Not long ago, Bridge Road was the epicenter of discount fashion, but in recent times, retail’s had it tough and the strip has slowly transformed into a hill of tumbleweeds. Enter Jan Chi, one of the many independent hospitality businesses taking on the tough real estate to give Richmond a second chance at life. Jan Chi means ‘to feast’ in Korean, and there’s truth in advertising when the jewel of the menu is a 530-gram plate of braised Angus short rib.

The braised short rib is a must-order. It can comfortably feed a group of four people and allows you to share a variety of other dishes. The soft, sticky short rib is drenched in a pear and apple-infused soy sauce and served with a refreshing, crunchy salad of the same fruits. You could eat it as is, but as the personalized prints on the wall suggest, order a basket of crunchy ssam vegetables with a variety of lettuces and sturdy, bitter greens to wrap around your meat for maximum enjoyment. While you're at it, make a kimchi plate from scratch.

Jan Chi is not like every other Korean restaurant. It marries traditional flavours with Australian dining sensibilities, where the act of eating and drinking serves as entertainment. You can see the cumulative effect of culture, fine dining and modern eateries as influences on Ryu and Min, but Jan Chi is a restaurant on its own terms, and it couldn’t feel fresher.

Location: 362 Bridge Rd, Richmond Victoria 3121

Website: https://www.janchi.com.au

While a lot of the anju you see in Melbourne is things like sticky soy garlic-glazed fried chicken wings or thin strips of beef sizzling away on a Korean barbecue, tiny Brunswick eatery Chae is here to highlight a different side to Korean cuisine. Jung Chae, the owner and chef, accepts reservations for up to six people in her small apartment, where she serves five courses of homestyle Korean food on a seasonal menu. Her balcony is home to slabs of soybean and hanging cobs of corn, while her kitchen and small dining room accommodate her guests – along with rows and rows of housemade ferments.

Glass noodles are interwoven with enoki, shimeji, king oyster and wood ear mushrooms and little strips of lightly charred wagyu beef, still rare and blushing, the smoky flavours balancing perfectly with the nutty sesame oil and Chae’s savoury housemade soy sauce. There, bugak, or deep-fried vegetables come wafer-thin in the form of potato, lotus, carrot and beetroot crisps and are topped by a cloud of deep-fried seaweed paper that owes its appearance to the reaction of hot oil coming into contact with its coating of glutinous rice paste. It’s crisp and served with the owner and chef Jung Chae’s very own fermented watermelon makgeolli, or rice wine, which is slightly pungent, sweet and milky – the ideal light accompaniment to a deep-fried snack.

Location: 288 Albert Street, Brunswick Victoria 3056

Website: https://www.chae.com.au

This once-quiet Korean restaurant is now being infiltrated by locals after being overrun by displaced students looking for a taste of home. They've made a big splash on social media, and now everyone is lining up for as many banchan (side dishes) as they can get their hands on.

Hansang means ‘table full of food’ in Korean, and that’s exactly what you get. Typically, when you sit down to a Korean meal, you’re met with a handful of side dishes; usually pickles (most likely kimchi), a salad, an ambient temperature stir-fry and a protein, but at Hansang, they fill your table. There were eleven plates at their count featuring a rice porridge spiced with black pepper, stir-fried shredded potato, a rolled vegetable omelette, a cucumber and seaweed salad, japchae, kimchi cabbage, stir-fried bean sprouts, spicy fish cakes, braised eggplant, kimchi radish and braised tofu. You might call it a gimmick if each plate wasn’t properly cooked and seasoned, adding to the experience of the ‘main’ dishes rather than distracting from them; all killer and absolutely no filler.

You’d be mad if you didn’t order from the set menu, where two people dine for $60, three for $90, four for $120, and so on. Each person chooses a shared main for the table and aside from the abundance of well-considered and interesting sides, you each receive a bowl of rice, a choice between a kimchi or soybean stew, and dessert. If you can’t finish your food, they encourage you to take the leftovers home with you.

Location: Hansang Bing Local 347-349 King Street, Melbourne Victoria 3003

Book a table: https://bit.ly/3DHuLSZ

When a 20-seater restaurant in the heart of suburbia offers only three dishes, has no reservations, no website, and no advertising, you know it has to be good. If you like pork, Mr. Lee's Foods is well worth the trip to Ringwood; all dishes are derived from this magnificent animal, providing a delicious insight into the economical traditions of Korean dining, utilizing an unconscious, innately cultural nose-to-tail philosophy. Needless to say, this is a no-go zone for vegetarians.

Mr. Lee's version is a South Korean variation in which glass noodles serve as a binding agent (rather than flour, rice, or oats in Europe) for the garlic and ginger-spiked blood, which is steamed in its natural pig intestine casing. The end result is a swollen, glossy, mildly flavored, bouncy sausage that comes sliced, alongside steamed slivers of liver and fatty intestine ready to be dipped in roasted sesame salt or an umami bomb of salted, fermented baby shrimp.

It may be intimidating to get on the Eastern Freeway and drive 45 minutes out of the city, only to dine at a mostly self-service, all-Korean restaurant specializing in offal, where English is the second language. Venture outside of the city grid, prepare yourself to try something different and you’ll be rewarded with the perfect simplicity of Korean comfort food.

Location: 5 Old Lilydale Road, Ringwood East Victoria 3135

More information: https://www.zomato.com/melbourne/mr-lees-food-ringwood

Everyone knows that charcoal-grilled meat is far more flavorful than other methods of cooking. Yes, a gas barbecue will do the job, but there's a smoky depth that can only be achieved when charcoal is used as the fuel. This is why customers enjoy Hwaro, a Korean barbecue restaurant on Little Bourke Street.

Beef ribs (gal-bi) are essential to Korean barbecue, and you can order them thin and bony, standard cut, premium marble, or top grade. The marinated rib meat cooks quickly and evenly, with just the right amount of char on the outside, when you unfold it from around the bone before placing it on the grill plate. If you're new to Korean barbecue, this is a great place to start because they'll put your meats on the grill, flip them, and slice them when they're done if you prefer to be a passenger. You are free to captain your own dinner cruise if you so desire.

The smoky room there is half the appeal of a night of individually cooked meats to order, and you will carry that smell home with you. This also means that if you arrive starving the aroma of caramelizing marinade is sweet torture, so order a serve of long, golden-fried dumplings and a Hite pale ale right off the bat.

Location: Ground Floor 562 Lt. Bourke Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000
Website: https://www.hwaro.com.au

You should try hot corn tea. It’s a real thing and it tastes just as husky and buttery as it sounds. Sweet little pitchers of the stuff are on hand to temper the spicy bulgogi burn at the newer, bigger, pinker branch of Seoul Soul. There’s a little extra space here – two long communal tables run the length of the room with little block partitions separating couples like groceries in the supermarket. Most everything else you love about Victoria Street’s friendliest Korean restaurant has made the trip on High Street Northcote.

Meal buckets are similarly named and equally impressive: large wooden vessels filled with rice, salad, thinly sliced and sizzled meats or tofu (which they grill in the kitchen – there are no table barbecues, so your clothes stay smoke-free), and plenty of pickles, as well as spring rolls. Kim chi and extra pickles are served in adorable little jars for decoration.

When you come, you can't go wrong with the bibimbap, if only because they always ask with such excitement if you've had it before. Lunch is all about delicate dumplings, while dinner is all about things off the kitchen grill, such as barbecued prawns. The fact that it's a dry house only adds to the experience.

Location: 315 High Street, Northcote Victoria 3070

Website: https://sweetandsourfork.com/seoul-soul-plus

Guhng is one of the best Korean barbecue restaurants in town. Outside, the McKillop St restaurant's heritage-listed facade resembles a 19th-century tavern, where flagons of beer are slammed on tables and food is served by a matronly host. The restaurant's interior is more modern than its vintage exterior suggests. Mod-Asian fixtures like red mesh pendant lights gleam against the dark brick and original stone walls, and the signature brassy-hued exhaust pipes (the gold standard in Korean barbecue-world) hanging over every table look positively futuristic.

Korean barbecue, at its core, is a communal dining experience, and Guhng's barbecue sets cater to large groups. The Angus set is large enough to feed four moderately hungry meat eaters. The bite-sized pieces of beef on the grill become smoky in a few minutes as the fat melts and sizzles off the coals, and they remove it from the heat while the juices are still running. The garlic herb beef tenderloin is best cooked to medium, and the marinade is very mild – it still needs a dip of light sweet soy sauce and chilli from the condiments cabinet.

Guhng looks a little fancier than your typical Korean barbecue restaurant but it's still welcoming, even to big groups who can book the upper roooms for private functions. They also understand that the fun of Korean barbecue is being able to do your own grilling if that’s what you feel like doing, but will happily answer your questions or help out before you set fire to your dinner.

Location: 19 Mckillop St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Website: www.guhngkorean.com

Yong Green Foods was founded in late 2009 by vegetarian sisters Seon Mi and Seon Joo Lee from meat-loving South Korea. The restaurant was an instant success, adapting elements of Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican, and Italian cuisines into a unique menu with an emphasis on raw and wholefoods. The word quickly spread about their diverse and super-healthy menu, and they won their first culinary award (Vegetarian Victoria's Restaurant of the Year, 2010) in less than a year.

The Lees are currently in the final stages of developing a new macrobiotic menu to complement the existing one, which includes fried lotus root, pickled daikon, and mock tuna with sesame seeds, with much more to come. The raw menu, which includes their signature dish rawsagne, is organic, vegan, and gluten free. The Lees make their own almond milk and fresh fruit smoothies, which are available alongside an intriguing selection of Asian teas. As far as cooked food goes, some favourites include the housemade kimchi gyoza, the chickpea korma with beetroot walnut dip and Korean barbecue with mock beef. The desserts are low fat and largely vegan friendly.

Location: 421 Brunswick Street, , Fitzroy VIC 3065

Website: https://www.yonggreenfood.com.au/our-menu

Gami's been making the rounds on 'best fried chicken in Melbourne' lists for a few years now and question the hype machine all you want, but they do deserve the well-earned attention. Since they started out in 2006 at Carnegie (Melbourne's unofficial 'Little Korea'), Gami has sprouted up in seven locations around Melbourne, bringing along with them their signature Korean fried chicken.

When you bring a large group, you can get a whole chook for $35 or a keg of beer for $64, which will satiate three to four people depending on gluttony levels. Toplist recommends going half-and-half on the flavors: you have the choice of original, sweet chili, soy garlic, or spicy. The saucy numbers, especially the sweet chilli option, gets a little soggy after a few minutes on the table, so if you're looking for maximum crunch go for the original fried chicken. The batter is not too thick, seasoned just so, and hits the spot when consumed with the wonderfully crisp house beer – the Gun Bae Pale Ale that's locally brewed especially for Gami. The sticky soy garlic marinade is a crowd favourite and nails the balance of sweet soy with savoury, garlicky edge. Best consumed when it arrives on your table piping hot.

Location: 100 Lt Lonsdale Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000

Website: https://gamichicken.com.au

Chick-In is a copper and wood Korean restaurant that serves fried chicken, jugs of Brunswick Bitter, and Kenny G's greatest hits. You can get them as lightly battered wings slathered in a sweet soy glaze, and you'll want to come back for the Korean schnitzel. A heap of spicy potato wedges, juicy nuggets of Korean fried chicken breast and thigh, and fat chewy rice noodles are all encased in a sticky sweet chilli sauce. Except for the large heap of mirin-dressed coleslaw, piquant pickled daikon cubes, and salted cucumber rounds to defibrillate your tastebuds, it's like the genius invention of a stoned teenager.

They serve bitter-sweet peach iced tea, grilled chicken or tofu on mixed lettuce salads, and a vegan version of bibimbap (Korea's phonetically pleasing dish of steamed rice topped with neat piles of pickled vegetables, meat, and egg for mixing together) with your rice crowned with a neatly fanned avocado, pickled ginger, and a galactic streak of black and white sesame seeds and crushed nori. The service is fast and furious enough to get you in and out in your lunch break, and friendly enough to make it worth a post-work visit with pals. They also do take away if you want to be king of the office.

Location: 620 Collins Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000

Website: chick-in.com.au