Real Homey Korean Dinner @ Park's Kitchen 박식당, Penang

I realised that it's quite some time I didn't get Korean cuisine and we decided to go for one after some chat with my girls. It was also for a meet up dinner which the last time like this is....hmm, last year when? Pardon my poor memory girls, I can't really recall back.
Homey Korean cuisine, not much fancy though.

We randomly discovered about Park's Kitchen on facebook, which has a rather low publicity, even on Instagram as well. Checking on the menu offered on facebook page, we think it's quite a decent one over a homey Korean dinner, hence, we made it a try.  Overall is fair and I stand for a possibility for return visit, too. Scroll down to read our little surprise discovery one-by-one!



Park's Kitchen 박식당 @ Jalan Perak, Penang
Trivia
Restaurant: Park's Kitchen 박식당
Cuisine: Korean Home Cooked 
Address: 337-J-G Jalan Perak, Jelutong, 11600 George Town Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Business Hour: 9.30am - 3pm ; 5pm-9.30pm (Kitchen last call at 9pm)
Contact: +6014-970 0167 (Whatsapp for inquiries and booking)

Finding a carpark lot is rather tricky as there are only two available in front of the restaurant, the shop lots on the same row, too, has been occupied by the respective customers. We actually double parked and had to move our car after one of the customers left Park's Kitchen, that's how we were secured from summon. Make sure to keep an eye for your vehicle if you didn't park it legally.


Park's Kitchen interior deco

In-house deco is simple, surrounded with posters and some landscape photos. Perhaps that's another point to bring out the homey feel where nothing fancy is there, but only simply furniture and surroundings with some soft music background. Al-fresco are available for two tables, for smoking convenience.

Free flow of coffee and plain water

As we've got seated, the waitress shared with us the menu and inform us over self-order at the cashier. To our surprise, not only plain water is served free flow but coffee as well (Surprise discovery #1)! It's apparently a highlight to dine-in customers who wish to have some coffee.

Waitress were the locals, hence, it shouldn't be a problem for communication.

Another surprising one is the cashier machine. All in Hangul, sorry la my Korean vocabulary is limited to Annyeonghaseyo, Oppa, Saranghae, Pa Bo, Mi Cheo Seo, Kamsahamida, Araseo, Pi Ya Neh... yea all those learnt via dialogue from K-drama

So basically we didn't know what the screen showed about haha! Just make sure you're paying the right amount for your order would be fine. Those proficient with Korean language and Hangul, this isn't a big deal to you ya!


Soft food Set 1 (RM 21)
Kimbab + Tteokbokki for 2 pax

Without hesitation, we included this into our order as kimbab and tteokbokki were our must-eats.
Kimbap (Ala Carte - RM9.50)
If sushi is a staple of Japanese food then Kimbap is of the Koreans. It is one of our favourite bite-size slices in Korean cuisine, however, we were slightly disappointed on the overall taste. Kimbap was prone to dry (particularly on the rice), the fragrant sesame oil dressing is less, made us hard to chew as well. 

Kimchi served along.
Refillable kimchi is served in the restaurant and it tastes great to us, freshness is the key.

Rabokki (Ala Carte - RM 15)
Stir fried Korean rice cakes with fish cakes, vegetables and ramen.

We actually ordered tteokbokki but the chef had mistakenly served this, we accepted it anyway since it we were fine over it. Personally, the rice cakes and ramen were less springy. And ramen to me...tasted similar like Indomie.

Dolsot Bibimbap (RM16)
To be frank, the price attracted me as it's kinda hard to have bibimbap as such relatively lower price nowadays (bibimbap fans here! hehe)
It would be averagely RM 18-25, thus, I don't set very high expectations on it. Turned out, it was fairly tasty for price-wise.

Ssambap Set 2 (RM 43) for 2 pax
Spicy stir-fried pork + Kimchi stew OR soft tofu stew + rice & vegetables

Ssambap Set 2 ( 2 pax - RM 43)
excluding bibimbap on the left side
We also shared our dinner with a combo set including Jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), Sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) and vegetables and rice. We are given a choice to choose either sundubu jjigae or kimchi soup. Psst..it is my all-time preference to the latter one.

Jeyuk bokkeum
(Korean spicy stir-fried pork)
included in Ssambap Set 2
We all made an approval on this! Expected to have mild spicy flavour and the satisfaction was even doubled-up in pairing with white rice (complimentary). Claimed to be for 2 paxes but the portion was enough was enough for medium eaters that could up to 4.


Kitchen last call at 9pm!

Summary
Taste: 3.5/5
Value for Money: 4/5 (roughly RM 78 for 4 pax, 4 kind of serving)
Return Visit? Yes


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