Korean Lunch on a Sunday

Today I thought I would go for some Korean food as bimbimbap has been on my mind lately. I decided to try out Kimchee in High Holborn after hearing many friends talk about how good it is and with the plenty of posts on facebook, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. As we arrived, there was a long queue outside the restaurant which made me think 'wow this place must be good!' 

Visit website: http://www.kimchee.uk.com/

The interior decoration of Kimchee is very modern and sort of a fast-food style which looks abit like Wagamama. It is quite a classy place suitable for those office workers in the area who are in a rush during their one hour break. 

On the menu is a variety of classic Korean dishes such as Dolsot Bimbimbap (stone pot rice), Bibim Naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles in spicy sauce), Spicy Yuk Hwae (raw beef with egg), Pa Jeon (Korean pancake with seafood), and Dduk Bok Gi (spicy rice cake). 

Unfortunately, with the fast-food style that Kimchee has given itself, they do not have the traditional Gogigiu which is the Korean BBQ with the charcoal grills in the middle of the table. Instead, they offer BBQ meat on the menu which is already cooked in the kitchen and nicely presented to you on a stone plate. This makes it safer for the restauranteurs and also less of a hassle of the waiters.

For starters I went for the Dduk Bok Gi. It is rice cakes with fish cakes served with vegetables in a hot spicy sauce. I thought the flavour was just right, it had enough spice and also a little sweet taste which worked well. The fish cakes also complimented the dish and gave it an extra thrill.

For mains, I ordered the Raw Beef Dolsot Bimbimbap. It is served sizzling hot in a stone bowl with rice, vegetables, raw beef, raw egg and red chilli paste. Once mixed together, all the ingredients tasted very good and the raw beef and raw egg began to cook in the hot bowl so there wasn't any raw texture in the mouth.

If you don't like the sound of having raw meat and egg in your dish then you can go for the cooked beef bimbimbap which is already stir fried and added to the dish. 

For desserts they have a variety of different flavour ice cream such as green tea, almond, black sesame, red bean and chestnut.

Below is Chap Ssal Ddeok. It is a traditional soft chocolate rice cake.

Overall I would give Kimchee a 7/10. The dishes are not much different to any other Korean food you can find at another restaurant and I think I will stick to the ones in my local area which are just as good.