Chogajip

Honestly don’t get the positive reviews. I took my parents here in search of the Korean experience I have had elsewhere — with particularly fond memories of a place I used to visit in Sydney. When we arrived at 6pm on a Thursday, the place was empty, the staff unfriendly and unhelpful, the prices massive, the quantities tiny and the flavour just missing. My parents still refer to this experience as one of their dining lowlights, and I would never go back here again, especially when Perth has two Took Bae Kee restaurants and bulgogi is not THAT hard to make on your own.

If you don’t simply want to go out for dinner but want an experience you can savour and smile about, come here.
This authentic Korean restaurant is one of the best I’ve been to in Perth. The staff exude warm generosity and will do their best to help you with what ever they can. And you may well need their help. Much of the menu is in Korean — sans an English translation. But that’s all part of the fun. It definitely makes the experience seem more authentic.
I also love the fact that chopsticks come with your meal. I relish the challenge of using chopsticks and make a point of getting them every time I eat Eastern cuisine. But I often have to ask especially for them and endure a worried look by the waitress. She clearly believes my Western looks warrant me incapable of using the wooden eating devices. Not here, no such discrimination has ever occurred.
I also love the pictures on the menus, obviously taken the other side of 1979, they are awesome to look at. Some marketing companies would get paid a lot of money to create the feel this place embodies. But I honestly think they just haven’t bothered to re-​do their décor in the last few decades.
Why would they? The focus is on the food and the food is fab. Delicious and cheap. Chogajip is offers a great dining experience, all round.

This restaurant is warm and inviting with the rice paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and neatly arranged tables. The menu was extensive but a little confusing, given that most things with a Korean name did not have a translation. There were pictures, but they were too small to able to tell what the dish was made up of.
We chose the Set 2 and although the service was slow to start with, the food came out pretty quickly. There was more than enough food for two people (probably more suitable for three) and most of I was pretty tasty (even though I wasn’t sure what I was eating half the time!).

I’d never tried Korean food when I first entered this restaurant, but I couldn’t have hoped for a better introduction. The extremely friendly staff and pocket-​friendly prices (although these have since gone up) quickly established this as one of my favourite places to eat. The inside is simply but elegantly decorated, and the curbside tables along Essex Street are a delight in the middle of summer. For your entrée, I suggest trying their potato or vegetable pancake (kids will probably be satisfied with this as a main) and if you’re into spicy food, progressing onto the Buldak. Your meat stays heated on a portable barbeque, while still simmering in a delicious chilli and bean sauce. Its’ thick, creamy texture makes for an unusual but delicious taste sensation when eaten with rice. Unfortunately the wine list here is below the quality you’d hope for, but they have a BYO licence, so it’s easy enough to skip over to the Sail And Anchor bottle shop if you’d like something a bit better than what’s on offer. Since you’re in a Korean restaurant, why not give their rice wine a go? It takes a bit of getting used to but it complements the food very well.
Since first trying this place, I’ve been to quite a few other Korean places and this still stacks up well, though it turns out this is one of the more expensive places to eat this style of food. Nonetheless, it’s still a relatively inexpensive place to eat out and remains one of my favourites in Fremantle.

This little restautant is very unassuming on Essex St. with minimal advertising and plain seating outside but I assure you, the food is not so unassuming. I love Korean food and found myself getting increasingly aggitated that all Korean restaurants are based around the CBD and Northbridge.
The kimchi jigae (pickled cabbage soup) is wonderufl and takes me back to a street stall in Seoul. The bibimbap is tasty too and served very fast if you’re in a rush.
This type of Korean food is usually the cheap alternative in Korea and often types of jigae come free with your main meal. Although it is wrong to compare prices with a completely different economic system I still think for the portion size they are charging a bit much.
Saying that, they stick to the Korean ideals of service which si very helpful, fast and friendly and they provide you with good Korean chopsticks and plates etc.
All round a good find. Try the dumplings if you get the chance! YUM!