DAORAE Korean BBQ...

The thing I love about my current company is that we’re all food lovers, and are always on the lookout for new places to try. During our recent regular foray out for food, we decided on Korean barbeque and ended up at this establishment called DAORAE in Hartamas.

First impressions of the place were rather unassuming. The signage was clear enough downstairs, but once we got to upstairs, there weren’t any other directions to guide us. It didn’t help that the staff at the restaurant were mostly Nepalese or Korean and could not speak much English. Nevertheless, the setting itself was quite interesting (note the silver chopsticks!).

We decided to opt for cooking a variety of meats, which was cooked for us on the hot grills. No worries if you’re not the best of cooks – the wait staff are absolutely brilliant at their job, and cooked the meat to perfection.

All the food also came with various side dishes such as spicy long beans, toasted ikan bilis, pickles, kimchi, fresh lettuce and soup.

We also ordered a huge portion of Kimchi-jeon-gol, which was a spicy combination of Korean noodles and various meats and vegetables simmered steamboat style.

The steamboat was put on a side table to simmer while we devoured the barbequed meats, and was served last. It was the perfect topper to the meal.

Springy noodles in spicy soup...it was kind of a take on the kimchi instant noodles soup, but so much better! *urrpp* I think the results speak for themselves:

The verdict? This has been one of the best Korean restaurants I’ve been to. Admittedly, it’s rather pricey at RM20-RM40 per plate of meat, but the quality of the food’s stellar enough to put the price tags out of your mind throughout the duration of the meal.

Recommendations – try the following for absolute heaven:

Saeng-deung-shim (fresh rib eye seasoned with sesame oil)
Gal-bi (beef ribs marinated in Daorae’s special sauce)
Yang-nyum Dak-gal-bi (marinated skinless chicken fillets)
Yang-nyum Yang-go-gi (choice cuts of lamb marinated in sweet soy sauce)

DAORAE Korean BBQ
2nd Floor, 9-1, Jalan 23/ 70 A,
Desa Sri Hartamas


Rating: 4.5/5
Value: $