Sydney’s widespread love of Korean barbecue – and Korean food in general – has never been stronger since the pandemic ended. Since 2018, KOGI in Haymarket has been one of the most popular options for Korean BBQ so the team’s new venue, SOOT, should be very well-received as it opens in Barangaroo.
Most Korean BBQ obsessives in Sydney know that the best KBBQ often means the dirtiest interiors and worst service. Yet, there’s been a recent push towards premium Korean BBQ joints, with elegant interiors and equally good food that sticks true to the authentic Korean barbecue experience. SOOT seems to play nicely into that demand, offering an elevated experience centered around the quality of premium and aged wagyu and other Australian meat cuts you wouldn’t typically expect from your typical KBBQ.
Traditionalists may be sceptical at first but KOGI’s reputation will definitely help SOOT settle into the competitive precinct. There’s a strong pedigree that sits behind the new opening as well. SOOT comes from Kolture, a newly formed Korean-focused hospitality group led by David Bae, whose father Donald was the first person to bring Korean BBQ to Australia in 1992.
“I know Korean BBQ like the back of my hand,” said Bae.
“I want to take the experience up a notch for Sydneysiders. SOOT will be more refined and not as fast-paced as your usual KBBQ. We want to take the time to educate and guide our guests on how to have the ultimate experience, showing them aspects of our cultural heritage, and Korean BBQ and drinking etiquette.”
As above, Sydneysiders are accustomed to a traditional Korean BBQ experience but there has been a push towards upscale KBBQ across the world lately. Take New York City for example. Not only are there now a multitude of Korean restaurants in the Big Apple, but you also have fast-favourites like COTE, which is fashioned as a high-end Korean steakhouse and BBQ. It seems good timing for a similar trend to spark in Sydney.
Each table at SOOT has been fitted with smokeless and odourless charcoal grills to avoid the typical after-dinner scent of smoke that one would readily associate with KBBQ. When cooking, the smoke is extracted beneath the table instead of through an exhaust hood. The difference here is that suited-up diners should be able to head on into SOOT and not come out smelling like hunks of smoked beef.
Not a single cut of beef is below MBS 7+ on the SOOT menu, which includes an MBS 9+ chuck eye roll steak, an MBS 8-9+ oyster blade steak and a special short rib galbi using Bae’s 50-year-old family recipe. Other BBQ items include marinated Kurabuta pork ribs and an assortment of seasonal vegetables you can grill as you please.
Banchan, those Korean side dishes you’d get before the meat starts coming out, will apparently change seasonally and highlight a range of pickled and fermented foods like spicy radish kimchi and bean sprouts with sesame. Elsewhere on the menu are Korean BBQ staples like seafood pancake, Korean steamed egg with sesame oil, green onion and dashi, and Korean fried chicken with sweet Gochujang sauce. There’s also a raw bar with everything from assorted sashimi to an egg scramble with pickled daikon, smoked Avruga caviar and roasted nori, as well as a range of noodle and rice dishes.
As far as what you’ll be drinking. Think Korean Ju, sake and soju worked onto an extensive list that also includes local and important wines next to Korean-flavoured cocktails like one with lychee, elderflower, pandan leaf infused Vodka, soju and prosecco.
SOOT
Address: Shop T1.05, 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo, NSW 2000
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday (5:30 PM – late)
