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This may be the first time I have ever coincided with an official Happy Hour. I say “official” because surely every hour spent eating and drinking is a happy one, but still, I make a habit of turning up five minutes after the specials have ended.

At The Evergreen in Chatswood, however, Happy Hour goes from 5pm to 9pm, Monday to Thursday, so it’s pretty hard to miss. And why would you, when you can get draught beer for $7 and Mr Mick riesling, rosé and tempranillo from Clare Valley winemaker Tim Adams for $7 a glass?

All that, in a contemporary glass-walled curve of a restaurant that is hung with greenery and over-sized Edison lights and lined with green wall tiles. Add in gold lion’s head-like door-knockers on the backs of cushioned velvet dining chairs (so comfy they’re like sitting in someone’s lap) and it’s clear that The Evergreen is a little more ambitious than your favourite Chatty noodle or dumpling shop.

The thing about a fusion dish is it has to be as good as the dishes it is fusing.

In July this year, Anna Song (who also owns the local JooMak restaurant) teamed with consultant chef Jun Hwang to open this fusion Korean diner in The Mix precinct, alongside Chat Thai and Pellegrini’s Italian. The Evergreen is a mix in itself, offering everything from burgers at lunch to an elaborate high tea.

The words “ambitious” and “fusion” can make for some weird eating, but I like the sound of kimchi arancini with mayo and parmesan ($16), and gno-bokki ($22), the chef’s play on tteokbokki, those wonderfully glutinous but light rice flour cakes that are such a staple of Korean street food.

Hwang’s version leans more gnocchi than tteokbokki, though. The little mashed potato and parmesan dumplings float in a too-sweet, electric-red gochujang (chilli paste) sauce, topped with frilly rosettes of Tete de Moine cheese, shaved on a girolle. The thing about a fusion dish is it has to be as good as the dishes it is fusing, and this isn’t.

Makgeolli chicken wings ($16) put the happy back into happy hour. This is a great little snack pack, the wings and winglets enrobed in crunchy, munchy batter made with Korea’s magical cloudy fermented rice wine; and a small bowl of sweet, sour and spicy yangnyeom sauce for dipping. With eight wings for $16, it’s top value, and very happy-making.

The 2021 Crittenden Geppetto pinot noir ($14/$70) makes a vibrant, cool climate, cherry-red pal for the Korean barbecue platter ($68), a play on ssam that’s good for two, three or four to share. Side dishes come first: crisp salad greens for wrapping and the holy jang trinity of soy sauce, savoury soybean paste and gochujang. And, wondrously, a little dish of grill-warmed kimchi that adds crunch and life.

Next comes a stand laden with food, enclosed in a tall glass dome swirling with smoke. When it lifts, there are six meaty skewers of pork belly, chicken and wagyu beef, grilled corn cobs, fat green chilli peppers, and whole king mushrooms.

It’s time to get busy and wrap the nuggets of pork belly (the best of the three) in a leaf with kimchi and jang. The meats are fine, the wrap-and-roll action is fun, but the real take away is the funky depth of flavour in Korean sauces and unmitigated joy of fruity, spicy kimchi.

Banacotta ($17) is panna cotta by another name, named in honour of the Binggrae banana milk that the chef grew up on as a child in Korea. Delicate and trembling, its creaminess contrasts with a crisp coconut almond crumble, and richly caramelised roasted figs.

The experience is relaxed and casual, the service willing, the chairs amazing, and the best dishes are the ones that don’t play too hard with tradition (see makgeolli chicken).

And did you know that at Goldmart, just up the road, you get a free 400-gram bag of baby radish kimchi with every 2-kilogram bag of cabbage kimchi? Happy days.