ANJU — Restaurant in Saint-Gilles - Sint-Gillis

As a Korean person, this was a huge disappointment even considering I went with the expectation that it wasn’t going to be authentic Korean cuisine but rather ‘contemporary’ interpretations of it. (컨템포러리 한식이라는 점을 감안하고도 맛이 너무 베이직하거나 별로인데 양은 적고 가격은 너무 비쌈. 한식이라고 지인들 초대해 데려갔는데 민망하고 속상했음. 한국인들한테는 당연히 절대 추천 못하고, 외국인 지인들도 굳이 추천 안할 것 같음)

We had Korean pancake, oysters, yukhoe (raw beef). Yukhoe was pretty good while the Pajeon / Korean pancake was rather a bit burnt or with too much of a strong flavour, nothing like the original (saying this as it was presented in original style). The ‘highlight’ was the oyster nabak, which were literally two pieces of oysters floating in kimchi juice in a tiny sauce bowl for 14 euros. I was honestly shocked - I understand that Korean cuisine is trendy but if someone makes a business out of it, especially if you are not Korean yourself, I think one needs to at least study it carefully as one of the essential aspects of Korean cuisine / culture is its generosity, reflected also in the whole banchan culture, for instance.

For the mains, we had Korean fried chicken, which was nothing like what KFC really is and not only the sauce was way too strong and acid & not suitable for the meat but again the portion was small. We also had octopus, for 27 euros, honestly just chucked in some Korean chilli gochujang paste with vegetables - super basic flavour (hard to call it ‘cooking’). Lastly, we had Seoyang hobak, the courgette main dish which I found not only was it really lacking as a main dish given that it was literally some six pieces of courgette for the price of a main dish but this really had nothing to do with Korean cuisine, in my opinion. The balance of the flavour was really off too - too much butter & sweetness.

Writing this long review, which is unusual for me, as I feel frustrated that this is a Korean restaurant in town, as a Korean person. The stars are for the...

Visited ANJU with high expectations with it being a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but this turned out to be a massive disappointment. The quality and recipe of the food are so compromised that it's almost unrecognisable as Korean anymore. For their low standards, the food is definitely overpriced. To be sure, we did not see a Korean chef in their kitchen.

In short: it's a profit-conscious F&B establishment that sells itself as exotic Korean food but is neither authentic nor creative. Just a gimmick. The earlier 2-star review by a Korean is 100% true. Please save yourself the disappointment and skip this. My guess is that they once had a good Korean chef but he / she has left.

In particular, we do recommend avoiding their samgyetang at all costs. They don't use black chicken - the google menu pic is inaccurately taken from an old review showing what an authentic samgyetang should look like. It's not "soup"; it's water. There are no ginseng, jujubes or chestnuts in sight. They clearly haven't invested the time nor effort to make the authentic broth that it's supposed to be. They threw rice into the soup, when it should really be stuffed into the chicken. It's not glutinous rice as it should be. Given how bland their samgyetang is, not sure why they are still so stingy with it. The bowl was barely half-full when served. No pepper salt was provided, even worse when you realise how tragically tasteless the food is.

Also, their menu encourages you to order mains so you get some banchan. Authentic Korean food places serve banchan free-flow and it's good. Their banchan is in laughably small portions and the kimchi way too sour. Perilla leaves were a nice touch but unfortunately not...

Like Sang-Hoon I think there is far more to Korean cooking than bulgogi and bibimbap. I was therefore really looking forward to discovering his Korean cooking.

Banchans are always served first in Korea even if they are supposed to be eaten with the meals. Ours arrived with the main meal and not the starter. It would have been nice to have them with the pajeon for example. The kimchi was excellent so were the other banchans, some with surprising flavours (not the ones I am used to in Korea).

My octopus was excellent: tender, well cooked and the vegetables well seasoned.

The samgyetang on the other hand was very disappointing and I felt sorry to have recommended it to my friend. There was no ginseng flavour, only a very strong chicken stock flavour. Although there was some rice with it, it was not as big as a normal rice portion and she ended up eating some of mine.

My makerel was OK but nothing in comparison to what I have eaten frequently in Korea. My rice was served cold and dry. This must be the worse rice I have ever eaten in a Korean restaurant.

The binsu was very good but why with Belgian flavours?? At least there should be the original flavour as a choice.

The osans were a great discovery, very interesting flavours.

The music was too loud and also not Korean. Why hanging Korean records on the wall if you are going to play music you can hear everywhere? Korean oldies can be so nice to listen too.

In a nutshell I find Anju not Korean enough and not authentic. And for sb like me who adore Korean food, the experience was...