Korean Food – Kim Chi Restaurant

We dropped by for a Korean barbecue dinner at Kim Chi Restaurant, located opposite The Copthrone Hotel in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. This restaurant is converted from a double storey semi-d house.

We had the barbeque pork and a steaming hot pot of Ginseng Chicken Soup. The former comes with an assortment of “banchan”, small side dishes of kimchi, pickled vegetables, tofu, bean sprout, brinjal, egg and bean paste.

There is also a plate of lettuce leaves and perilla leaves to wrap the barbeque meat. The  perilla leaf which belongs to the mint family has a fresh aroma and is not easily found in Malaysia.  The owner planted many of this herb in her garden.

The plate of marinated meat is a big serving. The waiter offers to grill the meat for us but we rather to do it ourselves. It is kind of hands-on fun  grilling the meat and wrapping them with the leaves spread with bean paste. Tong and scissor is provided for flipping and cutting the meat. Sightly spicy, the meat goes wonderfully well with the leaves.

We also had the Ginseng Chicken Soup served in an earthen pot with a whole chicken. Glutinous rice, dates, and ginseng  are stuffed inside the chicken and boiled until  just tender and not overcooked. We had a serving of the soup with some sticky glutinous rice and chicken.

No Korean meal is complete without the dessert of watermelon. Each of us is served with a slice of this fruit besides a cold sweet rice drink (its free).

The decoration of the restaurant is simple but the food and service made up for it. The barbeque meat and the soup are both good. At the moment, they are having the set lunch promotion too…. maybe we will drop by for lunch.