Kimchi Pete's contemporary Korean Restaurant Shik opens in Melbourne laneway

Contemporary Korean has arrived with Restaurant Shik, and it's sounding like a long-missing piece of the dining puzzle.

The 65-seater in Niagara Lane opened on March 14 and is brought to you by sommelier-turned-self-taught-chef Peter Jo (known to many as Kimchi Pete). It's his first venture, serving Korean dishes remixed, drawing on Jo's upbringing, research trips and a penchant for contemporary Australian cooking.

We're well beyond the barbecue, bibimbap and bossam staples you know. There's pig skin terrine, a market treat, incorporating the cartilage-rich ear marinated in Korean soy bean paste and spices, served with a dressing starring chives and krill (baby dried shrimp). There's Jo's favourite – mackerel braised in an anchovy-and-kombu dashi with fresh chrysanthemum leaves, and salted, garlicky pickled perilla leaves for eating with barbecued meats or wrapping your rice like Korean dolmades.

Being Jo, last seen pouring skinsy wines at Belles Hot Chicken and Bar Clarine, the wines are pro-natural. But also get your hands on the Hwayo soju, which Jo says is all organic and "not the ghetto stuff", drunk traditionally with tea, taken straight or as a highball mixed with yuzu and Korean pear juice.

Restaurant Shik is open at 30 Niagara Lane, Melbourne, 03 9670 5195.