Mrs Kim'sGrill

What began more than three decades ago as one Korean migrant's home cooking, meats marinated for backyard barbecues and community gatherings, has hardened into one of Carnegie's most devoted grills. The kitchen leans on old-style marinades built from sweet soy, garlic, chilli and time, the sort designed to caramelise over coals rather than cut corners, and the meat is taken seriously enough that a butcher shop operates alongside the dining room. Marinated wagyu runs up the grades to M9+, sharing the table with pork, chicken and seafood over the built-in grills. The format is communal and hands-on: diners cook their own across rectangular table grills, balancing charred meat with fresh sides and pickled vegetables, either a la carte or all-you-can-eat for those settling in. Since opening its doors on Koornang Road in 2013, the room has traded on hospitality as much as smoke, the stated aim being that a guest should feel less like a customer than someone welcomed into a family kitchen. It is unpretentious, generous suburban Korean barbecue with a genuine provenance story behind the meat, and a following that treats it as a standing fixture rather than an occasional treat.