Arirang Korean Restaurant - Civic

When I arrived at 6:30pm, the restaurant was already lively and customers inside were chatting away animatedly. In fact, it was so lively that my companions had managed to nab the last table. Unfortunately, it was also the worst table as it was the one closest to the door and we felt every icy gust of wind as more customers continued to come into the restaurant. The clientele appeared to be made up mostly of other Asians. I could hear various Asian languages being spoken from the nearby tables. I had a good feeling about this place.

I didn't think Arirang had been open in Civic for very long. Sure enough, when I had a look at the menu, it looked like it had been taken straight from the Gungahlin shop as there was no mention of the Civic address. We decided to order the Special Beef Soup ($40) and the Pork Bulgogi ($17) to share between the three of us.

The accompaniments arrived first. I was impressed by the kimchi. To be honest, I have no idea what authentic kimchi is meant to taste like, but I thought this had just the right amount of chilli, no odd smell from the fermentation process and the vegetables tasted extremely fresh and crisp. It had the perfect balance of flavours between sourness, saltiness and sweetness. The pickled radish was delightfully moreish and I could have easily eaten a whole jar of it. From what I could tell, the third accompaniment was dried tofu that had been lightly pickled.