This year, a lot of Vietnamese eateries opened up around Adelaide, as people fell in love with the fresh, healthy ingredients of the cuisine. Not far behind, is the growing popularity of Korean food, which also has similar characteristics. I guess it’s fitting that K-Bap, a place that serves up Korean dishes, replaces a business that formerly served Vietnamese food.

The food offerings are fairly straight forward with small selection of snacks, rice dishes, noodles and soups. They also sell cold rolls and sushi, but I suspect these items originated from some of their neighbouring countries. Having said that, sushi was introduced to Korea when it was under Japanese rule. Anyway, I digress!

The decor is fairly basic with a handful of chairs and tables in a small open space. The colour coordination of the chairs and the back wall is a nice touch. There is plenty of natural light that flows through the frontage which gives this place a nice casual vibe.

For dinner, I had the Dolsot Bibimbap. For those that are new to Korean cuisine, the dolsot is a stone bowl which is heated to cook all the ingredients. It’s recommended that gochujang sauce be added which is a savoury and fermented Korean condiment made from red chilli, glutinous rice, fermented soy beans and salt.

The dish came out 10 minutes after ordering and was nicely presented. It’s best to add the sauce and mix all the ingredients while the stone is still hot. The vegetables in this dish were fresh and crunchy, and the pickled carrots in particular, were sweet and tangy. The meat, which was conservative in amount, was well marinated and had good flavour. All the ingredients mixed together created a savoury and spicy dish with the best part being the crusty layer of rice at the bottom.

The staff were friendly and welcoming, and the service was very good. The atmosphere was relaxed and the pricing was on par with other Korean establishments. The cost of the meal was $15 which wasn’t too bad considering the freshness of the ingredients and quality of the meal.

K-Bap has a good selection of authentic homestyle dishes that will tantalise the tastebuds. Their Dolsot Bibimbap is one of the better ones that I’ve had.

WHERE: 267 Kensington Rd, Kensington Park