Food ticket: eat your way to South Korea with these dishes in Hong Kong

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What to order: Tteokbokki, or rice cakes with cheese ($165)

Mostly known for their somewhat healthier version of chimaek (fried chicken and beer) this oven-roasted chicken restaurant offers much more, including their take on the ultimate Korean street food, tteokbokki. Goobne’s version of tteokbokki is sweet and spicy, so it’s best served with mozzarella cheese, which helps temper the heat a little. It also comes with some ramyun (instant noodles) as well as a hard-boiled egg.

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What to order: Ganjang-gejang, or crab marinated in soy sauce ($130/one; $380/two)

For the uninitiated, this dish may seem a little daunting as it uses fresh raw crab marinated in soy sauce to create a salted and fermented seafood dish. For more hardcore Korean food fans, this is a winner. And though we don’t have too many places to enjoy it here, Mr Korea BBQ provides the goods on Tuesdays, and offers a flavourful brine that holds the fresh and sweet taste of crab.

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新麻浦 KBBQ - Hot Stone Pot Beef Bibimbap 🐄🍚 #chewfortwo

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What to order: Dolsot, or hot stone pot beef bibimbap ($85) 

A classic Korean dish that is mostly enjoyed for lunch (or in-between meals), bibimbap, which means mixed rice, is a dish that combines meat (optional), warm rice, plenty of vegetables, and a spicy gochujang sauce. Shin Mapo offers a great deal on their barbeque when you dine in, but the hot stone pot beef bibimbap is just as filling and perfect for the day when you don’t want to smell like BBQ. Plus they throw a fried egg on top, and when that combines with everything else, it really is something. Their blueberry cheese bingsu ($78), or shaved ice, adds the finishing touch if you have a sweet tooth.

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What to order: Tasting menu $780

Hansik Goo, by chef Mingoo Kang of Mingle’s in Seoul, is the real deal. A contemporary Korean restaurant that takes inspiration from classic dishes, home-cooked fare and Royal cuisine, but reinterprets it for modern palates, this is where you’ll find Samgye Risotto. It combines two popular chicken dishes: samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, with Korean fried chicken, and results in a glutinous rice risotto served in a clear chicken bone broth and topped with a crispy slow-cooked chicken breast. Unfortunately, no a la carte menu is available at this time, but the tasting menu includes the Samgye Risotto and many more brilliant inventive dishes.

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What to order: Galmaegi or pork skirt meat ($150/200g)

Another South Korean import, Seorae is a Korean restaurant that offers quality meat for the barbeque. Though the branches here can’t benefit from charcoal grilling like the outlets in Seoul, Seorae in Hong Kong does offer their signature pork skirt meat, a cut that is favoured for its somewhat beefier flavour. Order this along with naengmyun, or cold noodles ($85), and yukhoe, or raw beef with egg ($160), and it will be easy to imagine that you’re in Seoul. 

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What to order: half original and half yangnyeom chicken ($108)

This unassuming eatery is exactly what a Hof, as in a local Korean tavern, in Seoul would look like. Dark and moody with tanks of beer and soju to get through, this is as authentic as it gets in Hong Kong. Opt for an order of half original fried chicken and half yangnyeom, or sweet and spicy, chicken to get the best of both worlds and wash it all down with a tower of Korean beer, or swig those bottles of fruity soju, and you’ll be spouting all the Korean words you know in no time.

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