HOMIGA Bangalore

When you stay at around Residency Road in Bangalore, there are plenty of foreign cuisines to choose from when you wish to have something which is not local

We saw the signboard from the main street and decided to try Korean barbecue for the evening. The red signboard gives off a scary Korean movie vibe, but once you enter, it looks like your typical Korean barbecue restaurant

With the signature metal pipes and grill, the restaurant is quite smoke-free and oil-free. We were the first table in the restaurant, but the crowd started to pour in in the middle of our meal

The restaurant offers a good variety of authentic Korean dishes, especially when it comes to the stew, soups and noodle dishes. They also offer pretty good lunch specials, where you get to taste a few different items at an affordable price

Firstly, judging by the side dishes they served, the food should be very authentic, as some of these side dishes are served only in Korean restaurants in Korea. The kimchi was on the sour side, which is quite over-fermented. They also served soy-marinated lotus roots, lightly seasoned spinach, and soy bean marinated leeks, pickled chilli and garlic, as well as acorn jelly. The vegetable platter included cucumber and carrot sticks, sweet pickled garlic, chilli slices, lettuce and perilla leaf

We ordered a few of the usual suspects when you visit a Korean barbecue: the kimchi pancake and soft tofu soup. The pancake was cooked perfectly with nice crispy edges and soft chewy insides. The kimchi paired well with the dough by adding the right acidity, making the dish quite addictive. The soup was served in the traditional claypot with generous ingredients like tofu and seafood. The soup was quite decent in flavour, with the right savoury depth and light spice kick

Any visit to a Korean barbecue is not complete without samgyeopsal, pork belly. I prefer pork collar for a leaner cut of meat, but pork jowl and pork belly are the hot favourites, so we order a plate of each cut of meat. The staff will fully service you with the grilling of the meat. As you can see from the photo, the staff over-grilled most of the meat and made it extra crispy like roast pork instead of barbecue meat. The natural meat juices were lost in the process, making most of the meat crispy and dry

With barbeque, the official drink to order is soju, and while their soju prices are significantly higher than in Korea, they do import the proper Korean soju brands. Since I cannot drink as much, I ordered an additional yuzu ade, which is made of yuzu tea combined with sparkling water and ice. The yuzu ade was nice and refreshing to wash away the grease of the meat and also help with sobering from the soju. They also offered a complimentary iced traditional tea, which helps with the digestion of the meal. I forgot the name if the name but it tasted light and sweet

Overall, the dishes were pretty good and authentic in terms of flavour, but the meal was slightly imperfect due to the grilling skills of the staff, where they overgrill most of the meats, and the natural juices are all lost. However, if you are craving Korean food in Bangalore, this restaurant is still a good choice, but perhaps opt to grill your own meat

Address:  2nd Floor, Forum Rex Walk, Brigade Rd, Shanthala Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India

Opening hours: 12.30 pm to 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm to 12.30 am ( Mon to Fri), 12.30 pm to 12.30 am ( Sat and Sun)