World-class chef dazzles at new Woollongabba eatery Korean Butterfly

With a background in Michelin-starred restaurants, this chef is out to dazzle through bold dishes at his new degustation-only Brisbane restaurant where the food really is the star.

A Japanese restaurant serving Korean food while playing Italian music. It sounds like a car crash.
But, somehow, it’s not.

Welcome to the ambitious new project from Korean chef Alex Kim.

After working in a string of high-end and Michelin-starred restaurants around the world, Kim decided to come to Australia last year to open his first culinary venture in Melbourne. But COVID had other ideas.

When the culinary capital was plunged into a seemingly endless lockdown, a friend suggested Kim try his luck in Brisbane.

The beef tartare sando at Korean Butterfly restaurant in Woolloongabba.

Having never even visited the River City, the chef threw caution to the wind and quickly secured an obscure tenancy in the industrial streets of Woolloongabba, a baguette toss from Banneton Bakery and a hop, skip and a jump from the area’s Logan Road foodie precinct.

The small, dark and moody space is like the odd coming together of a Japanese izakaya and Balinese day spa.

Guests are seated at high stools around a square cooking station in the centre of the space, with a smattering of solid timber tables along the perimeter, while the onsen vibes come courtesy of a small, raked sand garden in the corner bestrewn with pagodas and bonsai, and a loud, trickling, buddha-shaped water fountain.

Dry aged tuna with caviar at Korean Butterfly restaurant in Woolloongabba.

It’s peaceful, but also the type of place where you feel like you have to be on your best behaviour, presumably unintentionally enforced by the very formal speech Kim gives guests at the beginning of the meal.

The restaurant follows a kaiseki style of dining, a traditional Japanese degustation ($150 a head) where the chef creates a multi-course menu based on the best ingredients of the season.

For Kim – and his Michelin-trained, Italian sous chef Emanuele Pelonero – this means the offering is continually changing depending on what’s best at the markets that day.

While the format may be Japanese – including all guests eating together at one of two set dining times – the food is thoughtfully Korean. Kim wants the restaurant to be an introduction of sorts to the true finesse and delicacy of Korean cuisine – and a slap-in-the-face reminder that the nation’s culinary repertoire expands well beyond fried chicken and bibimbap.

A prawn, fig and nectarine salad at Korean Butterfly restaurant in Woolloongabba.

The message is received loud and clear from the get-go, and fortified with each small plate that arrives – though there’s room for fun along the way.

Take, for example, the clever (and delicious) play on a Japanese sando in which a razor-sharp Korean-style beef tartare is sandwiched between airy, toasted, sweet Italian bread, ready to be smeared with a whipped cod roe cream.

Or Kim’s nod to Korea’s love of fried food with a panko-coated, golden, fried lamb cutlet generating more crunch than a bowl of cereal.

Refinement and adventure are never far away, though, in dishes like Tasmanian salmon cured in sea salt, its briny flesh entangled with the sweetness of dehydrated persimmon and pumpkin puree, given texture and depth by a crumbling of pistachio. Sensational!

The cured salmon with persimmon and pumpkin puree at Korean Butterfly restaurant in Woolloongabba.

Or the sweet-sour brightness of a prawn, fig and nectarine dish made memorable by a yuzu jelly and soy sauce vinaigrette.

There are also moments of extravagance, with halal Wagyu beef served blushing with just a whisper of soy and eschalot dressing, or Oscietra caviar crowning tuna that has been aged for three weeks.

This is smart cooking, where the urge to show off or impress never overrides the responsibility of simply creating delicious food.

Service is swift and efficient. The place is still waiting for its liquor licence, currently offering BYO at a hefty $30 a bottle.

But it is, perhaps, a good hit of booze the place needs.

While the staff relax as the night goes on – engaging more with guests and making a few jokes – a little vodka in the complimentary fruit spritz offered at the beginning of the night could be just what’s in order to make everyone feel at ease. In fact, you can imagine that the experience changes dramatically from night to night, depending on the vivaciousness of the customers.

No doubt in time Kim and his team will find their feet and a level of comfort with guests, but for now, it’s the food that is the star.

KOREAN BUTTERFLY

77 Jurgens Street, Woolloongabba

0478 635 785

koreanbutterfly.com.au

Open Lunch noon-1.30pm, Dinner 5.30pm-7.30pm or 8pm-10pm

VERDICT – Scores out of 5

Food 4

Ambience 3.5

Service 3.5

Value 4

OVERALL 4

Must try

Tasmanian salmon cured in sea salt