EAT: ONDO, MELBOURNE CBD — THEYCALLMEMAGGIE

Despite having only been open for ~7 months, Armadale Korean cafe Ondo has made splash after splash in Melbourne’s brunch scene AND have already opened a second location in the CBD. Talk about being an overachiever in the brunch-sphere. I had been wanting to visit the Armadale location after the continuous deluge of posts on my feed, but never got around to lining up my ducks. Luckily for me and my misaligned ducks, the city location is much easier to visit, and I was able to do so within the first week of their doors opening.

One of Ondo’s biggest drawcards is the serving of their savoury items in lunch sets comprised of an assortment of banchan side dishes. From all the posts I had seen prior to our visit, I already knew that we couldn’t not order the yukhoe raw beef tartare bibimbap. Surprise surprise (not), the dish is popular for good reason. I love a good beef tartare, and the Korean take (or rather, Ondo’s take) has a spicy sweet presence that works beautifully with the natural flavours of tender beef and umami from the seaweed. The overall result is an explosive but wonderfully balanced blend of flavours thanks to the other elements in the bowl: the fresh bite of the veggies and the garlicky aroma from the rice. By comparison, the overall flavour palette of the makguksu buckwheat noodles tasted somewhat tamer, but I quite enjoyed the nutty and umami profile and the puffed grains added an exciting textural element. Both dishes make a great duo if you’re going halvies with someone.