Arisu Korean Barbecue Dublin - A Must Try

One cuisine you may never have tried before, but you will definitely try again!

When I was a kid (in the 80's), we had three or four different kinds of take away food in Ireland; Chipper, Chinese, Pizza and maybe the odd Indian. Today we have an abundance of options from Japanese, middle eastern, and even health food take-away's. One of the lesser explored cuisines is Korean,but I can assure you its a cuisine that every Irish and everyone else for that matter else will eventually place on par with all of the above.

Arisu Korean Barbecue is one of my favourites, simply because its genuinely tasty.

These guys are not trying to be the fanciest Korean restaurant in Dublin, quite the opposite actually, but they are trying to bring traditional Korean food to Korean people living in Dublin and give a new experience to locals and tourists alike. And they do a great job at it too.

As I said when you walk in the door you will not be blown away by the decor, although they have changed the restaurant since my first visit many years ago. I would assume the goal was to have more space for bums on seats rather than investing in the overall look of the restaurant, but that's fine, you don't judge a book by its cover.

When you sit at your table, you'll notice a metal lid in the centre and a chimney right above it. This is your own personal indoor barbecue. You can order various plates of meat and cook them yourself at the table, which is a lot of fun for family, friends and kids to watch their own food cooking right in front of them.

Each table gets a dish of Korean Kimchi which is a traditional and very common dish of fermented cabbage in a Korean spicy marinade and I love it along with pickled cucumber in vinegar which again is very tasty. This tends to be well eaten before the starters have begun to be prepared!

The staff are very friendly, welcoming and helpful. If you're unsure of an item they will happily explain it more. Although, the menu describes the food options well. The menu is inexpensive and vast from barbecue options to Korean home cooking to Korean sushi. Yep, Koreans do sushi as they were part of the Japanese empire. But its a very different take on what you might be used to.

My personal favourite is the 'Meal box A'. Its similar to a Japanese 'Bento Box' where you get a few dishes within the meal from beef stew, to bulgogi which is my personal favourite, noodles, rice, a dumpling and miso soup. This all costs only €11! So, there is a lot of value on offer and you are guaranteed to be stuffed after the meal.

They have a variety of delicious Korean beers on offer also along with a few standard beers, but I always like to try something new so give the Korean beers a go, you'll be happy you did.

So, if you're looking for something different, affordable and entertaining to do this weekend, Arisu Korean Barbecue is a restaurant you should definitely put high on your list of options. It wont disappoint.

Value for money: Excellent Around €12 on average per main course

Location: Capel Street, you can find the location here