![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Rating: 4
Food: 4
Value: 3.5
Ambience: 3.5
Service: 4.5
What grabbed my attention was its cute Korean-themed decor and its traditional set up, although cleanliness could be better. Staff are super friendly, and sat our noisy group of 20 people with no issue.
Food can be overpriced for the portion you get, especially the fried chicken and bu-dae jjigae (army stew), we were able to share the food amongst our big group for a fair price.
From the variety of dishes that was ordered, I would recommend their meaty hot plates and kimchi/seafood pancake. Their Korean pancakes are crispy on the rim yet still warm and filling, which I loved. Their hot plates serve marinated meats, whereby the bulgogi was sizzling hot and so tender. Their pork bulgogi was even more amazing, and I highly recommend to add cheese to the top or just order cheese buldak. Be aware, these dishes are not only hot, but spicy!
The hotpot had all the hearty ingredients, soft chewy rice cakes, and a load of sausages. You can tell the broth has been made from scratch and is not too salty compared to cheap army stews. However, $37 for a small pot to be shared on a long table can be difficult, and was not worth the money.
The fried chicken happened to fall on the same sad note, as the price was not reasonable for the serving plate of chicken we got, which had a bit too much of the bone. On the other hand, seasoned very well and was delightful and irresistable.
The restaurant has a cute warm seating arrangement, good for family gatherings and late cozy nights out! Will come back to try the other dishes on their broad menu.
Best cheese huldak and gamja tang i had so far in CBD 🤤🤤🤤
If you like to eat spicy and cheesy, highly recommended to order the cheese buldak 👍🏼
The ambience was okay, but not the best, yet the food is awesome!!
I love the food here, very authentic and good portions!
I got a reunion with my friend today!!! And we picked this restaurant for lunch. GREAT FRIED CHICKEN AND TRADITIONAL KOREAN STEW!!! This place has been on my bucket list for a long time and today I finally have a chance to try it out. I bet you can enjoy the most traditional Korean food there. 200% recommend this place! The service is great too! Must back here for the next time!
Tried the Dae-ji Gukbab (Traditional Pork Soup), Sun-dae Gukbab (Blood Sausage w Sliced Pork) and Sundubu Jigae (Soft Tofu Stew).
Dae-ji Gukbab was so delicious and tasted like incredible comfort food.
The blood sausage in the Sun-dae Gukbab was not good. Will not re-order this again unless they make better blood sausage.
The soft tofu stew was really delicious too!
Will have a very hard time deciding between the Dae-ji Gukbab and Sundubu Jigae for my next visit.
Woo-gu-ji guk bab and shared original boneless fried chicken (whole).
Area was clean, all service was fast, food refills on side dishes. The soup itself was slightly under flavoured and benefited from added pepper. Steamed rice was standard. The sides of radish were standouts, full of salty goodness in the pickling.
Fried chicken was crunchy, a little bit more batter than expected for the little bits of meat inside; but well-cooked and had a nice salty flavour to carry through not requiring any other sauce.
We came here twice already, and it’s fun for bigger groups. There is a wide range of Korea food to choose from and the food is quite good.
The steamed pork belly seems to always be the favourite dish amongst the group, and also the egg roll that is super bouncy and delicious!
The budae jigae I think needs a bit more flavour/spice and the seafood pancake can use a bit more filling! But overall, a great place to hangout with friends over some good food and beers!
Must order the spicy pork bone soup!
One of my favourite Korean restaurants in Melbourne CBD. Soft tofu stew is a must try. Feels like I’m transported back to Seoul every time I’m here :)
Eat_today_diet_tomorrow
+4
I had the beef bulgogi dolsot bibimbab. It was really nice and the hot stone pot made the rice a little burnt and hard (which I love). The chilli sauce is also really good. It is on the pricey side but not too expensive.
Its always a good time for korean fried chicken especially when you pair it with Makgeolli. This place is always busy, be sure to get in early
-Soups(and the rice,called Gukbab in korean) are amazing. It is relatively easy to get seated and their specialty Gukbab menus are all spot on, couldn’t fault the dishes.
-kimchi side dishes are pretty good, when it first opened the kimchi tasted proper homemade you get from typical Gukbab places in Korea, I have noticed the taste has become more commercially made.
- Don’t expect any hospitality sense from the wait staff, you just don’t. I don’t think there is any training prior to wait tables, I guess I wouldn’t expect any hospitality from Gukbab shops in Korea any way so it didn’t matter.
- fried chicken is a little overrated here, nothing special about their fried chicken.
- the only reason they have got 4 stars from me is the quality of the Gukbab. Your order sometimes gets forgotten and I wouldn’t get fried chicken from this place. Although I have been and will keep coming for warm soup and more.
Cute little place. Perfect for a chilly winter night. The food is amazing and the staff is friendly too. Seafood pancakes And octopus balls are a must try!!
Wife wanted to come to this place for a while, we decided to head into city in Sunday after movies and parking near there is easy, free parking after 6pm. Probably one of the best fried chickens we've had, would dare to say better than Gami. Crispy skin, juicy and very fresh. Downside is they only have whole chicken so we had to takeway. Ordered the Sun-dae and it was great too. Reminded us of Seoul. Good for cold nights. Heads up - the soup isn't seasoned so you'll taste alot of bone broth, they've got the salt and pepper seasoning for you to add yourselves.
Gukbab is a cosy Korean restaurant on Little Lonsdale Street. My friends and I came at around 11:30 and happened to be the first customers there. We ordered Budae-jigae (Army Stew), corn cheese and a few bowls of rice to share between four people. The method of ordering involves writing the menu items on a sheet of paper, and you press the buzzer on the side of the table whenever you’re ready.
The Army Stew was delicious! It was very hearty and warmed us up on such a cold day. There was a variety of sausages inside, as well as kimchi, tofu and ramen. The corn cheese was really tasty!! It tasted cheese-y, buttery and sweet and we all enjoyed it so much. Both dishes were quite reasonably priced (Army stew $37 and Corn cheese $12, a bowl of rice $2.50) and we were all satisfied and full afterwards.
There wasn’t much service involved as all the utensils and water were provided at each table. Also note that there’s a surcharge on card payments!
Favourite 국밥집 ever! Probably the only place in Melbourne that can properly satisfy this craving^^
The Sundae gukbab achieved a delicate balance of richness, saltiness, and overall deliciousness. The sticky rice was perfect with the sundae on top, or mixed into the soup. My personal preference is putting it into the soup and getting the rice to soak up the lovely broth.
Will definitely be coming back for more.
Beef bulgogi is one of the best dishes. Crispy chicken with different topping sauces and pork soups are recommended too. Service is quick and attentive
Good late night eating place. Bulgogi stew was good but a bit spicy. Kimchi was okay. Didn’t wait too long to get the food. Highly recommended. Will come back for more.
Visited March 2019
Good place to have group lunch/dinner
Location : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Table/Space : ⭐⭐⭐
Room Decoration : ⭐⭐⭐
Portion : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Foods/Dishes Variety : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price Value : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Group/Share Food : Yes/ Recommended
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
(3.8)
Have been here a few times. This place is pretty homey and quite spacious though can be full at peak hours.
Getting the attention of the staffs could be quite really hard, as they are always busy in the counter or serving food. English wasnt much of a problem, and they refilled the side dishes without being annoying.
Their sundae gukbab which is pork blood sausage soup with pork insides and pork belly slices was quite good, though i prefer their dwaeji gukbab which is basically the same thing but with more pork and without the sausage because i find the sausage to just literally sweet potato noodles compressed in a sausage socket with some pig blood in it and was bit bland. Pork belly were tender and thinly sliced.
Overall portion was filling, and you get so many sauces and sides for the soup which you can customize yourself to ur liking! I put quite a lot of the chilli paste and grounded sesame seeds (maybe) as it was lacking flavor on itself. But after customizing I really enjoyed the dish.
My friend's spicy cheese chicken was just okay, not well marinated as flavor came mostly from the sauce and cheese. Portion is pretty good though.
Their kimchi pancake was on the thicker side but bit crispy on the outside and not too oily, taste was decent. Their beef bulgogi which was pretty flavourful and tender. Omelette was yummy and again generous, with a good amount of cheese. Lastly their sou garlic fried chicken was okay, but the sweet chili was underwhelming. The chicken was undermarinated, smells a bit weird and can be crunchier.
Pan fried dumplings were also quite good, with salad to balance the dish.
Bibimbap was pretty straightforward, good portion and fresh veggies.
Recently had their boneless fried chicken and it was just okay, and they were all breast part. There's a lot of meat so do share this among at least 3 people.
The side dishes were creamy macaronis kimchi and pickled cabbage with onion which were yummy. (esp macaronis)
Price is pretty reasonable for the portion.
Note: they charge 30c takeaway box
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ｘｘ、 ｊｏｅｌｌｅ
The variety of Korean food here was amazing. I have been here multiple times over the years and their range of stews are all very tasty and filling. The sundae here and seafood pancake is a must try. I would come back here again and recommend this restaurant to friends.
Healeys Lane is a hub for Korean dining, but many of the spots on that road tend to get packed out and very rowdy. Gukbab is around the corner, so slightly quieter but just as good. I ordered a tofu bibimbap and my partner got a beef. I appreciated that our meals came with a good selection of banchan whereas other Korean restaurants sometimes skimp or only include these starters if you order barbecue. My tofu was cooked so nicely, silky soft on the inside with a fried exterior. The veg were fresh and the egg was big enough to add a beautiful creamy texture throughout the dish. Kimchi was lacking spice and flavour slightly, but otherwise this is a great spot.
Pretty popular korean restaurant in CBD. The boneless chicken was very tasty. I liked the snow cheese better, although usually I prefer soy garlic sauce. The soup was a bit bland, lack of spiciness. The japchae was pretty good, the texture of the noodles was great, and they were pretty generous with the meat. The bulgogi was also tender and full of flavour
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This place was highly recommended by friends so we came here for dinner. The atmosphere is good except it can get noisy by other customers.
Food:
corn cheese - was decent but I’ve had better. It was on a sizzling plate and I think the portion size was a little disappointing.
gamjatang - this large soup was delicious! The meat was so tender that you can easily pull it off!!
Fried chicken - just your usual korean fried chicken. We ordered boneless and this was the first restaurant to serve it as a tenders size and not just bite size.
Sundae - we all loved this!!! The sauce it was in really mixed well with the sundae.
Out of 4 of us, only 2 ordered a serving of rice.
size dishes was the usual.
Drink:
The usual cola, bongbong and milkis (also free water)
Service: staff were very friendly and attentive. Orders came out at a good speed; nice and hot!!
Total: $122 this was then split between 4 people where we were left bloated due to the food.
overall, I’d like to come back in the future and try their other dishes. It’s a great place for friends to gather and have a great night.
I've just gotten back from Korea and the flavours of food here was very authentic. Love the Kimchi pancake, pork bone hot pot and boneless fried chicken (which was better than KFC)!
An unplanned late night supper walk-in that turned out to be great. Had the boneless chicken and it comes with generous amount of chicken fillets, each well breaded and seasoned, retaining its juiciness.
I would say they serve the best kimchi in town. The taste of the foods are very authentic and delicious. Clean and comfy!! New favourite restaurant added 👍🏻
Absolutely it is one of my favourite Korean food in town!!! The stir fry mixed veg is so good! The tofu kimchi is tasty! I did ordered a ginseng soup but I don’t time to take the photo because it is too delicious xD
jap chae - excellent
everything else in general (ginseng chicken soup, silken tofu hot pot, fried chicken, seafood pancake) is also very good. it’s one of our go to places for korean dishes
Very tasty Korean restaurant. Bought take away from here when it was too busy. The fry chicken was legendary- great portion, best flavour and not oily. But the menu now is different from the menu on zomato- there is no half portion for Fried chicken any more. I can only only a whole chicken which is not possible for two people to finish. The egg roll I have ordered was very yummy as well.
As I was a student in Korea, I fell in love with Korean food, hence my extensive reviews on Korean restaurants in Melbourne. I particularly like gukbab as they have dishes that you might not be able to find in other places in Melbourne but are representative food in their own rights in Korea, such as 찜닭, 감자탕, 삼계탕, 순대 and 돼지국밥. It brings back memories of my time in Korea and the taste was not far off either.
This place has one of the best spicy galbi jjim in Melbourne. That one is a must try. It’s a bit rare in Melbourne to see a korean restaurant that specialises dishes other than BBQ and this place they specialise in stew and soup. Their yukgaejang dish and bibimbap are also great as well as their fried chicken and spicy soon dae. Make sure you pre book the table if you are in a party of 4 or more as they are always busy especially during weekend dinner time. Their staff are friendly and the pricings are not too bad either.
I came to this restaurant last Wednesday with my girlfriend, we had the sweet corn and cheese as entré, pork bulgogi for me and the chicken with chilli sauce for her. Absolutely fantastic, the cheese with corn was superb and the rest was really tasty and yummy. I will recommend to everyone!
Love the fried chicken and Hot pot here! Especially in this cold weather. portions were generous, the food came out pretty quick, bonus point for opening all day.
My favourite korean restaurant in CBD! any other korean restaurants seems not to care of hygiene. this place looks clean and neat. customer service is not bad, price and quality of food is amazing!
The kim chi pankes, fried chicken with different flavours, and soups are really worth trying. staff members are friendly and helpful. I also like the condiments
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There's a few things right off the bat I enjoyed about this place that just transported me to Korea. Friendly staff, K-pop in the background, Korean posters and a lot of the diners were Korean, that means we are going to get fed well! They weren't stingy on the banchan and our stews (or my friend's, we weren't entirely sure) came with a variety of sauces for dipping.
I got their byu-dagi guk bab which I have no idea if it's the same as gamjatang but essentially it was pork spine soup. It had been slow cooked for so long the meat was fall-apart tender and bountiful, tearing apart the bones to get a taste of all the goodies in between. I found that their soybean paste paired best with the meat, not sure if it was meant for my dish or my friend's pork stew. The broth itself wasn't as rich and thick as I've had in the past and this was more spicy from the kimchi, maybe I needed to add more perilla seeds powder which was also on the table to make it more creamier. Or maybe what I had in the past was a completely different dish! This is all foreign to me so I'm going to have to ask my Korean mates about it when I get the chance!
Ultimate comfort food for wintery Melbourne weather, doesn't get better than this.
Edit: byu-dagi guk bab is meat and vegetables and gamjatang is with potatoes.
Very good korean food in Melbourne CBD. Love their seafood pancake and cheese corn. Yummy!! All of the dishes we tried were tasty and portion are generous. Pancake are crispy outside and inside filled with seafood. Beef stew was warm and flavourful. Fried chicken also good which was crispy, tender and not too oily.
If you like korean food, try this place out and you will not be disappointed.
Delicious food, really like pork bone soup! The side dishes r all not bad. Don’t worry about the baby if u take with you, they have baby chair.
Spinning Round Horse Kick
+5
This shop has many soups, we ordered a Korean traditional soup, it has pork and haslet, for me the soup is really taste, coz I don’t mind to eat haslet. The fried chicken is also not bad, half soy garlic and half smoky, if they have half chicken will be great, we two ppl ordered too much, couldn’t finish the whole chicken. But this is the place I would like to visit again.
Lovely restaurant and made us so fun. We ordered a lot of food with 10 of us - the soup and chicken was so good and good services as well.. thank you so much for made our lunch special!!
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Ordered:
🥟 Dumplings: Deep fried dumplings with vegetable ($10)
🥘 Bu-dae ji gae (Korean army stew): Various sausages, meat, ramen, vegetables and kimchi hot pot ($37)
Review:
6 pieces of fried dumpling on a generous bed of sesame dressed salad. Although we didn't finish the salad, their 6 pieces for $10 is a little steep but a nice way to kick off our massive meal.
Decent, filling budae jigae with an interesting variation by adding carrots and a ridiculous amount of onions. Banchan sides and soup refill were quality when requested. Instead of diluting the budae jigae with more water, which some places do, they remade the stock and added more onions!!!
The spice level was tolerable but I'd prefer the budae jigae at Janggun. That one memorably killed me and made me winded from the sheer spice.
Compared to other Korean restaurants, Gukbab played more old-school kpop which was appreciated (shout out to BAP) and is best for tables of 2-4 people.
You could probably chance it with a walk in, but reservations are the safest option to go.
My favourite destination for lunch with some friends, especially during winter period when it is a bit chilly . We always pick the fried boneless chicken, some soups and bibimbap.
The kimchi pancake was a lot for 2 girls, it tastes grisly and the kimchi spicy flavour was nice, although the pancakes became too oil after chilling for 15mins🙈 the Korean serving staff couldn’t speak English well tho🌚
Huge portion sizes, ordered the sundae (blood sausages) and kimchi pancake. Sundae sauce was nice and not too spicy, pancake was spot on- crunchy with heaps of seafood. Service was slow tho they were understaffed. Good place for a casual date night
3 people - 3 dishes, we could barely breath when leaving this place. Bu-dae ji gae (kimchi hot pot with sausages and ramen) - humongous & a little bit on the salty side (but cold water is always ready for you) and accompany extremely well with cold noodles (summer only - GET.ON.IT) and snow-cheese fried chicken (crispy and juicy, kinda remind us of Nene but better). And rmb, always order extra ramen (and they give you extra hot pot soup as well). Staff is friendly and attentive. Going back? It's a yes from us
P/s: we came back. Yuk-gae-jang (spicy stew w veg and beef) - comes with rice, not the best dish as it wasnt spicy and kinda bland but there was plenty of beef and potato noodles in there. Egg roll with mozzarella - not super cheesy but overall a nice dish. Chicken and cold noodles are still 👌👌👌
Every dish is huge! We ended up unfinished because we seriously couldn't eat anymore,haha. Very relaxed place and delicious Korean food with lovely staff.
Hearty soups, perfect for the cold weather. Haemul pajeon (seafood pancake) is really good too. Can be crowded, especially during peak hours. Pretty similar to Gukbab I've had in Korea, and it's usually filled with Koreans.
September 2017
This is my new favourite Korean eatery. The soups and stews here definitely taste like mum’s home cooking. They don’t skimp on ingredients or on the all important cooking time - the seafood pancake is actually full of seafood, the short ribs have been cooked until they’re falling off the bone and the soup broths have been bubbling away for hours.
Gukbap manages to achieve that hearty depth in Korean soup that is so rarely captured outside of Korea. Whenever I want a piece of home, I’ll be coming here for a feed.
I must say its not an authentic Korean taste, but it still quite good. Although the service was average. I strongly recommend japchae, fried chicken, and the pork soup (you have to season it yourself, they provide dried shrimp and some perilla seeds powder, but you could season it with salt & pepper). Overall the foods were nice & pretty consistent everytime we went there.
Good portioning of sam gye tang (chicken ginseng soup!!! The soup has mild nutty flavor to it, the rice stuffing is perfect to warm your stomach on a windy day. And so glad they serve kong na mul (beansprouts) guk as well. Chicken cutlets were average, although still tastes good.
Will definitely come back on colder days.
Korean seafood pancake is awesome. Really filling would of loved some of the mayo sauce they put in my takoyaki salad on the side.
Takoyaki was great bit on the pricey side but the next craving for Korean pancakes I am definitely going to go here.
Awesome work.
Great food. Well sized servings. Helpful staff. Soups were lovely. Blood sausage was good. Fried chicken looks nice though we didn't get a chance to try.
I've been here twice, both were good experiences. My favourite dish is the cold noodle so far. Kimchi was awesome, I always refilled several times haha. Service was good.
Have a soft spot for the ginseng soup here, as it gives me the relief when I have a bit of a winters cough. Not gonna lie sometimes waiters can seem a little cold, but I shouldn't complain considering how bad nene chicken service down the road at the Elizabeth street is... lol.
Overall it's a pleasant experience at the GUKBAB!
🎈
Came here with 3 of my friends and we ordered the buddae jiggae (army stew) and the chicken with cheese on a hotplate. The food was delish and we couldnt finish the stew as it was so big. The chicken is my favorite tho. Would give it a higher rating if they have ventilation inside the restaurant, so i wont come out smelling like hotpot and bulgogi all over 🤦🏻♀️
Great food and service! Was super satisfied with the fried chicken, best Korean fried chicken I've had in a long time. My partner and I were stuffed! Also had the pork bone soup and steamed egg. Steamed egg was average, abit salty by the bottom but interesting seafood flavours. The kimchi wasn't the best but the pickled radish was great!
V and I had just finished a meetup and knew that both of us were craving a hot bowl of comforting soup. Hence, trekking across the city to give this place a shot, having walked by numerous amounts of times. I blogged previously about having this dish in Busan, South Korea and we were wondering if the namesake in Melbourne could live up to its’ name. We were surprised that the menu actually had a lot of items apart from gukbab itself, and we debated whether to order different dishes to try, but we knew what we came for, dwaeji gukbab (pork rice soup), and steamed egg to share. Piping hot food to contrast the winds blowing outside the restaurant, tick...
We came across Gukbab Korean Restaurant when we were walking down Melbourne CBD looking for a nice cup of coffee. Later that night, we decided to dine there because it was close to where we stayed. As with any other Korean restaurant, we receive free side dishes. They were just a simple kimchi and marinated onion in Gukbab. They also gave us a plate of salad with sesame sauce. However, I’m not sure whether that’s part of the side dishes or the main dish that we ordered.
Yet to try their namesake Gukbap, but everything else has been excellent. Tasty & authentic dishes with large portions to boot!!!!!! Docked 0.5 because booze is slightly expensive.
Came here multiple times and forgot to do a review. This place is decent. The fried chicken is really tasty and fresh!! We always come for the late night snacks. I recommend coming here. The staff are friendly which is a plus. The kimchi could be better though.
Popular Korean restaurant for traditional korean dishes, not korean bbq. Getting very busy especially during weekend so you are better book ahead for your table or come early to avoid long queuing.
Food is good. We really enjoyed the snow cheese chicken (boneless), silky tofu and seafood soup (quite spicy though) and the seafood pancake (very filling). Japchae and beef bulgogi were ok too. Free refilled side dishes of seaweed, kimchi and pickle.
Price is very reasonable.
Service was a minus point here as it was quite slow. The staffs were super nice, friendly and accommodating but there were only 2 staffs running the front house for the whole restaurant during a busy sunday night. Thus, the service couldnt be good. They were really under-staff on the day we went though.
Overall, still a very good place to try out for Korean cuisine. Recommended!
Great vibe at this place! Felt like I was transported to a local eatery in Seoul. Loved the Dae-ji guy bap....so authentic and such a soul warming comfort soup. The LA beef short ribs and jajangmyeon was delicious too! I'm coming back with a few more friends so we can have more variety.
really good quality food, their portion sizes are generous as well so you do really get what you’re paying for.
service was fast and had an easy ordering system.
they do not split the bill on groups so just keep in mind!
Outstanding service, the fried chicken wasabi flavour was so good and the ginseng chicken is a must have for anyone whose never tried it, you can eat the whole chicken bones and all. The bones will melt in your mouth.
I LOVE GUKBAB. Their soups are tasty and so flavourful - I cannot fault anything. I love how generous they are with their japchae. It's an entre but it could be served as a main. Fried chicken? Hello - they're juicy and crispy.
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