Bakehouse Garden

Another local I’ve been meaning to try, so we decided to give this the test run on Slokky’s birthday, booking out 30 spots.

Food

I designed my own banquet menu to share, consisting of:

• an assortment of picked and brined condiments, which were really quite bland.
• Goonmandu (8 pcs) ($10) – pan fried crispy dumplings - pleasant with a light egg mixture coating
• Chicken Salad ($11) – garden greens with roast chicken - not much dressing, really just an assortment of mixed leaves, but definitely needed due to all the vegetables to come.
• Namul (Autumn) Bibimbab ($12) – boiled rice, beef and mixed wild leafy greens with chilli sauce - the Koreans on our table showed us how it was done. You dollop a big blob of chilli sauce right on top of the beautiful ingredients, including the whole egg, and mix until everything turns a bright red. The taste – of chilli, but very nice chilli at that.
• Haemul-geongol ($40) – spicy seafood and vegetables hot pot - this was my favourite dish of the night. They certainly didn’t skim on the seafood. We had mussels, prawns, crabs, squid, and an assortment of vegetables and noodles, in a spicy sweet sauce
• The next few BBQ meat came on a big plate – I ate them without knowing which was which, and the flavours all blurred together:
  • Ori-jumulleok ($18) – duck brisket fillet marinated in spicy sauce
  Saeng-deungsim ($18) – scotch fillet
  • Bulgogi ($15) – marinated thin slices of beef
  • Saeng-samgyeopsal ($14) – thick strips of pork belly
  • Jaebichuri ($14) – thin skirt
  It was all good though, and I remembered eating a few roasted veges and garlic in between too.

In conclusion, pretty average Korean food, but that’s not necessary bad, it’s just I’m spoilt with choice around here so unless the places are above average, I probably won’t be going back.

Rating - 6

Atmosphere

Part of the new Bakehouse Quarters complex, the décor also used some of the exposed beam warehouse look. There’s a nice water feature, purple walls with some electric blue lighting effects, and wooden tables with big stove dominate. Normally there’s always an air of smoke around Korean BBQ places, but this place was able to diffuse away the smoke. One thing that makes this place stand out though – al fresco BBQ!

Rating - 2

Service

Well, unlike the dingy places at Strathfield, this place accommodated us with ease. It was hard trying to fit all our dishes and pots and portable stoves on the table though!

I don’t know why, but the waiters were extremely clumsy. I’ve walked past a few times and heard them drop stuff, and this time, a waiter broke a stack of plates. It makes you look twice when they change the hotplate of the BBQ by lifting them out with the tongs though, one slip and you’ll have BBQ thighs.

The English levels of these waiters are quite good, so for a novice, I would recommend this place.

Rating - 3

C-factor

Our feast was $924 in total, which worked out to be $35 per person. It’s a bit more expensive than our normal venture out, but then again, we had a feast of seafood and meat.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 12

Info

Shop 4,
9-11 George St
North Strathfield
NSW 2127
Phone (02) 8746 0299