Restaurants

There are half a dozen Korean canteens dotted around New Malden High Street, offering almost identical menus of barbecues, spicy stews, stir-fries and hotpot rice. Palace sits at the bottom end of the price spectrum and the handy location attracts plenty of shoppers looking for a quick bite on the hoof. From outside, the restaurant looks upmarket, but inside, you’ll find the same relaxed café vibe offered by most other local Korean restaurants. That said, the friendly couple who run the place have made an effort to inject some character: the walls are covered with Korean bric-a-brac, and barbecues are cooked on cute ‘50s-style chrome gas burners. For lunch, we settled for a quick bowl of fish and kimchi chigae – a warming stew of green onions, fermented cabbage leaves, chilli and mackerel, with a smouldering chilli heat – which came with half a dozen small plates of namul and pickles (the garlic stems in sweet chilli sauce were particularly tasty). Our conclusion? We like the relaxed mood, but Palace is probably better for a quick lunch than a lingering dinner.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009