HAMJI PARK Strathfield — Restaurant in Sydney

(3.5 stars) Ham Ji Park would be a competent but otherwise unremarkable Korean restaurant in Strathfield if not for two things. The first is the anticipatory warmth of the service. We’re greeted, seated, and saved from online ordering by a warm and friendly waitperson. As soon as our order is placed, the waitperson loads up our table with freshly made kimchi, dipping sauce and daikon pickles, making sure we understand what goes with what. She offers top-ups before these bowls are even half finished. I feel like I’m dining as a guest in someone’s home, where nothing is too much trouble.

The second point of difference is Ham Ji Park have a half-and-half menu that allows solo diners or couples to eat a more diverse meal in a cuisine where dish size and price are usually predicated on group or family sharing. We opted for black bean sauce noodles with sweet and sour chicken ($23) and deep-fried chicken in hot pepper sauce with a simple vegetable fried rice ($25). Both dishes, served in child-like separated plastic bowls were freshly prepared and arrived very quickly. The black bean noodles were more gentle than they appeared. The Korean fried chicken (K.F.C.) was fractionally sweet but had a decent chilli kick to balance it. Frosty Korean beers—we chose Kloud ($7)—with your K.F.C. should be a given, though the booze list here also includes Korean soju, Chinese liquors, and inexpensive (but unlabelled)...

3.5 stars

Korean-Chinese restaurant in central Strathfield. No nonsense eatery with a fairly expansive menu, humble decor and pretty quick service. The prices can be very confusing, however, with many dishes going for $40-90?? Surely they must be huge servings but didn't order to test.

Sweet & Sour Pork Set is much more reasonable at $55 and comes with 3 dishes that are decently sized. Definitely enough for 2 people.

Banchan: B, 6/10. Pretty pitiful to be honest

Sweet & sour pork Pork: S, 8/10. Actually quite well fried with crispy outside and reasonably tender meat Sauce: A, 7/10. Thin and a bit too simple in terms of flavour for my personal liking Value: S, 8/10. Quite a few pieces for part of a set menu

Jjajangmyeon (black bean noodle) Flavour: S, 8/10. A lot less pungent than i expected but still fairly tasty. Black bean flavour is not too overwhelming Texture: A, 7/10. Haven't really had many others for comparison but noodles were acceptably soft. Sauce was a little tricky to mix in Value: S, 8/10

Spicy seafood noodle soup Flavour: S, 8/10. Decent with a fair amount of spice. Seafood flavour is not very prominent however Fillings: A, 7/10. About 4-5 mussels and remainder is vegetables Noodles: A, 7/10. Same as...

How are they getting so many good reviews the dishes were all very subpar. Only 2 types of kimchi which was disappointing. The normal cabbage kimchi was tasty then the other choice was the yellow Japanese style pickled radish. They also had some chopped raw onions passed off as a side dish which none of us really got into.

Bimbimbap was mostly rice and not enough ingredients the flavours also wasn't there.

We had high hope for the japchae which was $48 or something. The beef was 1 inch by 2mm slivers - like why? The Noodle was subpar have had better at a food court. We also ordered the seafood pajeon. Wasn't crispy and mostly chucky slices of capsicums with a few small tinned mussels thrown in. All fell apart as soon as you picked it up and tasted mostly of dough and capsicums.

The beef Noodle soup had chewy overcooked beef. None of the dishes were standout.

The 2 female servers were lovely working away 5 stars to them.

Total bill came up to just over $130 for 4 dishes. I'd have been happy to part with that if at least 2 of the 4 dishes...