For cold winter nights, only Korean BBQ can come close to the joy that Hot Pot brings. As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of table top cooking, which is why I was stoked to receive an invite to try out the fairly recently opened Seoul:Ssamm at Fortitude Valley. Making an appointment for an early dinner, we attended on Sunday night.
There were quite a few sets on the menu depending on your group size, we had the Set 1, but I would definitely be keen to try some of their meat dishes.
Each of us had a placemat which gave cute and unambiguous instructions on how to best enjoy Ssam 쌈 (which literally translates to wrapped).
Starting off, we each had a bowl of crisp refreshing salad. The onions were fragrant, lettuce was crunchy and the soy dressing was light and enjoyable.
A dish of shared veggies arrived fairly quickly, there were a variety of leaves for us to wrap our meats in, including lettuce, cabbage and perilla leaf.
A tub of shallot and bean sprout mu chim with sliced spring onion and oriental dressing was placed on the grill to heat up for us to also wrap up.
This was the main event of the evening, the Daepae Samgyup, the thinly sliced pork belly without seasoning or marinade.
What we found unique about SeoulSsam was the fact that our food was cooked for us at the table, so we could really sit back and enjoy the show. We even had a demonstration of the wrapping of a Ssam from our talented expert.
Starting with the leaves
Sprouts and spring onions are added
Pork belly, soy paste and garlic is also added to finish up the ssam. I really enjoyed the different textures, temperatures and flavours in the dish but would definitely have preferred a less fatty cut of pork.
We interluded with a bowl of spicy Korean miso soup, it contained a lot more toppings than the usual Japanese and really warmed us up.
We also had a dish of stir fried beef and potato noodles to share, the we enjoyed the sweet soy marinade and tender potato noodles but the beef itself was a little tough for my preference.
Finishing up, we couldn't resist the beef intestines, as I'm a huge fan of the mixed offal BBQ at Go Bull. The beef intestines were extremely plump and fatty and like the pork belly, unseasoned. It went well with the special dipping sauce and had a crisp exterior with a soft chewy inside. Will definitely try some of the other dishes when we are back next time.
Espresso and Matcha were invited guests of Seoul:Ssamm, but as always, my opinions are solely my own.
Price Range: $30 - $50pp
Taste: 7/10
Value: 7/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10
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