PR Korean Restaurant, Lidcombe

It’s cold. You want to drink. But you’re also hungry. Hello dakgalbi. What’s dakgalbi? Picture a massive chicken stir-fry, mixed with a mountain of cabbage, sweet potato, onions and chewy rice cakes. It’s what Korean uni students eat when they go out drinking – cheap, generously portioned and the perfect bedfellow for a night on the turps.

Dakgalbi first appeared in Chuncheon, located in the northern part of South Korea. It's a city so proud of its native dish they have an annual festival that celebrates it.


Dakgalbi spicy chicken bbq for two people with cheese and rice cake $38

Traditional dakgalbi isn’t exactly abundant in Sydney. But you can get it at PR Korean, a simply furnished, family-friendly eatery in Lidcombe, the Little Korea of our western suburbs. First you’ll have to decide how you want your chicken: spicy, sweet, hot, with soy or with seafood. Then add your choice of mix-ins. They’ve got everything from ramen noodles to fried rice but we reckon it’s hard to go past the rice cakes and the cheese.


Cooking the dakgalbi spicy chicken bbq

Staff will bring everything in a giant pan, placed over a recessed gas burner in the middle of your table. They’ll look after all the cooking, stopping by your table every two minutes to stir, toss and flip until it’s ready. A whole series of complimentary panchan side dishes – not to mention your beers – keep you occupied as you wait.


Complimentary panchan


Rice cakes and cheese in the dakgalbi spicy chicken

Get the spicy version and everything turns to a fiery shade of red. The cheese melts all over the rice cakes. The chunks of chicken are succulent bits of thigh. Shovel your steaming hot stir-fry into individual bowls or eat straight out of the pan if you’re really lazy. We’re all friends.


Dolsot bibimbap $13
Sizzling stone pot rice

There’s a heap of other dishes too. Dolsot bibimbap ($13) is everybody’s favourite, a meat and vegetable rice dish served in a hot earthenware pot that turns the bottom layer of rice into a golden brown crust.


Kong guksu $12
Noodles in cold soy milk broth

We weren’t sure about the noodles in cold soy milk broth ($12) – add heaps of salt to the otherwise bland and pasty soup – but the sundubu jjigae ($12) is a definite winner, a comforting huddle of silken tofu in a spicy stew filled with seafood.


Sundubu jjigae $12
Spicy soft tofu stew


Sikhye rice punch 

Need more pics of the dakgalbi being cooked? Check out this blow-by-blow pictorial.


The dakgalbi spicy chicken bbq being placed over the table gas burner


Adding gochujang hot pepper paste to the dakgalbi spicy chicken bbq


Stirring and tossing the dakgalbi spicy chicken


Everything's getting fiery

Cabbage and chicken doused in gochujang 


The stretchy cheese money shot






PR Korean Restaurant
1/10 Bridge Street, Lidcombe, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9646 5936

Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 9am-9pm


This article appeared in the June 2015 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This! [Read online] 

Read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews