Ga Bin - Adelaide

I was excited to try Ga Bin, a new Korean restaurant near Chinatown. However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment once I visited.

To start off, make sure to get the Kimchi pancake as your first order. In fact, order two of them. Although the rest of the menu at this restaurant is good, these pancakes are outstanding. They are crispy on the outside and have a slightly...

I dined at this restaurant on April 14th, 2016 with some friends to experience a new Korean dining spot. It was conveniently located near Chinatown with accessible street parking.

Ga Bin, when I saw that a new Korean restaurant had opened near china town I was overjoyed, which may have been the cause of my disappointment when I came to this restaurant. While the service is good and the food I ordered was ok, I was disappointed to find that more than 75% of their menu weren 't korean dishes and the few korean dishes that they do make are pretty basic for a restaurant of that size. Coming to a Korean restaurant, I don 't expect to read Cantonese sweet sour pork among other things. I understand expanding your menu in order to accommodate different patrons, but if I wanted chinese food, I would go to a chinese restaurant. When you advertise yourself as a Korean restaurant, my expectation is to come and be overwhelmed by the sheer Korean ness of your menu so that I may eat what I came here for which would be Korean food. I 'll admit it has been awhile since I 've dined in here, but passing by and having a look at their menu I see it still hasn 't changed much. As a restaurant, it has a nice spacious interior and the food for what they serve is good. My primary qualm is that they 've decided to dilute their menu in what I feel is an effort to attract more of the usual visitors to chinatown. Seriously, there are not that many great Korean restaurants around, but there are a ton of chinese restaurants. You shouldn 't be competing with them. You should be UNIQUE. Change the menu, be KOREAN and people will flock to your restaurant like wildfire because trust me, there are people such as myself that would jump at the opportunity to eat good Korean food in Adelaide.

First things first: order the Kimchi pancake. Order two of them. While the rest of the menu here is good, these are great. Crispy on the outside, slightly squishy on the inside, that trademark kimchi flavour. Okay, now I've got that off my chest... Ga Bin is a relatively new Korean place, off the main strip of Grote St. The first thing you'll notice is that it's absurdly large frontage and spacious interior look a little odd it used to be a furniture display room. They've made the best of the cavernous white interior with wooden screens and lovely ceramics and wall hangings. It still feels a little empty though maybe some paint on the walls and a few tweaks to the layout would help. This certainly isn't a big complaint though it is still a very comfortable place to eat, especially you want to be able to hear your companions talk. This place is pretty reasonably priced, especially for Korean food which at some places around town can be pricey. I nearly always get the Dolsot Bibimbap (which is done very well here), but there are other good things on the extensive menu. In the last six months they have also added three big hotpot options to the menu, which can be shared between two to four people. The Bulgogi hotpot is really delicious. With all meals come a selections of side dishes little plates of pickles, kimchi and tiny Korean pancakes. If you want a drink with your meal, try out a Korean beer, or as a dessert wine the Ume plum wine is great. As of the last time I was there, Ga Bin don't have an official dessert menu, but they will whip something up for you if you ask. Usually they will offer one of two things sweet corn balls or fried sweet potato with syrup. Both of these are good, but their desserts isn't my top pick. Well worth a visit, and excellent lunchtime specials.