CeCi Korean Restaurant

So the pink floral wallpaper might scream Great Aunt Ethel’s living room, but we bet she never ate kimchi and jap chae in front of the telly. Instead you’ll find a happy chaos of students and families at CeCi, all talking at once whilst still managing to pick their way around the small dishes of appetisers, or panchan, that are served free to each table. If you’re a control freak, a show-off chef or love eating meat straight off the barbie, you’ll want to cook your own meat on the tabletop grill. Get into marinated beef slices, marinated chicken, slices of pork belly or prawns in the shell (each $15) but be warned – it’s always the person sitting nearest the grill who ends up cooking for everyone. Otherwise let the kitchen do all the work. A hotplate of LA BBQ beef short ribs ($15) is fatty, tender and deliciously sweet. Jap chae ($12) combines sweet potato noodles with stir-fried beef, capsicum, shallots and sesame seeds. For the all-in-one meal, it’s all about the classic bibimbap ($13), a hot stone bowl of rice with beef, mushrooms, green vegetables and a fried egg sunny side up. Mix it all up, hoe on in and when you reach the end you should find a layer of crunchy rice on the bottom. Score.