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Towoo is authentic Korean BBQ in the inner-east, not exactly where you’d normally pin a completely authentic KBBQ joint, but I can assure you, it is truly authentic.

Just off the corner of Union Road and Whitehorse Road, next to Hilltop Cakes and a couple of doors down from Purvis Wine Cellars. With BYO available, safe to say you’re pretty set.

So, for anyone that hasn’t been to KBBQ before, it’s a grill with coals in the bottom that sits on your table and utilises small, tender cuts like beef short-rib, pork belly, chicken, as well as marinated meats and fresh vegetables. This means you get a smokey, flavoursome and as-fresh-as-can-be cuts of meat.

Towoo’s owner is an interior designer, his brother a chef, his father a carpenter and his mother an artist. You quickly see this reflected throughout the design, tableware and menu. Wood wabi-sabi panels line the wall and you walk in and a chalk mural of Melbourne features throughout, you see the exhaust chimneys pulled over each table ready for you to be seated and  to crank it.

You can choose to order a la carte or choose from their number of set menus. I recommend a set menu, it can look a little pricey from the outset but fill you table with another couple and it all starts becoming more ‘normal’ Melbourne restaurant prices. We got the $128 beef set and added a couple of extras.

So, with any set menu they bring out a row of starters (hot tip: they’re unlimited, so eat away): tofu, kimchi, seaweed, pickled radish paper, they’re all weirdly addictive.

Their Garden Salad is also moreish, the black sesame dressing is one we’ve remade at home because we cannot get enough of it and we can’t exactly go out for dinner just for the garden salad. I live for salads that are actually good!

Then the waitress came over and started grilling for us: Black Angus Beef Short Rib Fillet, Black Angus Beef Scotch Fillet, Marinated Beef Rib over hot coals. Not only do you get the novelty of watching your food getting cooked right in front of you, it’s also delightfully delicious. They keep most of the meat on the rarer side and cut it into bite sized pieces for the table to share. They left the bone of the short rib on the grill and we sucked out the marrow. It all comes with dipping sauce and cos lettuce to cut through the piles of meat.

My favourite mushrooms made a feature; enoki mushrooms, fried over hot coals, to die for

There was also sweet potato, potato, oyster mushrooms, garlic.

We added the KFC, that’s Korean Fried Chicken, cheesy corn, and the teriyaki chicken dupbap.

The KFC is cornflake style, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. 

Let me leave you with this: If you ever see cheesy corn on a menu, I urge you to get it, every time.

Towoo
603 Whitehorse Rd
Surrey Hills