So I had noticed a little while ago that Holy Hock was opening in Underwood. As far as I could tell it focused on braised pork dishes much along the same lines as Tasty Rumour and Gang Nam. I hadn't intended to go try them out super soon after opening, but after a nearby restaurant that I was wanting to go to decided not to be open (despite their opening hours saying they would be) and we were stuck looking for a restaurant that opened later than 8.30pm. As with many Korean restaurants, Holy Hock opened later, so we went to check it out.
Other than us, there was only one table. The waitress was very attentive to us throughout the evening and answered any queries we had.
As mentioned, the menu was largely pork based however there was a notable addition of bulgogi which I don't remember seeing in any of the other braised pork restaurants. We had originally wanted to try a Half and Half along with the Bulgogi Hotpot however that night the hot pot was not functional. They did offer to pre cook the meat for us and serve it, but rather than detract from the experience, we opted for one Jok Bal and one Bossam instead.
Our full size Jok Bal came out first and it was definitely a sight to behold. I found the pork to be very flavoursome with a delicious soy flavour that infused the meat all the way through. The meat was tender and the fat had been rendered off it but the collagen under the skin remained. We really liked it, especially with the dipping sauces and the refillable sides.
We also had a serve of Bossam. Although it looked smaller than the Jok Bal, given there was no bone, the amount of meat was comparable. I found the taste to be a bit milder in the Bossam than the Jok Bal, but it had a light miso taste to it which was complimented by the root kimchi that it was served with. Again a lot of the fat had rendered and there was substantial meat and collagen left with the skin. It went well wrapped with lettuce and other pickled sides.
Both of our large dishes came with a side of miso based soup, this also had a considerable amount of onion and cabbage in it. We found it nourishing and wholesome with a slight acidic tang that we haven't had before in other miso based soups.
We ordered two other dishes to try, one was the tulip chicken feet and the other was the seafood pancake. The tulip chicken feet was quite impressive because they managed to remove all bones except for one, which was how I got to eat my first ever chicken foot. Other than for the novelty, it tasted more or less like chicken skin and collagen. I found it to be on the spicier side. I really rate the seaweed and pickles with rice balls that it was served with, these had a delicious sour and umami flavour throughout and were very moreish. I consider the seafood pancake to be the weakest dish in the meal, it didn't have too much by way of seafood and also it lacked flavour without the dipping sauce, so I probably wouldn't order that again.
Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 7.5/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment