Mr Lee's Food Restaurant Authentic Korean
Mr Lee's Food is a now famous restaurant in Ringwood East and one of the best Korean restaurants in Melbourne. Located in a humble strip of shops diagonally across from the Maroondah Hospital Mr Lee's Food has attracted diners from all over Melbourne with it's simple menu of only a handful of dishes. But when you do something well why not specialise. Hopefully I never visit Maroondah Hospital but if I do I'll be scheming of how I can get a rick Korean soup from Mr Lee's Food to my room.
Hard to get a table most days but well worth it. Liked the condiments and complementary dishes including rice, an intense shrimp paste, radish kimchi and bean paste cut chilli.
Mr Lee's Food is surely one of the best Korean restaurants in Melbourne, serving up authentic Korean dishes of distinction. Written up in Time Out Melbourne receiving the Best Cheap Eat award is no mean feat. Impressive accolades from a local hero in the burbs. Eastern suburbs locals are rejoicing at this small eatery in Ringwood East, and when we visited it seemed I was the only non-Asian there (often a good sign). Menus posted on the walls of the restaurant seemed to be written in Korean (fair enough) but I was presented with an English version of the menu.
Table service is always a good thing and I asked for the signature dishes; a dumb question as they are all signatures. Really it's a case of variations of 3 essential dishes. When the food arrived I couldn't wotk out where to get the cutlery;when in fact it was inside a delightful box on the table. Very discreet.
Blood sausage soup overdrive. With the organ meat it's offal on offal.
The menu is limited but there's a string of hits, notably the house-made soondae (Korean blood sausage), steamed pork belly and dwaeji guk bap (pork soup with rice). Comfort food at its best and an authentic Korean food triumph. We're glad we are locals that live around here too. No frills and no website, the attraction is in the food.
The Korean blood sausage soup is out of this world with flavoursome pork broth from the bone. My only slight quibble is I like it sllightly saltier so I added a little salt. The inclusion of organ meat was a revelation; as an offal lover I was excited by double offal.
Steamed pork belly is a highlight in itself. Melt in your mouth pork belly.
Wel worth the visit to Ringwood East.