Chef Junho ‘Luffy’ Koh, and Chef Jun Kim, Sous Chef. Photo: Adam McGrath.
Azuma Den is the newest venue at East Hotel, part of the Bisa Hospitality Group, blending Korean and Japanese influences in a casual yet classy setting. The space formerly occupied by Muse has been transformed with paper lantern globes, Korean pottery and quirky wall art. The front bar, which once housed a coffee machine, has been glassed-in to feature a hibachi grill.
Chef Junho ‘Luffy’ Koh explained that the team wanted to combine the precision and fine dining of Japanese cuisine with more casual home-style Korean food to create a laid-back atmosphere.
There are multiple set-menu options to choose from (including a fully vegan menu), but we decided to go à la carte, starting with edamame, which are flame-grilled, tossed with seaweed and dusted in a shichimi togarashi spice blend. The char from the grill transforms this simple snack into something extraordinarily tasty: sweet, smoky and complex.
We also snack on shishito peppers, which are sweet rather than spicy, and tasty with a soy dressing. And the accompanying cocktails are lovely. I chose the martini, which is made with house-made apple and ginger syrup and white soy for a depth of flavour that underpins the gin nicely. My friend has a blackberry and whisky cocktail, which also includes gochang spices for a gentle warmth in each sip.
Flamed scallops come with a rich yuzu butter and pops of salmon roe. It’s a very tasty bite indeed. Panfried pork and ginger dumplings are packed full of flavour, and juicy as anything.
Chef Junho ‘Luffy’ Koh is the Bisa executive chef. Photo: Adam McGrath.
Each dish is served on beautiful tableware, and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the small details of Azuma Den: down to quirky fish bottles to pour sparkling water and even themed matchbooks. The menu is also well-suited to dietary requirements, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. They use gluten-free soy sauce, and other allergens are clearly labelled.
The Chef’s Kitchen section of the menu features a range of Korean classics, including Chef Jun’s fried chicken with sweet chilli sauce, Jjamppong spicy seafood noodle soup, and sweet potato noodles with enoki mushrooms.
We settle on the Ssam pork belly wraps: tender pork belly slow-cooked then finished on the grill, served with bitter perilla leaves, lettuce leaves, a rich soy and chilli paste and house-made pineapple and ginger pickle. We are instructed in how to layer each flavour and build a wrap to eat with our hands. The balance between fatty pork, contrasting tangy pickles, fresh leaves, and umami-rich chilli paste is fabulous.
For a side dish, we pick the cucumber kimchi. After a recent visit to South Korea, I have become somewhat obsessed with kimchi, and I loved this refreshing cucumber version. The flavour was great, with just the right amount of spice, and it paired really nicely with the ssam.
The Ssam Pork Belly Wraps are beautifully balanced. Photo: Adam McGrath.
Chef Luffy visits our table and explains that Azuma means East in Japanese, and the logo shows the Hangul (Korean script) for the word East. The menu showcases East Asian cuisines, and of course, the restaurant is at East Hotel, so there’s a nice synchronicity going on. He is friendly and earnest: his whole career has been centred around Italian cooking, so Azuma is his first opportunity to showcase the foods of his home country, South Korea.
He tells us that he used his experience in cooking European desserts to create our next dish: the AZD Crème Brûlée with mandarin and ginger.
I had a truly memorable moment with this dessert. It was ‘dance in your chair’ good. It was ‘involuntary noises’ good. The topping was properly caramelised, the crème was, well, creamy, and the mandarin and ginger flavours elevated it from really good to incredible.
The interior is full of careful details. Photo: Adam McGrath.
The night we visited was in Azuma Den’s second week of operation, and the restaurant was packed. Service was friendly and prompt, and one or two minor delays were totally understandable given how busy the team was.
I’ll be back for their lunch menu and to try Chef Jun’s fried chicken. I’d love to sit at the kitchen bar next time to watch the theatre of the grill team at work – there’s a whole hibachi section of the menu to try – and I’d also really like to come with a big group and share more items. To be honest, I’d be content just to sit back and snack on those edamame with a martini in hand.
Azuma Den is located in East Hotel, 69 Canberra Avenue, Kingston. They are open for lunch from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 noon to 3 pm, and for dinner seven days a week, from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm.
