I've found myself a favourite new traditional Korean food place in Melbourne. Honestly I haven't been to that many, but Arisoo has taken over Seoul Soul as my local in Abbotsford and so until I find another I'll be happy here.
I'd walked past a few times and it was good to see some diversity opening in Victoria Street instead of the endless similar Vietnamese cuisines. There's even a Singaporean place near eLounge which I thought the area was missing for a while. One of the things that attracted me to Arisoo in the first place was the offer of fried chicken, which Seoul Soul doesn't have. Chimac has it too but for some reason it seems to be closed quite often when I'm around and the normal Korean dishes appeal more to me than Chimac's fusion Mexican fare.
I've started drinking sikhye (Korean rice punch) at most places which here reminds me of a sweet barley drink. In other places it tasted more cinnamon like horchata. The Korean meal tradition of giving out lots of little accompaniments is preserved here with tangy kimchi, beanshoots and some crunchy vegetables.
- Kimchi Pancakes with onions & soy sauce $10 - nice crisp outsides with chewy middles. These were fine but I don't tend to be much of a pancake person generally;
- Vegetable japchae (stirfried sweet potato starch noodles with mushrooms, chives, carrots & onions) $13 - I really like the distinct chewy gummy texture of sweet potato noodles. No others I've had are like it and I'm a growing fan;
- Spicy soft tofu stew with seafood $15 - delicious piping hot broth to ladle over rice with small bite-sized pieces of seafood;
- Original & soy garlic fried chicken $17 - very good crunchy outsides and lovely thick sauce on the soy & garlic. I preferred the flavoured over original but either is fine. I'd be interested to try the seasoned (spicy) but I do tend to find spicy KFC too hot for me generally.
The food is extremely good. I probably wouldn't get the pancakes again (they usually aren't my preference) but any of the other 3 dishes along with the hot stone bibimbap or tteokbokki rice cakes would be perfect.