PAIK'S BIBIM KOREAN RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: 🍚 Beef Bulgogi dolsot bibimbap ($17.80) 🥣 Spicy Soft Tofu Soup (with Rice) ($14.80)

With a 1.6% card surcharge, this was $33.12 for me.

REVIEW: It's a really seamless experience at Paik's Bibim. You can choose to order through the screen by the door, or you can go up to the counter!

Let me start with the good: ✔ The food comes in generous sizes. I could barely finish the bibimbap! Beef was flavourful, but beef bibimbap is usually a win with me. It's a safe option that never disappoints. The spicy soft tofu soup was ACTUALLY spicy. Got that little burn going which was great to wash down with bibimbap. There's little seafood pieces at the bottom as a lovely surprise. 🌶 It's vegan friendly! I brought my vegan friend here and they found dishes to order from. 🌿

Not so favourites: ❌ As another reviewer mentioned - there's no egg with the bibimbap so it's not the true bibimbap experience 😢. The dolsot isn't hot enough to also get the rice at the bottom crispy either.

Once you order, you'll pick your order up from the counter. Putting the things away is a bit awkward when the clean up corner is a bit small, so I felt bad about leaving my dishes on the table as I left. 😭 There's also tap water available (but hidden). You can request it at the counter, and they pull it from the fridge and provide nice cups as well. You don't have to buy...

A modern & clean place for Korean bibimbap. However, the food here is inauthentic & disappointing. I had Dolsot Beef Bibimbap, Sweet & Spicy Fried Chicken, and Tteokbakki here. Paid $1 extra for the Dolslot Beef Bibimbap with a cool stone pot which made me feel I was fooled. Minced beef was used instead of sliced beef to cut down on ingredient cost I guess. The beef was overcooked and stuck together like a patty. No seasoning for the bibimbap, and no sesame oil or bibimbap sauce, the dish was tasteless. Fried egg, which is a staple ingredient for bibimbap, is a rip-off here, as you need to pay $1.5 for it. So $1.5 for a fried egg which should have been included in the bibimbap, $1 for a stone pot that was supposed to be hot, and had no seasoning or sauce. It was way too inauthentic. The Sweet & Spicy Fried Chicken was crispy and tasty, with some almond flakes on top. It is the only dish I will recommend here. The Tteokbakki tasted like instant tteokbakki from the Asian grocery, it was even worse since it was tasteless. If you are looking for authentic Korean food, find it somewhere else. If you are looking for a filling meal at a reasonable price that is well-presented and looks Korean, or want to have a meal at a modern, clean restaurant, then it's...

REASONABLE OPTION FOR A CHEAP MEAL Paik's Bibim has opened a new outlet on the ground floor in West Side Place - on Spencer Street just opposite the Coles supermarket. The food is simple and fairly healthy and the cafe is set up a bit like a McDonalds store - you can order at an interactive display at the entry or queue up to order from counter. We went on a Sunday evening and the service was friendly but pretty slow. One of our group had virtually finished his meal before the final person's order came out. You can order directly from your table too using one of those now ubiquitous apps that double as both menu and payment. A small selection of soft drinks and water is available - served straight to the table in their bottles or cans. Not many options on menu but there is a vegetarian (tofu based) bowl for those who don't want to eat meat. Side option of fried eggs and noodles. People with mobility issues will be fine as this is all on one even ground floor location with self opening door. Opens intermittently through the day to cater for lunch and dinner trade. Also...