Kimchi Cafe, Downtown Korean Dining

Someone the other day at work mentioned to me that I tend to eat at Korean places. Curiously, I began reading through this blog and realized that a good half-dozen posts are Korean joints in Winnipeg. Partially due to my love and craving for Gamjatang, partially due to a lack of exposure of Korean cuisine in the Winnipeg food blogger world, and partially because its just too delicious not to blog about, I found myself at another.

Kimchi Cafe was recommended to me by a fellow resident. Located in downtown, this was an area of Winnipeg I had not, as of yet, explored much of. Unable to turn down an excuse to eat, I ventured out in the cold to Kimchi Cafe.

Kimchi Cafe is another hybrid restaurant serving both Korean and Japanese dishes. The clientele and owners seemed to point towards an ethnically Korean background for the restaurant. Thus with our empty stomachs urging us on, we delved into the menu.

Japchae is a classic dish consisting of fried sweet potato noodles fried with vegetables in a sweet soy dressing. The version here was quite nice with super tender noodles and refreshing vegetables. A common mistake is to over-sauce this dish and Kimchi Cafe showed nice restraint by only adding as much soy as needed to enhance but not overpower the other ingredients.

Unable to find my usual Gamjatang, I went along and ordered a Gal-bi-tang. A beef short rib soup in a clear broth with noodles and potatoes. This dish had a nice flavour from the boiled fatty beef ribs. Overall the meat itself was tough, sinewy and lackluster. The noodles and potatoes soaked up the rest of the flavours beautifully and compensated well for the disappointing meat. Overall simply okay.

Feeling a little carnivorous, we also ordered a Bulgogi. Another classic Korean dish featuring slices of beef marinated in sweet soy and fried with vegetables. Kimchi Cafe gave a solid effort here. They were able to find a nice balance of flavours between the meat, vegetables and sweet soy dressing. The serving size was a bit small but the flavours made up for it.

Obligatory picture of the Banchans: Marinated Potatoes, Kimchi, Bean Sprouts. Everything was as you would expect. The Kimchi was on the better end of the spectrum with a nice balance of spices.

Overall Kimchi Cafe is a solid Korean restaurant. They seem to strive to nail the basic Korean flavours down. Their prices and servings sizes are on the pricier (and smaller) side but one has to consider their prime location and applaud them for making as authentic dishes as possible.