Jung Sung Contemporary Korean, Chippendale, Sydney

Hey fam, I hope you are all doing well. I apologise for yet again another long hiatus. As usual, life gets in the way and I am still trying to break through the YouTube realm (oh, if you haven’t subscribed and hit that notification bell yet, please do so here). I also can’t believe that the blog has been around for over 10 years now and I feel like the blog still hasn’t reached its full potential just yet. Time surely does fly. I’m hoping that in 2021, I can do both writing for the blog and pumping out YouTube videos. It will be a challenge, but you know what they say: “No pain, no gain”. 

Anyway, my first review this year will be on a high-end Korean restaurant that has just recently opened in the Kensington Street Dining Precinct. The restaurant is called Jung Sung. It’s close by to famed restaurants like Koi and Automata. It sits near the top floor of building 2-10 Kensington Street. The space reminds of a bit of the famous Michelin restaurants in Seoul: Jungsik and Kwonsooksoo. The fittings and décor are indeed very contemporary and so is the food. Most of the dishes are pretty much contemporary interpretations of classic Korean dishes or Chef Insup Kim original creations. There are French dishes too with a Korean twist. I’m sure you get what I mean. We opted for the $70 course menu, which consists of 6 courses. The kitchen has also sent us some complimentary extras (which I will mention later on).

Complimentary scallops dish

The Red Snapper Hwe includes raw snapper, white soy crystal, perilla extract, seaweed, and karkalla. The dish was lightly dressed and flavoured to just bring out the freshness of the red snapper. This reminds of Hawaiian poke.

The kitchen has sent us a dish similar to bibimbap with 3 types of grains, which also includes quinoa. This was both beautiful and delicious and the addition of sesame oil takes the flavours to another level with added sweetness and nutty notes. This dish also had notes of umami.

I’ve had a lot of overcooked crustacean in my life and their Moreton Bay Bug is not one of them. These were perfectly cooked and seasoned well. The meat was soy marinated and poached in butter. The creamy gochujang aioili compliments the moreton bay bug well with its cream sweet chilli and light garlic notes.

The catch of the day I believe was also a Red Snapper but was cooked with sweet soy, prepared with glazed anchovy and served with black garlic and potato puree. The fish was cooked perfectly but I would have preferred more popping of flavours from the dish. I did like the potato too.

The Berkshire pork was amazing. It had beautiful crisped blistered crackling and flavoursome fatty tender meat. It also came with brussel sprout, peach & berry’s creek puree, macadamia and grilled lettuce. Nutty and sweet flavours always go well with pork.

For the MB 9+ Wagyu and short rib, I only have 2 amazing words to describe it:  “Buttery Goodness”.

At first, I thought the Sweet Corn was a savoury dish but in actual fact, it’s a dessert! It’s sweet corn custard that almost has the texture of ice cream. The soy sauce caramelised pistachio goes amazingly with the frozen custard. I honestly loved it.

At this point, I was super full. But I still crushed the cherry chocolate dessert, which had milk chocolate mousse, cherry sorbet and coconut meringue.

I enjoyed my visit at Jung Sung. Whenever I miss the Michelin restaurants of Seoul, I now have Jung Sung that I can go to here in Sydney. The food was great and so was the service. I would go back again.

Jung Sung Contemporary Korean Restaurant

A6/2-10 Kensington Street

Chippendale NSW 2008

Ph: 0400 991 011

Website: https://www.jungsung.com.au/