26 August 2012

Kimchi & Sushi House ~ Korean - Dixon House Food Court, Chinatown [CLOSED]

It's official: we have discovered the nicest people in the whole world. They make a mean bibimbap too. [CLOSED - NOVEMBER 2012]




Kimchi & Sushi House is run by possibly the nicest restaurant folks we have met in all our Sydney food adventures. Yes, we always waffle on about how nice restaurant folks are, but these folks are exceedingly, exceptionally lovely. They even introduced themselves (Sarah & Lee) and greet us like old friends every time we turn up for a feed, and we've only been here a few times.

We like their food too, cooked with a fresh clean, home-style touch. Our favourite dishes are the bibimbaps. A good cheap, quick bibimbap is surprisingly hard to find around town, even with Sydney's emerging Korea-town. We're also keen on the (mildly) spicy stew\soup dishes, which are so homely and comforting, medicinal even. And the Korean fried dumplings have become a new favourite too.

It's a tough life running a food court stall, long hours, low margins, so get your butts down here and see Lee and Sarah for an $8.50 bibimbap, it's healthy and de-freaking-licious.



Bibimbap ($8.50) is one of our all-time favourite dishes. We're perplexed as to how a simple, simple dish of veggies, beef and egg on plain rice can make us feel so dang good. Mr Shawn skipped home on air after this baby. The bibimbap here has a nice fresh clean taste to it .We love the balance of the subtlety pickled veggies with the fresh lettuce and bean sprouts. And the beef is excellent, sweet and tender, it jumps out of the bowl. Dig in.



Stone pot bibimbap ($10.50) - bibimbap served in a hotpot with a layer of crunchy rice on the bottom. Oh yeah. Lots of folks prefer this style of bibimbap, we like it both ways.



#8 Spicy soft tofu stew - $8.50. Cubes of mouth-melty silken tofu in a thin, spicy soup with flavours of Korean chili paste and some lovely fishy flavours from little pieces of squid and mussels. Served with a bowl of rice. Sometimes we have trouble deciding whether to have a soup or a rice dish, this is two in one. A twofer.



#5 Boneless spicy chicken - $9.5. Stir fried chook is sweet, spicy Korean chili paste, kinda like chicken bulgolgi. Nice but it looked more exotic in the menu photo.



Stone pot beef ($9.50). Served on a hotplate rather than a stone pot, but delicious all the same. The same lovely sweet beef as in the bibimbap, but there's more of it, stir-fried up a little with some veggies.



Spicy beef soup with rice ($9.80). A thin, homely soup with flavours of beef, veggies and a light Korean chili kick. There's some little slithers of beef , clear 'glass' noodles and some mystery components. Mr Shawn felt like crap from flu before eating this, afterwards he felt like a million dollars. Well fifty bucks at least. A big serve with rice on the side, light, refreshing and medicinal.



Kimchi Jjigae - Kimchi stew with tofu & rice ($9). Similar to the dish above in flavour, a clean, refreshing broth with a mild chili kick. Makes us feel better after eating it. Includes a bowl of rice.



Kimchi Bokumpbab - home made kimchi fried rice ($8.50). We love kimchi fried rice, sweet and a little bit spicy.



Tuigim Mandu - fried Korean style dumpling - 6 pieces for $4. These have a yummy green veggie filling, quite different to Chinese dumplings or Japanese gyoza. Nice!



Kimchi and Sushi House is in Dixon House Food Court, corner of Dixon and Little Hay Street's Chinatown.

Speaking of Korea, Shawn's spiritual guru and personal stylist, Elder Paik, is back doing his thing, which is uniting North and South Korea by hoola hooping in makeup and flowers while balancing on milk crates. Elder Paik is well into his 70s now. He may be an egg-yoke short of a bibimbap, but dangnabbit he spreads some cheer, and there's nothing wrong with that.

12 comments:

  1. I've NEVER had a Bibimbap...can you get a vegie version do you know?

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    1. You could get it without the meat and egg and add a load of chilli sauce, maybe even some chili tofu if you ask them nicely! Maybe BYO your own egg - our friend Eve would!

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  2. So hard to find a good bibimbap, especially ones with the layer of crunchy rice at the bottom. There's always movement at Dixon House Food Court - will have to get down and try out this spot pronto!

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  3. Are there any more new stores down there to try?

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    1. There was work happening next to Kimchi and Sushi House and at the large stall next to the sizzling plate joint. The large Taiwanese place has moved to a store on George St so there's another vacancy. So much action!

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  4. Great post - the stone pot bibimbap and spicy tofu/seafood soup look great - two of my favourites. Will give this a go next time I'm down that end of town. Never tried Dixon House because Sussex Centre has some great stalls and a nicer outlook being upstairs.

    Did you ever go to the Korean stall in the Pittsway food court (next door to the excellent Malaysian stall)? They did a great stone pot bibimbap but they closed down about 18 months ago. Don't know if they moved somewhere else, but still in mourning over the loss! Another great stone pot bibimbap is in Chatswood at Jang Gun restaurant Victoria Plaza upstairs - excellent value at $10 including side dishes amd miso soup.
    Stan.

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  5. Mmmm i love bibimbap.

    Where is Sydney's emerging Korea town?

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    Replies
    1. The main artery is the bottom-ish end of Pitt Street towards Central, with lots of joints in the alleys and sidestreets. It's awesome!

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    2. Oh, here's a neat article on the city Koreatown http://travelinsider.qantas.com.au/things_to_do_Sydney_little_korea.htm

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    3. Thats pretty cool! Hopefully it will become even bigger and distinct.

      Thanks for the link!

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  6. I went there today, I had the octopus hotpot dish (#3 on the menu), it was great. Highly recommended.

    Shoutouts to Lee and Sarah ;)

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).