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The More The Better

Dani Valent
Dani Valent

Shoestring chic: The More The Better's stripped-back interior.
Shoestring chic: The More The Better's stripped-back interior.Supplied

Korean$$

After working for seven years as a barista, Korean-born Min Seo was keen to open her own place. The more she thought about it the more it made sense to serve the Korean food she knew, but to spin it for modern Melbourne. The More The Better, open almost a year, is the winning result, with a fun mix of classic dishes and fast-food fusion. The fit-out is chic on a shoestring and service is friendly, but can be too laggardly for a quick lunch.

Cheese isn't a traditional Korean ingredient, but the country's embrace of Western food has seen it sneak into so many dishes that South Korea is now a major dairy importer. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un even sent a cheese squad to France to find out how to make Emmental, apparently a beloved snack.

Cheese features here in dishes such as gamja fries, which sound as though they were dreamed up by hungry stoners. Hot chips are piled with cheese, your choice of protein (the spicy pulled pork is good), zesty slaw and guacamole. It's mad but moreish. Melted cheese buldak takes a Korean beer hall favourite of mega-spiced chicken and amps it up with rice flour dumplings (like tubular gnocchi) and a serious slathering of mozzarella. It's comfort food on crack. Cheese takes a break for another fusion dish, the cha siu roll-ups, in which slices of wasabi-pickled radishes are used as wraps for braised pork and kimchi coleslaw (kim chi is fermented cabbage relish).

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Sizzling: Bibimbap with spicy chicken.
Sizzling: Bibimbap with spicy chicken.Luis Enrique Ascui

Traditional dishes are more or less authentic. Bibimbap is served in a hot stone bowl so you hear it sizzling before it hits the table. The glistening bowl contains seasoned rice, carrot and bean shoots, a raw egg and a choice of meat or tofu. Sweet potato noodles are glassy, stretchy and great with bulgogi beef, thinly sliced and marinated with soy and tenderising pear puree. Sake, beer and nashi pear or coconut slushies work well with the food.

I've certainly struck restaurants with more finesse but The More The Better is unusual, willing and oh-so-filling, and that makes it better than most.

Score: Three stars (out of five)

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Dani ValentDani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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