Doju Melbourne restaurant review 2024: Kara Monssen visits new Korean restaurant

Retired dairy cow beef on seaweed chips, “adjusted” watermelon cocktails, red bean flavoured icecream. Bold flavours dominate at this new Korean eatery — and many aren’t afraid to try it.

The polarising injeolmi ice cream at Doju. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I don’t like it, but I can’t stop eating”.

My Sydney mate’s dessert conun­drum stayed with me long after dinner at Doju.

Korean flavour heroes such as gochujang (red chilli paste), doenjang (fermented soy bean paste) and, in this instance, ice cream made with roasted red bean and rice cake flour (injeolmi) rock to the core with an intensity that must be handled with care. Add Aussie natives into the mix and she’s awfully noisy.

With great flavour, comes great responsibility. And in the wrong hands? Well, chaos.

Mika Chae’s daring new Korean joint pushes the limit with sometimes befuddling yet rewarding results. A creative genius? Masterful maniac? I’m here for it.

A cousin of Melbourne’s tiny-restaurant queen, Jung Eun Chae, Mika (ex-Sezar, Attica) opened his first solo restaurant beneath an equally obscure office high-rise on the Southern Cross end of Little Collins St in December. Unlike Chae, Doju’s approach isn’t traditional and tempered.

Gochujang sourdough. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Preserved ‘jeotgal’ calamari in ‘farm leaf’ tacos. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Hot-from-the-oven sourdough rolls ($7 for two) blush gochujang red after their wicked dalliance. A Korean riff on the Chinese san choy bao ($9 for one) levels up texture in a “farm leaf” taco, cradling a spicy rice mix of “just preserved” Corner Inlet calamari.

Mika speeds through an ancient jeotgal seafood preservation method for flavour, while letting the calamari’s natural beauty shine.

Retired dairy cow beef bugak. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

And Melbourne’s most creatively named dish; retired dairy cow beef ($9) with desert lime on a seaweed crisp moos with chilled rawness, spice and citrus. Maybe you’ll pair it with a West Australian chardonnay, all savoury, cloudy funk and food friendly, though that 10-year-old Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon is drinking mighty fine.

Let cocktail whiz Chris Litten shake up a pavlova cocktail, which tastes identical to the dessert without tummy-turning sweetness.

Eating at Doju is like riding a rollercoaster. Those pre-ride jitters are real, especially when history shows modern takes on some “Asian” cuisine don’t always land as intended.

So far so good with the snacks, then a rush as we rise to smaller plates: a small banana-sized half WA marron ($38) is brilliantly cooked and spilling with oodles of Kermit-green coloured stinging nettle noodles, with lashings of garlic butter. Swoon, indeed.

Burnt leek with butter and chicken skins. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

LA beef galbi ($34) is inspired by the beef bulgogi dish made famous by Korean migrants in Los Angeles. Cut like a fat-toothed comb, the wagyu is smoky tender from time over red gum embers, lifted by an electric horseradish and chive kimchi.

The G-force kicks in by the main event. Corner Inlet flounder ($58) with fat diamond clams is a winner, glossed in Korea’s version of beurre blanc, made with butter and makgeolli (sparkling rice wine). Caramelised leeks ($22) wading in a pool of butter and cashew cream is sweet like candy, delicious as you’d expect, though I’ve seen this before. As is the layered baked potato.

Doju dares to be different. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Then we reach that ice cream. Intensely distracting alone, yet bonkers brilliant with sugar-steeped blackberries.

Maybe it’s worth giving Doju a few months to calm its farm, though in a city so cautious about stepping outside the creative lines, Mika paints in colour and the future is bright, indeed.