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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Thursday 12 July 2012

Korean lunch @ Myung Ga (iSquare), Hong Kong

I am a big fan of Korean food, but before last weekend, I hadn't set a foot inside a Korean restaurant since we moved to Hong Kong almost two years ago. We have been getting our bibimbap fix on the odd occasions that we've gone to Citygate Outlet (inside the humble setting of a food court), but it was only last Sunday that we had Korean food inside a proper restaurant. It seems that Korean restaurants are few in HK, and I find myself often yearning for the delicious food offering in Tokyo's Koreatown, or occasionally reminiscing about NYC's K-Town. Myung Ga on the 27th floor of the iSquare building has some nice views of the harbour (albeit semi-obstructed by several high rises), and we scored a window table even though we walked in without any reservations.

A semi-obstructed view of the harbour from the restaurant:

We arrived right on 12pm, when the restaurant had just opened its doors for lunch service, and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves for a short moment. The interior is sleek with an earthy theme, and there's even a tree in the middle of the dining room (I didn't check but the tree is probably fake decoration). The service was not the best, but it was adequate, and I appreciated the free-flowing complimentary hot corn tea.

Myung Ga Restaurant from our table:

There were two menus available: the set menu (includes the more affordably priced lunch menu) and the full a-la-carte menu. Myung Ga offers the popular Korean BBQ, but we decided to have a non-BBQ meal and ordered a few of our favourite Korean dishes. Six types of banchan arrived at our table shortly after we ordered, and I was glad I didn't order a vegetable dish (I always forget that we would be covered for vegetables in the banchan). The complimentary little dishes were refillable upon request, and I ate kimchi, kkakdugi and the namul dishes to my stomach's content. The kimchi packed a pretty spicy and acidic punch, and we could only manage one refill.

Banchan:

Dolsot Bibimbap (hot stone pot rice) from the lunch menu was a manageable portion and includes a simple seaweed broth. This is a hearty meal-in-one-pot, but I still prefer the one from the foodcourt which had more crispy burnt rice at the bottom and was a bigger serving but half the price:

One of our favourite dishes to order at Korean restaurants - Haemul Pajeon (seafood pancake). This pajeon was generously dotted with seafood, and hubby really enjoyed this one:

Another of our fave Korean food - Japchae (stirfried sweet potato noodles). This one was slightly sweet, but not unpleasantly so. In fact I would have really enjoyed this noodle dish if I wasn't already so full from the other dishes:

We quite enjoyed our Korean lunch with a view. I thought that Myung Ga was quite reasonably priced considering the nice views it offers.

Myung Ga (iSquare)
Shop 2702, 27th Floor, iSquare
63 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel. +85 2 2369 1177

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