REVIEW
Patience. You'll need it to land one of six seats at chef Jung Eun Chae's Cockatoo home, where the seasonal, medicinal, ferment-heavy Korean menu unfolds. It's also the powerful force that underpins the experience – given even more breadth by a recent move from a Brunswick apartment to a mountain house girt by gardens, ferns and giant urns. Chae's arsenal of traditional, fastidiously made Korean condiments (fruits turned into drinking vinegars; soy to arrestingly vibrant sauce) is revelatory to behold. Behind a timber bench, fire crackling, Chae calmly plates punchy pickles; kingfish sashimi, practically reanimated by that living soy sauce; congee-like pine nut porridge to bring the soothe. Her latest boozy rice brew, makgeolli, fills cups. The deliberately neutral centrepiece – perhaps steamed rice and veg, with a pure mussel and Murray cod broth – allows shrimp-pungent perilla-leaf kimchi and the funk and crunch of anchovies and almonds to shine. Pure and potent, a paean to patience – worth the wait.
ABOUT
Chef Jung Eun Chae
Price guide $$
Bookings Essential
Wheelchair access No
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Fri-Sat
Price guide $$
Bookings Essential
Wheelchair access No
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Fri-Sat
This review was written independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide's reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way. To learn more about the process, head over here.
