The Real Korean Restaurant: Mackays hot new Korean chicken and BBQ restaurant

The Real Korean Restaurant invited us to attend their soft launch and try their fried chicken and delicious dishes. Did they bring the heat? REVIEW, PHOTOS

We tried out Mackay’s newest Korean restaurant. Photo: Zoe Devenport

The newest player in Mackay’s Asian cuisine scene, The Real Korean Restaurant offers Korean fried chicken, barbecued meats and drink packages, but does it provide an authentic Korean eatery experience?

Here are some of our impressions from the restaurants soft launch where all guests were treated to a free meal.

In Korea, enjoying chicken and beer with your friends has its own word: chimaek. Photo: Fergus Gregg

Korean Fried Chicken

Korean fried chicken has become known around the world for its crispiness and variety of flavours and The Real Korean Restaurant offers three such flavours.

Chicken dishes can be ordered in two sizes, half ($18) or whole ($39) and customers can select from bone or boneless, with boneless being a dollar extra.

We ordered a bone half serving of each flavour: crispy original, soy garlic and yangnyeum (spicy sauce).

The crispy chicken arrived and was a welcome start to our meal, double fried in the Korean style each bite yielded a satisfying crunch.

Beyond the crunch however, the original crispy chicken was a touch drier than the next two saucy servings, which were cooked to perfection.

The soy-garlic chicken was good but the delightfully moreish yangnyeum chicken overshadowed it.

Coated in a sticky red sauce, The Real Korean Restaurant’s yangnyeum chicken walks a tightrope balancing sweet and spicy with acrobatic grace.

The spice, while not overwhelming treats diners to a kick and the sweetness mixes well with the chicken hidden beneath its crunchy coat.

That being said yangnyeum chicken is famously sticky so prepare to get messy — we certainly did!

The Real Korean opened and we went to check it out. Photo: Fergus Gregg

Sizzling pork belly barbecue

In a traditional Korean BBQ restaurant the cooking would be done on a grill or hotplate at the table, The Real Korean recreates this with it’s sizzling plate special menu.

The Korean Barbecue Pork Belly BBQ set is a triumph.

Well prepared and succulent, the pork is carried out in an agonisingly good looking pile and served with lettuce, kimchi, side dishes and ssamjang dipping sauce.

This Korean BBQ dish was greater than the sum of it’s part as the well prepared pork belly when wrapped in a leaf of lettuce with ssamjang and kimchi heaped on top, is a spice filled treat.

However if you’re unable to handle even the mildest of spices, you can eat it without the extras and still enjoy delicious meat — and a fun shared eating experience.

The somaek bundle is a great shared experience. Photo: Fergus Gregg

Drinks

The Real Korean Restaurant offers a range of regular and Korean soft drinks, as well traditional rice wines, but for us the stand out option was the ‘somaek’ bundle.

Somaek is a mix of fresh flavour soju and beer, popular among Korean diners and is sold here in a bundle with three Cass lagers and a bottle of soju for $33.35.

As well as being a fun bit of cultural exchange, this bundle is also economic, as the bundles items, bought separately would cost $40.

While the combination of soju and beer may be an unlikely one, it tastes fresh and crisp and pairs remarkably well with the stronger flavours of Korean cuisine and cools down spiced dishes.

Verdict

Is it a slice of Seoul in Mackay?

Not quite, while The Real Korean Restaurant decor is a little sterile, its heart can be found in the smiles of its diligent wait staff and chefs.

And really, if the food is good how much does atmosphere matter?

Korean food has found popularity outside of Korea because of its nature as a shared experience and The Real Korean Restaurant delivers on this with large portion sizes that practically force you to share.

The Real Korean Restaurant is a welcome addition to the niche of Korean dining in Mackay and stands out thanks to its reasonable prices and delicious yangyeum chicken.