Saturday lunch at Poppo

Yesterday, Jac and I went into town to do a little shopping. I needed a new outfit to wear at an upcoming work function. By the time we emerged from the last shop, laden with shopping bags, feeling tired and considerably poorer, we’d also worked up a good appetite. We decided to have a late lunch at Poppo, the Korean and Japanese restaurant at 137 Barrack Street. We’ve eaten takeaway meals from there but never dined in.

After much indecision (both of us!) Jac ordered dumplings and a rainbow roll; I ordered teriyaki chicken with an extra side salad. Poppo’s lunch special prices are extremely good value. The dumplings were AU$3.90 (5 pcs) and my teriyaki chicken, which came with rice, miso and kimchi was $5.90. I requested a small salad on the side, which cost me an extra $1.

Not long at all after we ordered, our food was brought to us on a couple of trays, and it looked fantastic!

rainbow roll and gyoza

Note: there was only one small side salad – it arrived on the tray with the rainbow roll and dumplings, but I then moved it over to the teriyaki chicken tray! Where to start? It all looked wonderful!

Teriyaki chicken

The dumplings were delicious. I love that chewy texture gyoza have.

Gyoza

The dipping sauce for the dumplings is the best dipping sauce ever! It’s got chilli and sesame oil and garlic and is so good I’d just about drink it down.

Best dipping sauce ever

Jac reckons the miso soup was one of the tastiest she’s ever had.

Miso soup

The salad was very simple and could’ve used a little more dressing, but it did the trick. I especially liked the corn kernels on top.

Salad

The teriyaki chicken was garnished with two carrot sticks and two dainty pieces of broccoli. The chicken, skinless thigh meat, was served in larger pieces than I’ve come to expect in teriyaki chicken, but I really liked it being chunky like this. It was succulent and the sauce was really smooth. The carrot and broccoli had been blanched and tasted fresh and tender.

Teriyaki chicken

The teriyaki chicken also came with a side dish of kimchi. I’m not a big fan of kimchi, but Jac enjoyed it. Between us, nothing was wasted!

Kimchi

The rainbow roll (AU$13.00) was simply beautiful. It looked just like the photo in the menu (I was very impressed!) . From left to right: salmon, eel, avocado, prawn, egg, squid and tuna. Above, you can just see the pickled ginger. There was a blob of wasabi next to the ginger.

Rainbow roll

The innards of the rainbow roll (here shown with the tuna) consisted of crabstick, avocado, cucumber and nori. Jac was battling to finish it towards the end. It would be a great starter to share between three or four people, I reckon!

Rainbow roll innards

With the complimentary barley tea and water, our meal came to $24.80, which was very reasonable. Jac described the barley tea as smelling like smelly socks but was happy to drink it. I couldn’t handle the smell and stuck to water. The food came out very quickly and was simply yet elegantly presented – and of course most importantly, was delicious. We’ll definitely eat there again. Maybe next time I’ll be in a beef or pork mood and try some of the Korean fare.

Facebook comments

comments

, , , ,  Like

Share this post