Dongnae, Bristol: ‘a Handpicked Flurry Of Korean Loveliness’ – Restaurant Review | Grace Dent On Restaurants

Bristol’s very cool Chandos Road area isn’t by immoderate intends a caller food-lovers’ hotspot. No, nan stoves successful this portion of municipality person been bubbling distant for decades – erstwhile upon a time, Keith Floyd, nan original firestarter of nan room bad boys, held tribunal connected this very road. If you’re a young point and blissfully unaware of our man Floyd, please avail yourself of nan hundreds of YouTube clips retired location and count nan galore moments erstwhile his wit, snark and, successful galore cases, boggle-eyed drunkenness would not beryllium deemed fresh successful these modern-day puritan times.

Floyd whitethorn beryllium agelong gone, but nan 21st-century Chandos Road is location to, among others, nan well-loved Little Hollows Pasta Co and nan much-lauded farm-to-fork Wilsons, and past autumn they were joined by Korean restuarant Dongnae, from husband-and-wife squad Duncan Robertson and Kyu Jeong Jeon. The brace met astatine L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon successful Paris, moved connected to tally nan now defunct L’Envie successful Brive-La-Gaillarde, south-west France, earlier spending nan champion portion of a decade successful Jeon’s autochthonal Korea. In 2019, they settled successful Bristol to unfastened nan very celebrated Bokman, wherever dumplings, kimchi fried atom and cherry-flavoured soft-serve Jersey ice-cream are nan bid of nan day.

‘Cute’: Dongnae’s charcoal-grilled dayboat mackerel comes pinch generous ssam and sauces connected nan side.

Their latest task is simply a small much earnest, authentic and pared back, though. It’s billed arsenic a accepted neighbourhood Korean barbecue restaurant, but it’s really a small alien and much homespun than that. While London edifice investors mightiness splurge tens of thousands of pounds connected imported chandeliers, Dongnae uses Ikea-alike student bedsit insubstantial lanterns successful its two-store shopfront space, and has spent very small so connected furniture, wallpaper and counters. Rather fittingly, successful fact, it feels a spot arsenic if you are in a student bedsit, only pinch Robertson doing nan communal cooking each night.

In keeping pinch this wide aura, nan paper itself is delicate, bespoke and thoughtful, too. Expect octopus and lamb fat kkochi (skewers), type punchy kimchis, hand-dived scallops, cockle and mussel bibimbap, and Korean beef tartare. Expect cold, bracing Korean soups and peculiar but unforgettable pond-green puddings – but much of that later. At lunch, location is an à la carte and a £24 group paper and, astatine dinner, nan action of a hanjeongsik, an omakase-style seven-course paper that changes daily, and offers a handpicked flurry of Korean loveliness.

‘Like beef tartare, but not’: Dongnae’s yukhoe.

Dongnae is odd, unsocial and perfectly a roaring deed pinch Bristol’s diners. It whitethorn not beryllium to everyone’s taste, particularly if your only knowledge of Korean cooking is generous portions of Brit-pleasing scallion pancakes, bulgogi and, of course, bubbling sweetcorn successful food sauce, each washed down pinch peach soju. Instead, present location are ginger aged fashioneds, a low-intervention vino list, delicate servings of grilled monkfish pinch octopus alongside mini bowls of seasoned seaweed aliases mustard leafage kimchi, and a very bully earthy oversea bass mulhwe crockery made pinch caller sweetener tomatoes. And if you get a spot mislaid trying to make caput aliases tail of nan menu, Dongnae’s unit will expertly guideline you done it and explicate nan quality betwixt your naengchae and your naengguk. Yes, yukhoe is for illustration beef tartare, and present it comes pinch a mound of leaves, cucumber and radish, each designed to beryllium rolled up successful sheets of nori. Bowls of soft, glossy yellowish tofu travel festooned pinch whiffy grated bottarga, though nan beforehand of location couldn’t, of course, thief maine transportation it to my rima erstwhile it evaded my attempts to seizure it pinch nan dainty chopsticks. We ate a hunk of basking grilled mackerel and cubes of wagyu that arrived connected a tiny small grill pinch generous ssam and sauces connected nan side.

‘One of nan top things I’ve ever tasted’: Dongnae’s mugwort and achromatic sesame cake.

Dongnae is an ornate feast of sweet, sour, sharp, puzzling and powerful. It is small wonderment that Bristol’s nutrient segment is fighting for a array and emotion somewhat irked that those tables now travel pinch a constricted clip span. I didn’t really expect overmuch from dessert, because connected nan look of it these group look truthful very serious, but really foolish I was, because Jeon’s mugwort barroom is 1 of nan top things I’ve ever tasted. Yes, it looks for illustration it ought to beryllium dished up astatine a Harry Potter-themed beverage party, and yes, it’s bluish successful places and algae-green successful others, but nan novelty ends nan infinitesimal you wound into its complex, soft, creamy, buttery richness. Mugwort cake, it turns out, is nan sponge barroom it has taken maine until my vintage years to discover, and now I conifer for it daily. This higgledy-piggledy edifice is causing a operation connected Chandos Road, conscionable arsenic Floyd erstwhile did, but for very different reasons. Grab a spot if you can. Buckle up. Enjoy nan ride.

• Dongnae 5-7 Chandos Road, Redland, Bristol BS6, 0117 302 1034. Open Tues-Sat, luncheon noon-3pm, meal 5-11pm. From astir £50 a caput à la carte; group luncheon £24; seven-course hanjeongsik tasting paper £65, each positive drinks and service

• The adjacent section of Grace’s Comfort Eating podcast is retired connected Tuesday 19 August – perceive to it here.