Hangang Korean BBQ, Strathfield

A case of mistaken identity turns into a fun night of Korean BBQ in Strathfield with a table that spills over with food (literally, we ran out of room), lots of delicious side dishes and char grilled pork and wagyu beef.

A while back I wrote about a place called Hansang in Strathfield that serves hot pots and soups that I learnt about when my friend Celia posted about it. However, there's also a Hangang, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Strathfield.

With just one letter difference, I accidentally booked us into Hangang instead of Hansang (also because Hansang is newer, Hangang came up on google searches). The day before I realise my error but since we already had the reservation at Hangang and they were so nice on the phone I didn't want to cancel so it was off to Korean BBQ we went. Soup and hot pot would wait for another night.

We walk in and they are super friendly. The woman that greets us and is our waitress is Jina the daughter of the family who own the restaurant and she strikes just the right chord-she's friendly but never intrusive peppering our meal with fun anecdotes about Korean culture (like teaching us that bringing a bowl to your mouth is considered rude in Korean culture).

They bring out a delicious array of banchan. There's a pasta, ham and apple salad, bean sprouts, fish tofu, kimchi, potato chunks, baby bok choy, chestnut jelly and seasoned soft tofu and they're all absolutely delicious.

If I had to choose a favourite it's probably the fish tofu and potato chunks but really they're all good. Along with this they bring out some sauces: a sesame oil with salt and pepper and a spicy fermented soybean paste.

We start with Makgeolli, a fermented rice wine that we all love. Previously we tried the banana one and really enjoyed it. They have the original one here and it's less sweet and not flavoured with fruit yet refreshing and lightly sparkling.

I love Korean pancakes but lately I have found many of them a bit lacking in crispiness and moreishness. This thankfully has broken the curse. It's full of leek and squid and is delightfully crispy. I have to really restrain myself from eating half of this.

Ivy loves ttebokki or rice cakes with fish tofu strips, carrot, boiled egg, spicy gochujang sauce and an extra blanket of cheese.

Jina brings out a complimentary egg omelette. The egg omelette is delicious-light and fluffy and well seasoned it's not watery or just full of air. The whole family is charming including the dad who comes over to chat with us and when Ryan starts to get a bit too much Jina threatens to send her mother over to sort him out.

We also try some of the spicy pork bone hangover stew with a bowl of purple rice. This has plenty of vegetables and two enormous pork bones with a good amount of meat on them. The broth is delicious too although the serve is quite generous so we have a bit of trouble finishing the serve.

There are several different set meals that give you a variety of meats and dishes. There's one that is all beef, all pork or all seafood but we go with the combination beef and pork set meal. Our has the wagyu rib eye steak, bottom sirloin triangle, hangang pork ribs and hangang pork neck.

They even cook these for us bit by bit so that we always have something sizzling away and something ready to eat on the grill. My favourite is always the pork ribs and I enjoy these Bossam style, wrapped up in a cos lettuce leaf with some of the chilli spring onions, the char grilled pork rib meat and a few bits from the banchan.

The other nice thing we noticed is that they automatically bring refills of the banchan especially because we are such big banchan and vegetable eaters. There's no dessert on the menu but there's no shortage of desserts in Strathfield!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever gone to the wrong restaurant or booked the wrong restaurant? Do you like cooking the meat yourself or do you prefer when they cook it for you?

This meal was independently paid for.

Hangang

Corner of Raw Square and Churchill Ave, Strathfield NSW 2135
Open 7 days 10am–10pm
Phone: (02) 8756 5689