CJ Lunch Bar

Shop 2/ 391 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 25th May 2013



I was idly looking through Urbanspoon this morning for something that would strike my interest for our lunchtime stop this fine Saturday.  As soon as I saw the picture of the infamous Chicken Bulgogi with cheese, I told MerlinFan "I've decided, we're going to CJ Lunch Bar."

The shop is a tiny niche at the start of Hardware Street.  There are a few seats outside and quite a few squeezed inside - expect to share tables if you don't have a group of four or more.  And it's always a good sign when you go to a Korean restaurant and you find yourself surrounded by Korean patrons everywhere.

We were shown our seats and given menus - once you've decided, get a drink from the fridge near the door and order and pay.  And yes, they accept credit cards.

The food came amazingly quickly once the order was put in.  On the menu, it said Chicken Bulgogi with Cheese: lunch box with grilled chicken, so we weren't sure if it had rice as well.  We ordered an extra bowl of rice.

Drink
Extra bowl of rice $2

We had two banchan, which were kimchi and beansprouts.

And then came our Chicken Bulgogi with cheese simmering away on a hot metal tray.  It smelt amazing, in its smoky, cough-inducing way.

Chicken bulgogi with cheese $14

We wondered what cheese would taste like with bulgogi - sounded unusual and rather odd, but we love cheese so we were keen to give this a go.  The mountain of grilled chicken was sizzling hot, covered with the fiery red sweet-spicy marinade that gradually built on heat.  The melting cheese piled on top was stringy and stretchy, provided welcomed relief from the heat.  The serving was incredibly generous too.  MerlinFan and I were initially pretty confident we could finish it between the two of us.  Looks were deceiving - it seemed no matter how much we ate, the pile didn't seem to get smaller.  We ended up taking half of it home for dinner.

It was obvious that this was their most popular dish - every table around it ordered it.  The people who just arrived at the table next to us also saw ours and wanted to know what it was we had.  LOL.

To end our meal, we had two complimentary slices of orange.

Prompt service, good serving sizes for reasonable prices - all in all, a good option for a quick decent feed in the CBD.





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