Bite, Chew, Drink

Bite Chew Drink isn’t a healthy restaurant. Sure, there are salads on the menu, but we can’t imagine many people ordering them. It’s the kind of place that serves Korean barbequed meats with milks buns; cheese-drenched pastas with Korean chilli sauce; and potato gratin topped with a literal tower of pork belly, jalapeños and fried rice.

Owner Jae Kim and his partner, head chef Lily Yang are doing fusion in its most basic and accessible form. Take the Korean-American barbeque – an enormous platter with crispy-skin Korean fried chicken; sticky and spicy Korean ribs; fried pork belly; pickles; various homemade chilli sauces; fries; and milk buns to stuff it all in. One of the pastas has both a carbonara-like sauce and Korean rice cakes. Another has a Korean-style spicy bolognese sauce with a huge heap of cheese. Both are served on enormous share plates and come with the option of getting your leftovers refried with a hunk of fried rice.

The fit-out has a teenage-movie party vibe with dark walls, house music, a semi-open kitchen and a backdrop artwork depicting a line of sturdy Korean blokes holding liquor, lamb legs, skillets and a butcher’s knife. “Life’s short, enjoy every bite,” it reads.

Pretty much everything is designed to share, and to have a drink with. Try a Korean-style cocktail.