upstairs360 — Restaurant in Melbourne

I am gonna be a fan of this place. Small place hidden upstairs. Fusion Korean at it's best. It reminded me of modern Korean served in affluent areas of Seoul, Chungdam and Kangnam. Every dish was beautifully presented as well. They certainly thought about aesthetics for eyes as well as pleasing the mouth. Pity the lighting was quite dark, I would have liked to see it in a better lighting. But I suppose they chose the darker coloured interior to create a mood. Not sure if they got it right though... Anyhow...

As with all Korean food, it should be shared. They do provide serving spoons and personal plates to accommodate this. Sharing is caring!

So here is what we had... and what I thought about...

Crispy chilli chicken was amazing. Crunchy on first bite with garlic and chilli tantalizing your mouth. But sweetness of honey follows after to calm your pallet. It will go perfect with a glass of cold beer on a hot summer day. Or my 18 months old bravely tried it and kept on going for it (to my surprise)...

Niche dish, chicken giblet garlic pasta has caught my eyes. I have tasted similar in Seoul but it is better here. Thin strands of pasta smothered in loads of garlic with a hint of cheese and slices of chilli has captured my heart. I will definitely go back for this dish. Chicken giblet may not be everyone's favorite choice (but I love it) it gives the dish chewy textures. I think they have excelled it.

Another thing I was really happy with is that they were so accommodating to our family. My husband cannot take spice very well and Korean food normally has loads of spices and is packed with flavours. So when we ordered chilli seafood udon and asked them to make it zero spicy, I was worried that I was gonna get this blob of food. I shouldn't have worried at all. They magically took spices away but kept it really tasty. Slightly sweet with soy but still very light and delicate enough to taste natural sweetness of the prawns, baby octopus and clams. He and my daughters devoured it with satisfying smiles on their faces. Even my little one who is normally not a big fan of udon. So that's two thumbs up from us.

We also had Bulgogi, sweet soy beef with rice. But this one came in a pot with extra sauce (almost soupy) with small amount of potato noodles at the bottom of pot too. Yummy yum yum.

So I would say this place is still child friendly in terms of their food despite being upstairs and not being able to take the pram. It was pretty roomy and bathrooms were tiny but very clean. Friendly staff totted around to meet our needs at every eye contact. Waitress also spoke great English. So... We had an amazing dinner and we...

The foods are not bad but I’m very disappointed at the service. When I had questions about our order and put my hand up, there’s a lady working there had seen me for 3 times and we had made eye contacts, she ignored me and kept on working on her things in the reception when no customer was there. It’s also not only me, I had seen at least 3 other tables tried to talk to her and put their hands up, she just ignored and at the end we all had to walk to her and ask. Then when we were having our dinner, she just came here without any thing and turned off the fire of our stew, and used very cool attitude say ‘you can eat it now’ while walking away. I couldn’t even hear the last few words as she JUST WALKED AWAY with the attitude that made me and my friend felt uncomfortable. Things happened again later, when we were about to finish, and my friend and I were still having our chopsticks in the dish to get things put in the take away box, she just came and and said ‘all finished?’ Then took it away. We were a bit shocked and again felt uncomfortable. When we were leaving, I heard she was asking the new customer who just came in and said ‘how many people’ in a very cool tone without greeting while those customers had greet her nicely. Then she just replied as ‘no seat’ in return. My friend and I just felt disappointed and not enjoying the services we had experienced, the attitude made me feel not enjoy our dinner either. May not want to...

THE WAITRESS on a Saturday night 5th Feb 2022 (shift at 930pm-1030pm) is so IRRESPONSIBLE. She is a new staff as I never saw her before.

I been here many times and I knew it’s always busy so I always made a booking. I called at 930pm, just to check if any table available, she said yes so I said I wanna do a booking just to secure it. She said no worries just walk in, I said I want to do booking she doesn’t want to take my booking and ask me to just walk in, so okay fine, I said okay, I will walk in for 3 people before 10pm. I already informed her clearly that I am coming. When I reached at 954pm, it was FULL, she doesnt RESERVE any tables for me even after having a clear discussion on the phone. She just explained to me “sorry suddenly so busy dont know what happen and just now were many tables”.

As a wait staff working in a HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY, you should be very RESPONSIBLE for bookings or securing, dont make promises to customers and dissapoint them! In the end I just left as I knew she would not do anything about it besides saying sorry and standing there not taking any actions.

Please hire more responsible staff and not lazy ones who try to avoid...