A Korean adventure
Asadal is fabulously alien. In its dim, barbecue-smoky walls, you get the sense that you're somewhere entirely exotic, not a basement beside Holborn Tube.
This is a branch of Asadal in New Malden (Little Korea) and has already been enthusiastically adopted by an appreciative audience of diners, both Korean and Londoner.
Everything, from kimchee, the essential hot cabbage pickle, to exotica such as 'nutritious stone bowl rice', was splendid. Our freakily cheerful hostess guided us away from some choices, with phrases such as 'you won't like that' and 'not real crab'.
In Korean restos, I always have Yuk hwe, that heavenly version of beef tartare with egg yolk, Asian pear and sesame oil (our hostess: 'it's raw...'). Here it was too chilly, but otherwise lush.
Little potsticker-style dumplings were light and savoury and a chilli-rich monkfish dish ('very hot' warned our hostess) brought a vast mound of richly fiery fish. Bibimbap - beef grilled on the table's integral barbecue - was the best I've tried in London.
And the rice bowl was an intriguing curiosity, launching unexpected taste bombs of date, ginko and ginseng to unsettling but interesting effect. You come away buzzed by the vibrant cleanliness of the flavours - a great place to start the Korean adventure.
A meal for two with wine, water and service costs about £85. 227 High Holborn WC1. Tel: 020 7430 9006. Tube: Holborn
Asadal
227 High Holborn, WC1V 7DA
