Hankook: Cafe by day, Korean restaurant by night

Opposite the Balaclava supermarket car park where trolleys roam freely, reverse parking is a talent unknown and unlucky down-and-outs busk badly for small change, a bright and optimistic little business has been quietly transforming.

Hankook has been running as a cafe all year, smashing avocado, poaching eggs and frothing milk with assiduous care, but its Korean owners have been brewing something backstage.

Jacob Kim and his chef wife Anna Kang have just started opening for dinners too, sharing Korean food from their homeland, and serving it with beaming smiles and bursting pride.

It's a winner: simple, home-style dishes with nice little flourishes at keen prices in a simple setting.

Brunch is a mostly Euro affair but there are a couple of Korean dishes – check out the spiced, sliced beef sandwiched between burger buns.

Dinner is the complete K-munch. Kimmari are an unmissable starter. They're like spring rolls but the casing is battered seaweed rather than pastry. These crunchy cylinders are stuffed with japchae, translucent noodles made from sweet potato starch and usually served as the base of a stir-fry. A rather fancy coleslaw, tossed with a frisky kiwi and pineapple dressing, is served alongside.

Korean-American mash-ups are a major strand of modern Korean food, which explains the fries doused with kimchi pickles and slathered with melted cheese. They're hangover-busting Seoul food; think of them as the Korean version of the halal snack pack.

Golden-fringed seafood pancakes, threaded with cabbage and sweet with prawns, and the bulgogi (sizzling plates) are more traditional.

There is meat-free mushroom bulgogi and super tasty pork, thin-sliced, spicy and tender, served with crisp greens and springy ttokbokki (rice cakes). They're served with a bowl of black and white rice which turns a kooky purple when mixed.

My drink of choice is the makgeolli, a fermented rice beer that is served in a teapot for pouring into little drinking bowls. It's cool and refreshingly sour.

There are charming flourishes. Soy sauce is infused with fruit and spices, giving it citrus lift and pulling back on the salt. They make their own kimchi, the signature Korean pickles that are good for gut health. And the crew works extremely hard to ensure everyone has a good time.

Hankook (it's Korean for "Korea" and also Jacob's father's name) is in a funny little double-fronted house which used to be La Cafe, and before that a medical centre. There is seating on the verandah and in a candlelit rear courtyard.

It's not flash but it's made circling the Balaclava car park a more promising and tasty proposition.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five).