Han Guuk Guan Korean/Chinese Restaurant

13a Victoria Street, Melbourne
Phone (03) 9639 1747

I love finding great food served in bizarre and hidden away restaurants, and they don’t come any more bizarre or hidden away than Han Guuk Guan Korean/Chinese Restaurant. The official address is 13a Victoria Street (near Exhibition) but it’s not easy to spot from the street, as it’s wedged in an alcove in between office buildings and a carpark. Their takeaway menu offered the following helpful instructions: “Opposite the Anti Cancer Council, and diagonally opposite from the royal exhibition gardens!” I’ve passed this place many times and have been meaning to try it. We finally decided to take the plunge today for lunch after reading blogs that raved about their specialty, Ja Jung Meon (black bean noodles).

The building that the Han is housed in is an attractive teal coloured structure that looked as if it could have been a pub in a previous guise. We walked into a flourescent-lit space dominated by lashings of pinewood, with tables set-up for the requisite Korean BBQ. The bizarreness continued with a barbershop-style sterilizer box, complete with blue light, that housed coffee/tea cups. Stairs led up to presumably another dining area, and a pinewood wall concealed the kitchen, where some intent vegetable chopping could be heard above the blaring K-Pop. A modern space this ain’t; Han was more like a Korean-style greasey spoon.

There was nothing bizarre at all about the menu, which listed authentic sounding Korean/Chinese dishes which we later found out were generous in serving size and uncompromising in flavour. Prices for lunch were also ridiculously cheap at around the $8 mark. The a la carte was extensive, and for a limited time, BBQ was apparently half-price on Mondays.

We shared some Guhn Mahn Du: deep fried dumplings served with a special sauce ($8 for 8). The half moon-shaped dumplings were very tasty. The filling was an interesting combination of pork, veg and some (maybe) mung bean threads, which resembled the insides of a tauntaun when Han (this time Solo) sliced one open in the opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back. The dumplings were delicious, especially when dipped into the spicy, garlicky soy sauce that came with it.

Mel’s Bib Bim Bub ($8) was a hearty bowl of plain rice topped with shredded beef, fresh cucumber, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, fried egg and, unusually, konnyaku. Unfortunately a dolsot version was not available – so no crunchy rice bits to be had here – but it was nevertheless tasty, especially when the piquant Bub sauce was mooshed into the rice.

I had to try the Ja Jung Meon (you guessed it: $8), which was very popular, as many of the predominantly Asian student patrons were also ordering it. Thin boiled white wheat flour noodles were topped with julienned cucumber and a dark, salty and smokey black bean sauce filled with finely diced veggies, pork and diced potato. The sauce was rich and smokey, with almost a wok hei flavour. It was a huge serve and difficult to eat with the blasted metal chopsticks, but it was also bloody tasty! Apparently Ja Jung Meon is one of the national foods of South Korea, which makes me want to learn more about this cuisine that remains such a relatively unknown quantity here in Melbourne.

As per usual, the meal was accompanied by kim chi and pickles. The kim chi was fiery and garlicky, and we also loved the braised potato and konyaku.

Han Guuk Guan seems to be quite an authentic Korean eatery. It’s certainly good value, and we’ll definitely be back to try more Korean goodness from this quirky little spot.