16 May White Tomato, Melbourne CBD Take 2

The restaurant was much busier than it was on my first visit. It took a little while for someone to come and wipe the table after the previous occupant and give me a menu. I was tempted to try the chicken dolsot bibimbap, but for the sake of comparison I went with beef.

This time the side dishes (banchan) were a bit different: daikon (not onion), kimchi and fried tofu. I was surprised by how quickly my bibimbap arrived; it came to my table just after I had tried one of each side dish.

This bibimbap came with beef, shiitake mushroom, zucchini, taugeh, carrot, onion, (pink-dyed) picked daikon and raw egg. I liked how the beef was less sweet than the beef bibimbap at Seoul Soul. The flavour of the dish wasn’t quite as good as the Seoul Soul version, and not just because I didn’t put as much gochujang. Maybe it was the addition of sesame oil that made the difference. I was also looking forward to some crispy rice considering how wet and gloomy the weather was today, but unfortunately the rice was a bit soggy and didn’t have the crispiness at the base.

It was almost felt like the bibimbap ingredients were simply being plated up in a dolsot rather than being cooked in it. Maybe there wasn’t any crispiness because the rice was too wet for it to occur; I’m sure they must have put the dolsot on the stove with the ingredients, otherwise it wouldn’t be hot, but I was very disappointed by the consistency of the rice.

White Tomato
160-162 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC, 3000
(03) 9663 0370
http://www.whitetomato.com.au/