I’ve been to several Korean BBQ restaurants in my time, but Miga has a slightly more upmarket feel than the rest and the prices they charge for it definitely reflect that. The décor is more plush than you see in the usual Korean restaurant, with dark furnishings and a trolley for our BBQ meat to sit on so it wasn’t taking up precious tableroom. There’s also a couple of flat screen TVs mounted on the wall playing Kpop music videos and a well stocked looking bar in the corner too.
We order the funky sounding Yakult soju from the bar and while I thought it tasted interesting (like an alcoholic version of Yakult), my friends thought it tasted like antibiotics. To each their own I guess! The soju comes in a quirky little bottle where there’s a hole in the middle for an ice cube to keep the bottle chilled and it works well, except make sure not to pour the bottle the wrong way (like yours truly did…) as the melted icewater will spill out.
Yakult soju, $20
I love marinated meat at Korean BBQ but today we decide to try out their non-marinated Angus boneless short rib to see if the quality of the meat is actually higher. It turns out to be very tender; even without the marinade the meat is quite flavoursome. The only downside is that there isn’t much meat for the price you pay.
Angus boneless short rib, $23
We also tried the pork belly which was reasonably tasty (and fatty of course…) and very easily charred. It also became tougher than the beef was but that could be due to us leaving it on the hot plate for too long.
Pork belly, $16
As a carb filler to balance out all the meat, we got the Jap Chae (potato noodles) stir fried with shredded vegies and sesame oil. This was pricier than the other potato noodles I’ve had at other restaurants and although it was a bigger serving, it didn’t taste that much different than the cheaper versions. It’s very hard to mess up this dish or do it particularly well because it’s the sesame oil which gives the delicious flavour to the noodles.
Jap Chae, $18
Miga has tried to position themselves as a premium Korean BBQ restaurant and while in some respects they do deliver that experience, overall you might be better off going to the usual neighbourhood Korean BBQ restaurants which don’t have all the decorative frills. You get more bang for your buck in terms of meat in those places, since you’ll walk out smelling like charcoal regardless. At least they still deliver on the best part of Korean cuisine – the free side dishes! 😀
Miga
Shop 34, 1 Dixon St
Haymarket NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9261 0888
Funnily enough, I was here on Friday night.
Good food, decent portions, under $30 for a buffet (including 2 large meat dishes, 2 soups, plentiful kimchi, 1 Soju and 2 white rice). The most surprising thing was that service was in fluent English.
Would go back. They have private rooms in the back! 😉
ooh must try the private rooms sometime then 😉
I’ve been going to way more korean places now than I ever have. There’s a fantastic one in strathfield! 🙂 wait, isnt that the place where they ALL are? hehe
nice! which place in stratty do you recommend?? 🙂
It’s called Stra Pocha
I haven’t been to Korean BBQ for years – which is quite silly really as I really like it (I like it to be a bit cheaper though so don’t mind somewhere less fancy).
like tina said – strathfield or eastwood are the places to go for cheap Korean bbq! we posted about jonga jip which is in eastwood awhile back and it’s quite good – lots of side dishes 😀