Madtongsan 2

Madtongsan II
85 Elizabeth St, City
3/5
The rating i gave this place is probably a little out of whack. Mostly because i love bibimbap and everybody who knows me, knows that the two madtongsan's in the city are two of my favorites. especially for lunch and now with the presence of tap hite (which at least madtongsan II you can get by the jug) which makes the idea of spicy hot Korean food even more appealing, just writing this post makes me want to go back.

Madtongsan 2 is a fantastic restaurant evidenced by the fact that most of their single dish menu is under 15 dollars and most of their hotpots (for two or more) are under or around $30 and the fact that on Sunday lunch time it is difficult to get a table for more than two people.
So on this particular Sunday lunch time my lunch partner and i were able to get a table for two at about 1pm. When you are seated at your table, they usually bring round the complimentary Kim chi, and provide you with chopsticks and a spoon, service is easy due to the use of call bells on the table that bring the waitress to your table and the presence of jugs of hite beer (13 dollars a jug at a restaurant???!!!) means your first order is always known (unless of course you like soju)

We proceeded to order with no hesitation, knowing exactly what we wanted from the menu, two bibimbap's (mixed vegetables and rice with raw egg and chilli paste) and a jug of hite, the beer coming almost immediately, food a little longer, for those who haven't had Korean food before i know of nothing better than kimchi and beer. upon arrival of the food the usual stirring up of the bibimbap and the devouring that comes soon after proceeded as normal for me with my cold non stone pot bowl, my company however took longer due to the furnace like heat emanating from the stone pot ("dol soot" and the heat is a good thing) the dish came in. The food was of its usual high quality. i would recommend going here anytime you have free.

again my blog writing is rubbish, however hopefully ill learn to write better soon enough.

23/05/2010 Update

A couple of things, firstly i apologize for the terrible writing of the bishamon entry, first go's eh?
secondly i have been talking to some (all) friends about this blog and some of them are keen on guest reviews, and seeing how a lack of money (credit) has stopped me from getting out to review establishments worth eating at there hasn't been a review in a while. Which brings us to today's scathing review of James st Bistro in the valley. Yesterday i went out to James st to have lunch for my cousins birthday. Personally i would not have chosen the place after about 5 seconds of perusing their menu (i'm pretty sure they classify themselves as modern australian gah!) but everyone knows family events. i won't deny that family events are hard to cater for, christ you need to cater for all tastes, because in all family's there is guarenteed to be at least one vegetarian, one person who only eats red meat, and at least one person who doesn't eat red meat and prefers not to have the vegetarian option (its sad but most places only have one or two vegetarian options unless they are a designated vegetarian place). heres the rating for people who don't won't to read a page of text.
James St Bistro
unrated

if you're curious why i didn't rate, only restaurants of a reasonable level get 1 /5 , and service at this place would have been 0 on a regular reviewers scale, i can remember waiting up to 20mins for a drink and then informed that they didn't have that bottle of wine and waiting another 15 mins for the wine to arrive, on top of that there was at least 10-15mins where there was no water on the table, and i can remember quite vividly the look that our somewhat deshevelled party incurred upon entrance to the establishment.

onto the food, whilst the tapas tasting plates that we started with we're of passable quality a lack of oysters ruined the anticipation of such a plate to arrive, with its lack of stand out members to show any value for the 40 dollars it cost for 8 of the tiny plates, but somehow the tasting plate turned out to be the highlight of the day, for the mains (they only do mains at lunch and are still somehow a bistro?) i ordered the wagyu beef burger, and the people around me ordered steak sandwiches and one the vegetarian option which amounted to parsnip and carrot and almost nothing else. the wagyu burger was somehow tough and tasted dry even though the centre of the burger was appropriately pink, the duck egg being the only redeeming feature of the burger(the duck egg on the burger was the highlight of my dining experience). the people who had steak sandwiches suffered from the problem too many brisbane steak sandwiches suffer from, steak so tough (overcooked as well) that the provided steak knife has as much trouble as it would through a piece of fried blade. all in all the food was not of the necessary standard to even consider eating at.