REVIEW
Patience. You’ll need it to land one of six seats at chef Jung Eun Chae’s Cockatoo home, where the seasonal, medicinal, ferment-heavy Korean menu unfolds. It’s also the powerful force that underpins the experience – given even more breadth by a recent move from a Brunswick apartment to a mountain house girt by gardens, ferns and giant urns. Chae’s arsenal of traditional, fastidiously made Korean condiments (fruits turned into drinking vinegars; soy to arrestingly vibrant sauce) is revelatory to behold. Behind a timber bench, fire crackling, Chae calmly plates punchy pickles; kingfish sashimi, practically reanimated by that living soy sauce; congee-like pine nut porridge to bring the soothe. Her latest boozy rice brew, makgeolli, fills cups. The deliberately neutral centrepiece – perhaps steamed rice and veg, with a pure mussel and Murray cod broth – allows shrimp-pungent perilla-leaf kimchi and the funk and crunch of anchovies and almonds to shine. Pure and potent, a paean to patience – worth the wait.
ABOUT
Chae
Korean
33 Mountain Rd, Cockatoo
Chef Jung Eun Chae
Price guide $$
Bookings Essential
Wheelchair access No
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Fri-Sat
This review was written independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide’s reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way. To learn more about the process, head over here.
Gourmet Traveller Annual Restaurant Guide
Our guide gives a yearly snapshot of the best restaurants to eat at right now. The best-rated restaurants, as judged by the reviewers’ first-hand experience, form our national guide.
