Ticket To Korea tries to take culinary travellers on a first-class trip to explore Seoul's soul food; its friendly Korean founders, Jeff & Soo, are a young couple who've poured their passion into nurturing a warm, welcoming restaurant with enjoyable ideas.
Soo leads the kitchen, overseeing a selection that balances time-honoured comforts with modern-minded creations. For the former, the seafood pancake is lovely - warm & fresh, thick & tender. For the latter, the quesadillas packed with kimchi & cheddar & mozzarella (RM18.50) show how a skilled chef bridges the gastronomic gap between Korean & Tex-Mex cooking.
Piping-hot puffs, crispy outside, creamy within with sweet potato & cheese (RM6). Ticket To Korea's menu isn't too wide, comprising only 20-plus dishes, but there's something for everybody, even folks who might not typically be Korean food fans.
Pasta salad, with noodles topped mightily with veggies & ricotta & parmesan (cheeses play a pivotal role at Ticket To Korea), flavoured further with Oriental-inspired sauce. A big bowl, fulfilling a full day's requirement of carbs & fibre, feeds two. RM34.
For a taste of the traditional, this perfect-for-winter stew is a hearty assortment of ham & sausage slices, cooked with noodles & veggies in spicy chicken broth that flaunts unmistakably Korean dimensions of flavour. RM35 for medium, RM65 for large.
The restaurant's pride: Sous-vide, sizzling pork belly, cooked for 48 hours in low temperature, then roasted on the grill for a caramelised crunch & fleshy-fatty succulence, complemented by mushrooms, spring onions & sweet-savoury sauce. RM56.
Desserts are all about ice cream; have it with crushed Oreos on a metal plates for a hot-cold interplay of textures (RM19.50), or with natural honey & its hive (RM6.50), or with popcorn & Himalayan rock salt (RM17.50).
Drinks also display a distinctive touch, with blackcurrant, lemon or orange juices jazzed up with chia seeds (RM11.50).
There are Korean cocktails too, from the eye-catching, easy-to-drink Soju Pineapple (RM45, with RM35 for each refill) to the Soju Mojito (RM30, with green grapes, green apples & lemon). Many thanks to Jeff & Soo for hosting this memorable meal.
Ticket To Korea
C-8-1, Block C, Setiawalk, Puchong, Selangor. Open Wednesday to Monday, 12pm-3pm, 5pm-11pm (closed Tuesday)
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