DooBoo

Tofu is the point here, not a side note. This bright Box Hill room, lined in warm terracotta tile, is built around soondubu, the soft, just-set tofu stew that arrives still bubbling in its stone pot, ladled through with a broth you can order from mild to properly fierce. It is the kind of Korean home cooking that rewards a cold Melbourne night: a raw egg cracked into the pot at the table, rice on the side, banchan to graze between spoonfuls. The other half of the appeal comes out of the fryer, where boneless fried chicken is tossed in a glossy sweet-chilli glaze that walks the line between sweet and hot. Around those two anchors sits a tidy spread of the genre's comfort staples, bibimbap layered and stirred through at the table, crumbed and crisp donkatsu, combination plates for the undecided. Service is quick and unfussy, geared to the steady turnover of one of Melbourne's densest Korean dining strips. There is nothing precious about the format; it reads instead as a neighbourhood specialist doing a handful of things properly, night after night, for a crowd that knows exactly what it came for.