A favourite of college kids who seek tasty Korean cuisine is Big Mama restaurant, which occupies a prime spot on Swanston St. I've walked past the reasonably-priced restaurant countless times, but never went in, so I decided to pay a visit with my close friends Eve and Jan. While I've never been a huge Korean food fan previously, I began to enjoy it after moving to Melbourne. From what I hear, the Korean food that's available here is generally more authentic and accessible than the Korean fare in Singapore.
We ordered a couple of dishes, one of which was japchae (AUD$12) ; stir fried sweet potato noodles with bell peppers, carrots and onions. The noodles were delightfully springy and not too oily.
Jan went with the cream garlic prawn and kimchi fried rice (AUD$15). Part Italian, part Korean, this fusion-style dish was initially quite confusing; but all confusion goes out of the window once you've had a taste of this. The creamy sauce went unexpectedly well with the kimchi rice. Delish!
We also had the standard bimbimbap (AUD$13) - fresh, crunchy vegetables mixed with rice, and topped with a fried egg. For the unadventurous (like me), bimbimbap is a godsend, because it's such a reliably good dish that you can always fall back on. Lastly, we picked the Tok Bo Gi (AUD$13) to share. The chewy rice cakes were accompanied by some ramen noodles, under a generous blanket of mozarella cheese.
I reckon I'll be frequenting this place more often in the winter, ducking in periodically for piping hot Korean fare to warm my system. It was a sufficiently good meal, with decent prices, and I can't fault it for that!
Big Mama Restaurant
466 Swanston St
Melbourne, VIC 3053
Tel: 03 9347 2656
Big Mama Restaurant
466 Swanston St
Melbourne, VIC 3053
Tel: 03 9347 2656
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