Melbourne's Chinatown gets a taste of Koreatown with Seven Star Pocha's second restaurant

Melbourne's K-cuisine moment shows no signs of fading, with a greater array of Korean restaurants focusing on specific sub-genres of the country's food springing up. Seven Star Pocha's Chinatown location is one of the more visible examples.

Pocha is the name for casual outdoor venues, housed in tents, that dot the streets of Korean cities and serve food to go with soju, the rice-based spirit that is hugely popular in Korea and taking off in Australia as well.

Hong Kim, a chef with experience at Taxi Kitchen and Crown restaurants, opened the first Seven Star Pocha on Healeys Lane, Melbourne's unofficial Koreatown, in 2017. He chose Chinatown for his second location to reach more Melburnians.

"On Healeys Lane, people already know about Korean culture," he says.

On Little Bourke Street, Kim is initiating the uninitiated with a few clever tricks. The first is putting gateway dish bibimbap on the menu, served in warmed stoneware bowls.

Then there are soju bombs – cocktails of soju and beer – available for free at set times, complete with a demonstration by staff on how to "bomb" your glass of soju into the beer.

The Chinatown location also has a spicy version of the soy-marinated raw crab dish ganjang gejang that takes three days to prepare and usually sells out at the original Seven Star. The recipe comes from Kim's mother-in-law and often features in Korean dramas on TV.

The rest of the menu includes bo ssam, sausage- and cheese-studded Army Base stew and drink-friendly snacks such as kimchi pancakes, chicken feet and the cylindrical rice cakes called tteokbokki.

Kim is a stickler for authenticity, importing his kitchen, tables and chairs from Korea so that the restaurant feels just like the pochas he missed so much in Melbourne.

With 100 seats upstairs and 60 downstairs, the second location is a big step up in size, which is good news given the restaurant doesn't take reservations, in keeping with the casual atmosphere of a pocha.

Open Mon-Thu & Sun, 5pm-midnight, Fri-Sat 5pm-2am

113 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, se7enstar.com