Oriental Spoon

After reading Mellie's review on Tummy Rumbles about Oriental Spoon and how good it was, I decided to go and try it out. It did turn out to be good Korean food and I would definitely go back there.

The night started off with a walk from the car park to Oriental Spoon on Latrobe Street. We saw this passsing tram all decked out in lights, and it was playing Bollywood music and people were all dressed up and dancing inside. This must be the Indian version of those party buses.


Firstly, apologies again for the bad photos. I remembered to bring my camera this time, only to leave it in the car. Since I couldn't be bothered to walk back, I had to make do with my mobile camera again. For better photos, see Mellie's review. Anyway, the restaurant is very spacious and the surrounding are very nice. Despite the large room, the noise was damped quite well so it didn't echo all over the place.



We ordered the Tuna Pancakes for entrees. It arrived on a very nice wooden board. The pancakes were served with a light soy type sauce and some coleslaw. The little kimchi dish things also arrived with the entree. The kimchi dishes here are very good. Firstly, their kimchi is probably one of the best I have ever tried. The cucumber salad one had a nice tangy dressing. The fish cake one was good too. Even the bean shoots one was good, and I hate bean shoots. I didn't really like the baby bok choy one, lacked flavour. We asked for more of these little dishes things FOUR times. Rowena was ultra brave and asked three times, while Jo tried unsuccessfully and I asked for it once. Kin just kept eating through his two bowls of rice the whole time. Yes, we have no shame. They were so nice.



Mains was Potato Noodles (left), Pork Kimchi (left dish in right photo) and Beef Bulgogi. The Potato Noodles were good without being too sweet. The Pork Kimchi soup thing was delicous. The Kimchi in the soup really gave it a nice kick. Beef Bulgogi also had good flavours.



The Seafood Casserole had pippies, mussels, squid and prawns. It had a spicy base soup with lots of vegetables. The casserole was served on a hot plate, which kept it warm the whole time. This dish looked spectacular but wasn't as good as the others. The flavours weren't as good.



Service here was very good. The waiters were easily identifiable in their bright polo tops (I hate it when waiters are in casual clothing without an identifiable uniform as you can't get spot them and get their attention) and were very willing to help us, as Mellie said. The service was prompt, with only one waitress forgetting to bring us water when asked the first time. Otherwise, the male waiter who brought us all those little kimchi dishes was very nice about it and told us to enjoy with a smile.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food tasted good and priced competitively. Service is good and the atmosphere enjoyable. Definitely a good place to eat some Korean food.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.