THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED.
My friend and fellow food blogger Eden told me there was a Korean restaurant which opened not long ago at Eastwood that provided a generous amount of side dishes. Given that sometimes I love the free side dishes more than the actual ordered dishes, I needed to check it out myself!
Sitting across the train station sits Tudari, a Korean BBQ restaurant. Right at the door is a display of all the side dishes, beckoning passer-bys to step inside. Needless to say it worked!
We step inside a small restaurant furnished widely with wood. Each table includes a stove-hole for BBQ but tonight we decide not to smell like smoke so opt for menu dishes.
The first thing that comes out is the side dishes. One by one they are placed onto the table until half of it is occupied with small morsels. It includes a range of vegetables, omelette, pancake and even noodles! My personal favourite is the fried sweet potato, a dish which is rarely served at Korean restaurants. Needless to say, we end up requesting multiple refills of the side dishes. Yum!
Beef and Mushroom Hot Pot – $38
Our first main which comes out is the hotpot. It is placed in the hole in the middle of the table where a stove is revealed and a flame is lit to heat the pot. The pot itself is actually quite shallow and strangely enough contains just stock and simple garnishings like shallots. Then the actual meat platter comes out – plenty of mushrooms, beef and vegetables! I have never had a Korean hotpot where they came separately but I guess the good thing is our food never overcooked nor did it turn to mush. The soup was delicious and tasted a lot like Seoul Ria’s Seafood Noodle Soup. The additional vegies added a lot of flavour to the pot, the meat was thin and tender but lacked marinade flavour. We were each given a dish a soy sauce, probably for the meat. The winner for me though was the noodles; they tasted delicious in this broth and soaked up all the flavours…so good!
Deep-fried Chicken with Sweet Sauce – $29
Our other dish was a sweet and spicy fried chicken. I expected this to be pieces of chicken meat only but it was surprisingly chicken meat, chicken wings and drumsticks. It was fried lightly with the outer coat not too thick, but the sauce was quite disappointing. It was not really that spicy, nor sweet and was essentially quite a boring sauce. The chicken meat was tender and nice but I wish the sauce was nicer.
For a party of three, these two dishes were more than enough to fill us. They were so large we couldn’t finish it all! Overall the side dishes and hotpot were very impressive, but don’t order the chicken if you come here. Best to come in a group as they have many large dishes made for sharing. Will be back in the near future!
Tudari Korean BBQ Restaurant
4A Shop 1 Hillview Rd
Eastwood NSW 2122
Who doesn’t love freebies? 🙂 Some Korean restaurants only offer complimentary side dishes if you order BBQ items, glad you got them with other dishes even when the chicken was not that good.
haha i don’t think i said it was new =p
i just said we’d never been there before !