Sam Sam, Swanston St CBD

It is not difficult to pick a restaurant in the city to have a meal at. The difficulty is to keep track of new restaurants and trying them out. My friend and I decided to walk along Swanston Street and blindly choose a restaurant for lunch. 

Sam Sam looked like the perfect place. It serves Korean food, it was relatively empty at that time which usually means faster service, and the words fried chicken caught our eye.

We ordered the pork belly stir fried with vege with rice ($14), beef bibimbap ($13) and kimchi fries ($12). The dishes were a bit pricey, and they do not come with the usual banchan or side dishes either.

Spicy pork belly

Beef bibimbap

Kimchi fries

The kimchi fries were topped with mayo, kimchi, bacon, jalapenos and was the best dish of the three. We really enjoyed the crispy shoestring fries and the salty, spicy sauce.

Unfortunately, neither the spicy pork belly and bibimbap lived up to our expectations. After scoffing down a whole portion of  delicious fries, and waiting for about another 20 minutes for our dishes, we were a little disappointed with the flavours of the food that arrived next.

My friend commented that his pork belly was not spicy and I also found my beef bibimbap to be rather bland and dry even with the addition of the pepper sauce. The rice was crispy at the bottom of the stone bowl which gave it a nice crunch, but overall it was bland and dry.

Note to myself : stick with fried foods like fried chicken and fries next time.