I went to New Malden on a Tuesday evening to visit the large Korean supermarkert 'Korea Food' to get my fix of Korean cooking sauces, kimchi and snacks but after seeing the various Korean restaurants along the high street my friends and I decided to eat here intead of trying to find somewhere to eat on our long car drive back home. Having never been to New Malden before we asked in the local Seoul Plaza (a small Korean store) what place would be best, we were told to try a restaurant called Haru that was a few doors down but upon getting there it was closed. So we wandered down the street looking at the others until we came to Sorabol. From the outside it looked small but had a good feel to it so we went inside. The decor and seating were clean, comfortable and unfussy and had a cosy feel. We were quickly seated by a friendly waitress and given menus. The choice was very good and after umming and ahhing we decided to go for three potions of the beef bulgogi Korean BBQ, which none of us had tried before and the side dishes to go with it (which was extra, a little annoying as I know they should be free with the BBQ but in England that never seems the case) we also ordered a kimchi jeon (pancake) to share between us and some Korean rice wine that I had always wanted to try after seeing it at another restaurant a long time ago, I can't remember the name but it came in a large plastic bottle and was milky looking, it tasted very refreshing and light.
The kimchi pancake and various side dishes of vegtables (which were free) were promptly brought out and we tucked in. The jeon wasn't as crispy as I normally like them to be but it was very tasty. Then came out many more side dished, lettuce leaves, bowls of rice, a pasty red/orange sauce and some other vegtables then three huge plates of uncooked thinly sliced marinated beef. The waitress lit the tabletop BBQ and cooked it for us with tongs, when it was done she gestured with a friendly smile for us to eat, one of my friends hesitated, unsure just exactly what he was meant to do and before I could begin trying to explain the friendly waitress kindly showed him how to eat the dish: lettuce leaf filled with beef, rice and sauce and eaten with the hands.
The taste was amazing, the meat so tender and tasty that it was great to eat it just on it's own but together with the other ingredients was just delicious! Completely new flavours to all of us and very moreish. We ended up overeatting not even aware we were doing so. After the meal we were each given two free slices of fresh orange to round off the meal and after waiting a little while until we all felt we could move we paid the bill which came to around £50 which we all felt was a fair price for all the food.
When we got up to leave we were given friendly goodbyes and left feeling full and happy. read more