Hwaro Korean Barbeque

One of my best girlfriends has been suggesting that she and her boyfriend, and David (my best friend) and I do a double date at this Korean barbeque place she really likes (the last time we did a double date we went to Trunk which was a little less than impressive).

When I think about it, Korean is one cuisine I am totally unfamiliar with, however David and my girlfriend love the stuff, so off we trotted on Monday night.

My god, I arrived there by myself and you can SMELL the charcoal from the other side of Little Bourke St, it's actually incredibly inviting.



So since I'm rather the novice with Korean food, I got David and my girlfriend (I'll refer to her as Miss C) ordered most of the food...which of course is just meat, meat and more meat.

The whole arrangement of the place is quite cute, wooden communal benches and tables, which are made into smaller seating arrangements with a blind partition to seperate different groups.

And once you order your food, they lower the vent from the ceiling and bring out your charcoals!





To start off with they bring out an assortment of dips and sauces and veggies and a bit of kimchi which I found quite nice, the sourness really cleans up your palate!



We started off with the ox tongue....which cooked in a flash! If we left it on for more than a few minutes it would crisp up and burn already, so we ate that all very quickly. Delicious.



We then got the wagyu scotch filet steak....I think I've been a bit spoiled with the wagyu I've had in the Philippines as I did not find it particularly amazing. Tasty, but not as tender as I was expecting to be.



Here you see the pork belly marinated in...I forget the marinade, some kind of soy based marinade...but it was delicious, probably one of my favourite pieces of meat for the night! Next to is the traditional Gal-bi beef, which was also, very tasty.



I loved how the waiter folded out the Gal-bi beef on top of the charcoals, it's all initially wrapped around the bone. So I thought that was quite cute.



And to finish off, Miss C and Mr T (hahaha) ordered the green tea ice-cream whilst David and I shared a black sesame ice-cream. One of my favourite flavours that I haven't had in ages! Always a delight.

A fun night for sure, but the whole barbeque concept doesn't really sell on me so much, although if it was a cold night, I can certainly see the concept being much more inviting.

And as a warning for those who have never been, never wear your best clothes to a korean (or Japanese) barbeque night, I absolutely REEKED of charcoals when I got home, I had to have a shower before going to bed!

One more note, Miss C tells me that it's always busy at Hwaro, we were there on a Monday night and the place was full! So make sure if you plan to go that you make a booking in advance!

Hwaro Korean Barbeque
562 Little Bourke St
Melbourne 3000
9642 5696