With a good location, modern interior and more than just decent food, Bibimbap Soho has grown in popularity to become one of the most popular attractions for ‘foodies’ and K-pop fans alike. After many recommendations from family and friends, we decided to check it out! And we were far from being disappointed.
It was a warm welcoming by our friendly waiter (that was sure a K-pop fan, as we’ve seen him at flash mobs before) and the interior design contributed to this cosy feeling. The walls are filled with polaroid pictures of the restaurants customers, with their own messages handwritten on top; this gave an even more personal feel to the already cosy and relaxed atmosphere. The pictures are also carefully arranged to form various shapes such as hearts etcetera, but what caught our eye was the Bibim written in Korean on the right of the image below. Maybe they need more images to make up the rest of ‘Bibimbap’, we don’t know.
The menu isn’t extensively long, but who needs an extra long menu when the dishes already on there is sure to satisfy everyone. The restaurant specialises in Bibimbap – mixed rice with various toppings served on a hot stone bowl, and they do it right. The dish is served in a proper hot stone bowl and this contrasts the modernity of the restaurant as it gives off a more authentic feel. It also ensures that the raw egg is cooked when you mix your rice and enjoy – when ordering your waiter/waitress would ask you if you would like an egg and if yes raw or cooked. There are also many variations of this dish on the menu – 10 to be exact and you can pick to suit your preference.
Our Bibimbap came accompanied with 2 bottles of sauce to add yourself: Gochujang (chilli paste sauce) and Doenjang (soy bean paste sauce). Add this to your dish and mix it all up and you’ll get a mouthful of flavours from the meat (our bibimbap was fillet beef), egg and vegetables. Other dishes we had included Deokbokki – spicy rice cake as shown in many dramas and Chilli squid, both delicious. The Deokbokki was not too hot that a person intolerant to any form off spiciness can’t endure, but neither was it too bland that a person would call it not spicy. It also had a sweet taste to it and before we remembered to take a photo of it, we couldn’t resist the delicious rick cakes.
The dishes also came in the right order – somehow rare in some korean restaurants: starters first then mains. All of our dishes also came out at the same time meaning that none of us were left staring at others eat whilst waiting for their own.
Overall, it has been a pleasant experience and we will soon be visiting Bibimbap again. For more information on Bibimbap, visit their site at http://bibimbapsoho.com/
*UnitedKpop were not paid for this review
