Kimchi Korean Restaurant @ The Hague

After battling a week-long flu, I developed a deep craving for something spicy and sour. My first choice is a steaming hot bowl of Thai tomyum soup.

I recently discovered a Thai restaurant at the heart of Chinatown selling authentic Thai cuisine at affordable price. I quickly set a lunch date with Phoebe in the weekend and patiently counting down the days. We arrived at the restaurant around noon and was totally disappointment as the restaurant only provide dinner service. With no plan B in mind, we wander around Chinatown with the hope to find an alternative to the hot and spicy tomyum soup.

We spotted this new Korean restaurant, Kimchi Korean Restaurant near the The Hague New Church (Nieuwe Kerk) located across the Stadhuis building. Since kimchi soup has the closest taste profile to tomyum soup, we quickly settled in for this plan B. For comparison sake, we ordered exactly the same dishes we had in Seoul Garden Korean restaurant which we patronized some time back, Beef Bibimbap and Spicy Kimchi soup.

The portion of the side dishes are slightly more generous when compared to Seoul Garden and you could expect more varieties too.

Kimchi side dishes

The beef bibimbap here is served in a hot stone pot. Gojujang, the famous fermented hot pepper chili paste is served together with the rice. Pretty unusual since it is normally served separately to enable you to adjust the level of spiciness. Besides the different assortment of green veggies, there was also a fresh egg instead of a sunny side-up topping the rice. The rice however was a bit too moist for my liking after all the ingredients were mixed-up.

Bibimbap, before (up) and after (bottom) mixing all the ingredients

We were surprised when the waiter served us spicy seafood tofu soup instead of our initial order of Kimchi tofu soup. There must be a mixed-up. Nevertheless, since it was still spicy and contained tofu, we happily dig in. The only downside for this dish is the pretty small portion size. You get what you paid for. €10 for a bowl of spicy seafood tofu soup with rice plus five types of side dishes. You certainly can't expect a big bowl of soup that can feed the entire village.

Spicy seafood tofu soup

I personally prefer Seoul Garden Restaurant over Kimchi Korean Restaurant. Perhaps Seoul Garden is managed by native Koreans and hence the food tastes more authentic. Kimchi Korean Restaurant on the other hand has customized the taste of the food to suit local palate.

However the plus points for Kimchi Korean Restaurant are:-
1) reservation is not necessary for lunch
2) spacious and good air ventilation
3) chic and clean interior

If you have a craving for Korean food for lunch, you may consider Kimchi Korean Restaurant.

The menu

The interior of Kimchi Korean Restaurant @ The Hague

Kimchi Korean Restaurant 
Rabbijn Maarsenplein 22
2512HJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel: 070 364 2192

Operation Hours
Lunch     12:00 - 15:30
Dinner    15:30 - 22:30
(kitchen closed at 21:30)