Updated ,first published
Korean$
A chicken-soup specialist, where the namesake dish bubbles away on every table.
See the clamour on Liverpool Street? It’s for Jiho Hanbang Samgyetang, Australia’s first outpost of Korea’s chicken and ginseng soup specialist, which operates 95 sites in its home country, and has drawn queues since opening.
Like any chicken soup, the signature dish is a panacea for all ailments and appetites, with a whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, ginseng and other medicinal ingredients served half-submerged in restorative broth.
Ginseng liquor is on hand to add to the broth, gutjeori kimchi is crunchy and fresh – call it a complete meal for one. But then how about those rotisserie spatchocks, snipped open and splayed over nurungji, Korea’s famed scorched rice? Or dakdoritang for two, the chicken stew tinted red from gochujang, heaving with aged kimchi? Juk, Korea’s answer to congee, is equally restorative.
This is bright-lights, fast-casual stuff, but its appeal only increases in summer. Better get in line.
Best for: A taste of home for the state’s Korean diaspora, fuelled by makgeolli, Cass and soju.
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Last visited: 2025
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