Poong Nab Dong, Eastwood

Last week, I met up with several friends over dinner and decided to check out one of the (relatively) new restaurants on Rowe Street, Eastwood - Poong Nab Dong:

As with all good Korean restaurants, it's packed by 7pm. Once we'd been seated and ordered our food, we waited patiently for our serving of free Korean side dishes - having seen our neighbouring tables being served with 10+ side dishes placed on a masssiiivvveee tray, we were all excited.... but left feeling jipped when we were only presented with only 6 side. Even a nearby table with a middle-aged couple got served with the full load of sides! This is the third time it's happened to me - once even in Seoul... :(

I didn't take pics of the sides but from memory there was:

• Kim chi,
• Pickled seaweed, 
• Sliced oyster mushroom (we initially thought it was slivers of chicken - lols), 
• Mashed sweet potato, 
• Peanuts in sweet soy sauce, and 
• Pickled radish (which no one touched).

After that let-down, we were served with our actual food. We started with a Korean staple - the seafood pancake:

Seafood Pancake ($15-16?)

Once the dish arrived, the top layer of bonito flakes continuously entertained us with its flipping and flailing but failed to hide the fact that the pancake was rather small in size. At least there was a sufficient amount of seafood in the pancake to live up to its name, along with the usual large dose of spring onion stalks to hold the whole thing together in one piece.

Next on our menu was the Korean glass noodle with beef bulgogi:

Glass Noodle ($25) with Beef Bulgogi (+$3)

The noodles were well-seasoned - cooked with onion, capsicum, spinach, and then topped with beef bulgogi and sesame. It initially didn't look like much but was definitely filling.

The highlight of the meal was undoubtedly the KFC (Korean fried chicken) - pieces of juicy chicken coated in batter, (doubled) fried to create its crunchy exterior:

Original KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) ($15 on Wed; otherwise $30)

This is only the second Korean place where I've had KFC (the other being Beschico, Epping, which is highly rated for its KFC) but I think this one wins. You can also choose to get the KFC coated in chilli or teriyaki garlic sauce ($1 extra). The best thing about the dish was that it's half price on Wednesdays, along with all other KFC!

By the end of dinner, all of my friends enjoyed the food and were willing to eat at the restaurant again. Personally, the (discounted) KFC was by far the redeeming factor, otherwise I would be hesitant on returning (still disappointed over the side dishes). My advise would be to go on Wednesdays just for their half price fried chicken.

However, just to be fair, I might go back in the near future to try out their BBQ and/or hotpot (since it is their specialty) and give them one more go.