the bill.

My advice - skip it. If you don't want to venture from trendy Bondi Junction Westfield, go down to the trendy food court below. Otherwise, go to East Ocean in the City, Ting Ha Palace in Parramatta, or even Kam Fook in Chatswood.