Doo Ri @ Strathfield

One of my good friends came back to Australia after a year's travelling and studying in Europe and Korea. She regularly uploaded photos of her trip (none of food unfortunately), of endless snowy sheets across the German country, the beautiful night lights of Amsterdam, the narrow cobblestone alleyways of Italy.. What a lucky gal!

We met up at the fountain at Strathfield Square and went to Doo Ri, located at the bottom of the Meriton apartment building. It was packed but fortunately, there was a table just for us, although we did have to squeeze 5 people into a 4 person table.

The staff was in a hurry, trying to take orders, delivering the food, clearing tables, but a waitress came soon after we sat down, wiped our table down and gave us the menu. I demanded we get sweet chili fried chicken and we also got the Fish Roe Stew and a few bottles of alcohol (soju, beer, makkoli).

Being the experienced drinker, one of my friends quickly conjured up a 'cocktail' called 'Somekkol'. It has three layers, coke at the bottom, soju at the top, and is surrounded by beer. The best part about this drink is the coke masks the alcohol taste at the end so it feels like you haven't drunk at all. The loser of the bottle cap flicking game had to drink it all in one go.

They gave us styrofoam cups. Shouldn't the restaurant have more cups than the seating capacity? What ridiculous service.

This was the half-half. Half fried chicken, half sweet chili fried chicken. We were appalled at the amount and the taste. It's called sweet chili but the marinade is supposed to be more than sweet chili. It was like they just quickly poured sweet chili sauce onto fried chicken. The pieces they gave us were also tiny with no flesh at all. It's hard to believe they're selling this for $22.

The banchan (side dishes) were ok but not remarkable. The potatoes were tasty enough. It was fried then coated in chili oil. They also give Asian styled potato salad with sultanas, fruits, and cucumber. The broccoli dish was too limp and thin, served in chili paste sauce and the other ones, not that great. I guess you cant expect much at Korean restaurants here in Australia.

The Fish Roe Stew. This one wasn't too bad. It was a slightly spicy chili soup with tofu, fish roes, and a few veggies. I'm not a big fan of fish roe so I gave most of mine away to a friend but if you don't mind it, there were quite a lot of them in here. It would have been better with more vegetables though!

Overall, I would rate this place 4/10. Their $10 lunch menu seemed healthy and nice but judging by their dinner menu, I wouldn't really expect much of it. It's a shame there aren't many authentic Korean restaurants in Sydney that brings out the true Korean flavour. I'll try to visit a few and tell you where the best Korean eateries are found!