Hwa Gae - Eastwood

For an awesome and long-awaited catchup with a primary-school friend, we decided to grab some Korean food from Eastwood. As Eastwood is generally lined with Korean restaurants (on the Korean side), we were hit with a multitude of options. My friend suggested that we try "Hwa Gae" after reading recommendations about it from a facebook post - hence, we did.

It looked every bit like a normal little Korean restaurant serving the normal Korean dishes, noodles and hot pots. Their menu is slightly less extensive compared to other Korean places but nonetheless, it was enough for us to make our selection.

Hwa Gae

We ended up opting for deep fried dumplings ($7), seafood pancake ($8) and a potato noodle with beef and veges ($12).

The dumplings were fried to a golden brown. However, it tasted every bit like the normal ones you get from the frozen packets (huge packet for like ~$7) in that the meat and filling was all a bit mush.

fried dumplings - $7

The seafood pancake was thick and crispy on the outsides, soft on the inside. There were baby octopuses, squid and other seafood (I didn't actually pay attention to it). It was appetising enough. Nothing too great, not too bad.

Seafood pancake - $8

Halfway through our meal, I noticed that every other patron had their side dishes - all except us. Is it because we're not Korean? We asked the lady and the lady was like "no no side dishes"... and so we asked another one - who reluctantly popped these on our table. The spinach and the potato ones are always my favourite. The tofu bean curd one was nice. The kimchi pancake and the huge chunks of raddish were also OK.

side dishes

Last but not least, our Jap Chae (potato noodles) arrived. It was a bit more watery compared to other potato noodles we've had but luckily, it was still nice and tasty.

potato noodles with beef and veges - $12

To no-one's surprise, we had too much food for the two of us to gobble down. Hence, the pancake was taken home :)

Hwa Gae seems to be a decent place. Nothing too spectacular and I'm sure it's probably not the best Korean food you can get from Eastwood. But, it was relatively cheap, a bit of a chill, and the food was decent.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 28/40

Hwa Gae
8 Railway Pde
Eastwood
NSW, 2122
Tel: (02) 9874 3788