Palsaik (Korean BBQ) – Haymarket

April 17, 2015

Opened from 6th Feb 2015 at Haymarket, near World Square, there’s a new Korean BBQ restaurant that opened. This is a chain restaurant that has shops in Seoul: Korea (of course), Beijing & Shanghai: China, KL: Malaysia, LA: USA, Perth & Melbourne: Australia and now in Sydney too. The specialty here is it’s 8 flavour pork belly BBQ dish, which you will see further down the menu.

The location for this is tucked away under some apartment buildings, and honestly, I’ve walked past this place many many times and not notice this restaurant at all.

Entrance of Palsaik – Eight Flavours Korean BBQ

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Take the elevator up to the 1st floor and the staff will take you to your table. This place isn’t too dark and dreary and not glaringly bright either. If you are looking at taking food pics, there are some tables that are better lit than others. Or bring a flash.

1st floor, upon walking in, bar is on your right. Bathroom’s on level 2.

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As you can see, there are indoor and outdoor seating options. On weekends, level 2 will be open for more guests as well. The indoor seating has really good ventilation system that makes indoor seating rather comfortable as well.

Level 1 – Indoor vs Outdoor

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This is the set that they are famous for. 8 colourful flavours of pork belly. This $59 set (which you will see later down the page) consists of 8 different types of pork belly flavours, 2 bowls of rice, vegetable platter and a Seafood soybean paste hot-pot.

8 Flavour Set $59

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Kimchi is a very important component in terms of dishes at a Korean restaurant, and this is no different. The kimchee here is good. Not overly tart and a reasonably good kick of spiciness. It might not be spicy enough for some of us, but it sure is good enough for me.

cold dishes. Ignore the empty bowl, it is a drip plate for grease sliding off the hot-plate.

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Here we have a yoghurt cocktail. Have you ever had Calpis water? It tastes just like that, except it has alcohol in it. It’s not really strong (flavour of alcohol), and I have no idea what the alcohol % is, but it tastes great! The chopstick is for you to stir through before serving. The foamy bit on top will be poured into your little shot glass and is part of the drink. Drink does settle after awhile, so stir away before serving.

Jug of Yogurt Makgolri Cocktail, 1L – $19

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Here we have a pic of cocktails being poured into little glasses to be served. The drink is smooth and creamy and I quite like how it tastes. The idea of a “yoghurt cocktail” didn’t really sit very well with me, but after a sip and found out that it is just like Calpis water was just great.

served in little glasses

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We ordered 2 sets of food. 1st one was known as Combo Set B (Beef) for $88. It consists of: –

Entree: Seafood pancake
BBQ: Wagyu chuck eye roll, Wagyu Rib Meat, Wagyu Chuck Flap, Marinated Flank Skirt
Soup: Kimchi Hotpot [Kimchi-jeongol]
4 x bowls of rice

You could also add a $48 Palsaik Pork Platter which comes with only the 8 x flavoured pork belly to Combo Set B, which we happily did.

Seafood pancake

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Here’s all the steak in all its glory and wonderment. I love the plating for this place, everything is neat, tidy, and in its own spot. Until it hits the grill, even then it is still neat and tidy. There is dipping sauce provided that pairs really well with the cooked beef.

Beef! More beef! cow on a plate!

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Look at how lovely the marbling on the meat is! Just so so pretty.

Wagyu chuck flap

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I do hope I got the cuts right.

Wagyu rib meat

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This is the marinated beef. Yummy yummy cow on a plate.

Marinated flank skirt

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It is always lovely to know that a restaurant takes the effort to use different grills for different food. This open grill plate would not have worked well with the pork at all (too much fat, causes big big fire). The meat was grilled well, and we had staff cooking the meat for us.

Wagyu chuck eye roll on the grill, with vegetables. I like my sweet potatoes and mushroom grilled.

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Next item on the list is the kimchi hotpot. The soup was good, I really love my glutinous rice cakes and tofu, and this pot has ’em all! Mushrooms too! Both button and enoki mushrooms.

Kimchi Hotpot

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On to the pork belly! BACON! Both the $59 Palsaik set as well as the $48 add-on contains all 8 flavours of pork belly without the other entree, vegetables or rice. The $59 Palsaik set contains Entree: Seafood Soybean Hotpot BBQ: 8 flavours of pork belly (as shown below) 1 x vegetable platter 2 x bowls of rice

Flavours of pork

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Fresh vegetables for wrapping your bbq meat in, as well as fresh vegetables to be grilled on the platter with the pork. Those 2 thick tubular white sticks at the top left are glutinous rice sticks. They actually taste pretty decent after being toasted.

Vegetables platter

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Part of the $59 set, this is a seafood soybean hot-pot. I did not get to try this hotpot, damn prawns and my allergies. The feedback was that the hotpot is alright.

Seafood soybean hot-pot

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I love how organised and tidy the plates are. It tells you the direction to start eating from, and it also tells you what flavours each of the pork belly are.

Start from this end!

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Here we start with the wine. The wine taste isn’t overwhelming or obvious. It is good pork of course!

pork belly marinated in wine

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The Original pork belly. No seasoning whatsoever, pork in its most original form. I quite like it, especially when it is a little over done and crisp. Like a chunky bit of bacon. Mmmm bacon.

original pork belly with no marinade

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Ginseng pork belly, very light taste of ginseng. Ginseng is good for you! Should eat more of it.

Ginseng flavoured pork belly

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Garlic pork belly, you can taste the garlic of course, beautiful and fragrant. Quite like this one.

Pork belly marinated in garlic, and with garlic pieces rolled into it

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Quite a normal tasting herb pork belly. The flavour is there, but will require a little bit of dipping sauce to enhance the flavour.

Pork belly with herb

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Curry flavour, you can taste and smell the curry on this one. Good good pork belly.

pork belly marinated with curry powder

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Miso paste, a nice touch, I am considering marinating pork belly at home with some spicy miso paste before cooking.

pork belly marinated in miso paste

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Last but not least, hot pork belly. I can honestly say that it really isn’t hot or spicy. I had to put a piece of kimchi on this one for the extra kick.

hot/spicy pork belly

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A final look at all the pork belly, look at that beautiful hue and spectrum of colour. To think that someone took the effort to create these colours and flavour is just amazing. And to actually have them all at a bbq, that is just lovely.

a final look back

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Here is all the cooking done on a lovely hot plate with vegetables and such. Grilled sweet potato is pretty good too.

can’t forget the vegetables

In summary for tonight’s dinner of 8 people, we ordered 1 x $59 pork belly set, 1 x $88 combo B + extra $48 pork belly addon, and we spent $30 each ($29.20). Pretty good value for money I have to say! We had a quite a bit of hotpot leftover, and none of us really ate our rice. I suppose we could say there was probably enough food for 8-10 people. The hotpot looks large but is actually rather shallow, I suppose the best way to do this would be to order the extra $48 if people are still hungry after.

The meats were really good, and I would probably return for more pork belly anytime.

Enjoy!

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