Madtongsan

On Valentine’s Day, L and I met my little sister in the city for lunch. We knew we wanted to eat at somewhere in the Elizabeth Arcade however didn’t really know where. We originally intended to eat at CityWok which is on the corner near the Charlotte Street entrance, however they have renovated their restaurant in the last six months or so and have a different menu... Everything is now Taiwanese cuisine whereas they used to have Singaporean items and also a Vietnamese menu. 

We decided on a whim to walk into Madtongsan. Korean cuisine is definitely not something I am familiar with, my previous experience has been limited to a Korean BBQ restaurant we used to frequent on the Gold Coast. So, we took a little while to decide what we wanted to eat, and I had a somewhat confused look on my face for the whole time whilst ordering, which I am sure the waitress found amusing. 

I decided to order Dolsot Bibimbap ($11.50) with marinated raw beef, which is the traditional Korean dish of Bibimbap (rice, vegetables, chilli sauce and raw egg) but served in a hot stone bowl. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of raw meat, but I figured the meat would all cook itself in the bowl, seeing as it came out sizzling. My meal took a lot longer to come out than L’s or my sisters, which was a bit annoying... I didn’t really know why, as nothing in my meal required any cooking! When it came out, it looked amazing. The idea was to stir all the ingredients together. I only sampled a bit of the chilli sauce as I am not that adventurous with spicy food. The rice formed a crust on the bottom of the stone bowl which was delicious, and as predicted, the meat cooked itself. It was filling and tasty!

L ordered a similar dish in that it came out in a hot stone bowl, but it was squid with vegetables and rice in a spicy sauce (sorry we didn’t really pay attention to the Korean name, but it was #7d on the menu!! Approximately $11.50). The squid and vegetables were all mixed together in the sauce, which was different to my dishes presentation. The squid was really tender according to L and he loved the spicy sauce. 

My sister ordered a stirfried glass noodles, beef and vegetables dish served with rice ($9.50 +$1.00 if you want beef). She liked the flavour of the beef, which tasted smoky and a bit charred to me, but the noodles didn’t really hold much flavour.  She had kimchi and potato salad as accompaniments, the potato salad was really tasty. 

Madtongsan was a great introduction to Korean food for L and I, we will definitely have to sample a few of the other many Korean restaurants around the city now. 

Love,

C