The best Korean restaurants in Melbourne

Jan Chi means ‘to feast’ in Korean, and there’s truth in advertising when the jewel of the menu is a 530 gram plate of braised Angus short rib. Korean may be the flavour of the moment, but owners Steven Ryu (chef) and SJ Min (venue manager) aren’t jumping on the bandwagon - they’re dishing up flavours from home with their own personal twist. 

Koreans have a word for food that’s consumed with alcohol – anju – and while a lot of the anju we see here in Melbourne looks like sticky soy garlic-glazed fried chicken wings or thin strips of beef sizzling away on a Korean barbecue, tiny Brunswick eatery Chae is here to highlight a different side to Korean cuisine with herbal, homestyle Korean dishes. Sign us up!

South Korean chef Paik Jong-won is a man who needs no introduction in the K-food scene. He leads a Korean food empire, with more than 2,000 restaurants, 5 million YouTube subscribers and several TV shows under his belt. Melburnians have already been treated to a taste of Korean barbecue at Paik's BBQ, but now punters can slurp up saucy and comforting Korean noodle dishes at Paik's Noodle. The menu, which features just nine dishes priced as low as $11, highlights fermented Korean flavours and Paik's famed sauces. Yum!

The secret's out. This once low-key Korean restaurant overrun by displaced students wanting a taste of home is now being infiltrated by locals. Blame the internet. Blame Instagram. Blame Facebook. They’ve hit social media pretty aggressively and now everyone is lining up for all the banchan (side dishes) you can handle. Hansang means ‘table full of food’ in Korean, and that’s exactly what you get.  

A lively all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurant has landed at The District Docklands, delighting curious visitors with its enormous buffet of spicy and savoury flavour-packed dishes and cook-your-own ingredients. Spearheaded by a team of master chefs with more than 20 years of traditional Korean culinary experience, a dinner at Seoul Garden is the next best thing to hopping on a plane to the South Korean capital itself. 

Since 2010, Joomak has been satsifying our cravings for Korean food with its authentic kim chi pancakes, hot pots and its legendary bestseller – the fat cheese egg roll with fish roe. A lot of Koreans dine out here into the wee hours (which is always a good sign), and the food is best washed down with the restaurant's selction of soju and makgeolli drinks. 

Famed for its hot take on contemporary Korean food culture and its legendary kimchi masterclasses with the restaurant's matriach, Seven Star Pocha is your go-to for all your fave Korean classics. Make a night of it with hotpot, noodles, barbecue and plenty of butter beers to wash it all down.

When a 20-seater restaurant in the heart of suburbia that only offers three dishes, with no bookings, no website and no advertising is never with an empty seat, you know it has to be good. Mr Lee’s Foods is well worth the trip to Ringwood East if you’re a fan of pork; all dishes are derived from this succulent meat. The upshot is you get interestings insights into the economical traditions of Korean dining and an innately cultural nose-to-tail philosophy. 

Everyone knows that meat grilled over charcoal is exponentially more flavoursome than other forms of cooking. Yes, a gas barbecue will get the job done, but there’s an extra smoky depth that can only be achieved when charcoal is your fire-power. Hwaro, the Korean barbecue joint on Little Bourke Street, gets it right every time.

Korean barbecue, at its core, is a communal dining experience and Guhng makes sure groups are well catered for with their barbecue sets. The Angus set is enough to comfortably feed four moderately hungry meat eaters. You get a mix of lean and fatty cuts, starting with an evenly marbled Angus cube roll, which is cut into pieces over a cast iron pot of glowing hot charcoal. 

This is one of the few places that offers yukgaejang in Melbourne, a hearty, spicy crimson soup filled with slow-cooked, shredded beef, glass noodles and spring onions, served with red rice and kimchi. It's well worth trying along with the venue's Korean fried chicken, bulgogi and bibimbap. Takeaway and delivery are also on offer here too. 

Touted as one of the more authentic Korean restaurants in Melbourne, Darac is a hot spot for beef bulgogi barbecue, corn cheese, bibimbap and more classic favourites late into the night. It also claims to be the first restaurant to bring Korean suasage army stew to our town back in 2009, a comfort food everyone should try if they haven't already. You can also try the spicy ramyeon with seafood – it's one of the tastiest dishes here.