Kimchee

To my memory until my visit to Kimchee in Holborn I have never eaten Korean food. Nor did I know too much about it so when I entered the bustling restaurant, with low hanging light fixtures, an open plan kitchen and long rows of tables all rammed full of chatting diners I had no idea what to expect.

Kimchee was originally opened last year by Mr Kim who noticed a hole in the London market for a reasonably priced, good quality Korean restaurant and now takes pride of place in the middle of the ever busy High Holborn.

A largely undiscovered food compared to its neighbouring Thai and Japanese styles, Korean food is food that wants to be laboured over while enjoying long conversations with friends and family and as such it was recommended to us that we enjoy a series of side dishes along with the Korean staple, rice.

Upon recommendation we ordered Kimchee (the national dish of Korea which is basically pickled cabbage), beef Dolsot Bibimap which is served in an earthware pot with rice, raw egg, cooked vegetables and red chilli paste, Yang Yeum chicken, chargrilled broccoli and rice. With all dishes arriving at different times as and when it was ready (in a similar style to Wagamama’s) it was a nice opportunity to sample tastes and styles that neither myself or my dining partner had experienced before.

While I had my reservations about how much I’d enjoy the Kimchee dish it was great accompaniment to the other dishes while the beef Dolsot Bibimap was a delicious way to discover a type of food that I previously had no knowledge about.

During our two hour stay at Kimchee the restaurant got increasingly busy and as such waiters dashed about trying to accommodate everyone with queues beginning to go out the door proving the popularity of a restaurant that’s been opened less than a year.

If, like us, you’re not all that familiar with Korean food and their style of eating I’d highly recommend Kimchee for introducing you to a type of restaurant that’s as energetic, vibrant and impressive as it’s food is.