Korean Street Food at On the Bab

Location: London, England

Cuisine: Korean

This place had been on my list forever because of its great reviews and delicious appeal. I love Korean food. In fact, if I could just have Mexican, Thai, and Korean cuisine for the rest of my life I would be all set. Korean cuisine is something of a misunderstood friend, as many people are put off by its fermented Kimchi and spicy red chilli paste. Yes, these things are incredibly common however the beauty of Korean food is the complex combination of flavours. I think the perfect example of such a combination shines through the food at On the Bab.

Meaning ‘on the rice’, On the Bab actually specialises in a lot of different things. To start, we had a friend’s recommendation, the octopus salad. It’s a very refreshing salad, full of red cabbage and carrots and also some delicious octopus. I also ordered something I knew I would love: seaweed salad. You can choose the type of dressing you want, but I highly recommend the sweet and sour dressing. With the seaweed, it’s a winning combination.

Our second visit included a couple different plates as we wanted to switch it up with what we had before. We went for the wild card choice, the kimchi and cheese arancini (bab twigim on the menu)! It surprisingly is a great duo of flavours. It also goes great with beer. For our other small plate, we chose the

And now, for the buns. The bun you see above is the classic prawn. I was sceptical because I’m not the biggest fan of prawn, but it went beautifully with the fluffy bun and crunchy veggies. The other great thing about the buns here is the sauce. OMG. It is just the most delicious accompaniment.

Victor opted for two different buns: one fried chicken and one bulgogi. Victor said the bulgogi was absolutely his favourite. I think when in doubt, always choose the bulgogi because it’s always going to be your most tender option.

I have also been fortunate to try a limited edition bun, the soft shell crab. This was my first bun at On the Bab and boy, are these buns delicious. I’m hoping that if I keep talking about it they’ll magically come back. Finger crossed.