Kobow

Fusion, you say? Yes, Kobow is a restless beast of a Sydney Korean restaurant, and doesn’t like to restrict itself to just gelbi and bulgogi, though of course your demands in those directions will be acceded to. Take, for example, this Liverpool Street eatery’s balsamic pork, best enjoyed with plum wine. Already, a collision between the Italian and the Oriental (which produces a sound best spelt Kobow). Then there’s the Japanese shabu- shabu menu, offering a multitude of ways to boil up thinly sliced beef and vegetables. Shabu­shabu is itself an onomatopoeic name, taken from the sound this dish apparently makes when cooking. Need to confirm? Book a table at this abnormally awesome quasi­Korean restaurant in Sydney’s central business district and hear for yourself.

By the way, if you’re hard up and looking for lunch down Liverpool Street, Kobow lay on a great buffet for just a tenner. But it’s their regular a la carte menu that really sizzles. Generous portions of Eastern standbys like boiled dumplings, seafood pancakes, spring rolls and a Korean­Chinese-Australian pork belly and avocado salad are tempting propositions, even before you’ve made it to the kimchi, tofu, Korean sausage, and (yes) beef blood jelly soup selection. Sydney CBD workers and lurkers will faint for Kobow’s grilled flathead, marinated boiled pork with oyster, and steamed pork with kimchi mains, while hotplate dishes try to distract diners from the platters of ready­to­barbecue meats on offer. Need a drink to steady your hand? Plum wine beckons, but you can also get yourself a plain and simple jug of VB to wash it all down, too.