Help yourself to Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki and chewy purple rice at this no-frills canteen run by a 67-year-old auntie.
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I first heard about Kood from a colleague at my last job. She told me about the fried chicken, how crisp and juicy it was. The pork, with its fermented chilli kick, and the bulgogi, garlicky and charry-sweet. It’s self-serve, she said, and you can get a mountain of food for just $16.
Word of mouth is one of the few ways you hear about a place like Kood. It’s tucked away on a quiet stretch of Elizabeth Street near Central Station, and even though it’s been open since 2023 it doesn’t have a website or social media, you can’t book a table on SevenRooms and you won’t find it on UberEats.
Owner Mary Lee cooks the food each morning. Dion Georgopoulos
The restaurant is owned by Mary Lee, a 67-year-old Korean auntie who cooks jipbap, home-style Korean food – the kind you’d eat at someone’s house rather than at a restaurant or bar.
“I don’t make restaurant food,” Lee says. “This is home food – food from the heart.” That means a bowl of rice, one or two meat dishes and five or more banchan, the small vegetable sides that come with almost every Korean meal. The recipes are her mother’s, from the family meals they shared together in Seoul.
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Just before midday each day a keen lunch-hour crowd assembles at the front of the shop, where bubbling electric frying pans are lined up to form a makeshift hot bar. Lee’s close friend Monica Yang is sometimes on hand to help dish out the food (just point to what you want) but on the days she’s on her own, diners serve themselves.
There’s jeyuk bokkeum, spicy pork made from belly and neck, punched up with hot, pungent gochujang and sweetened with pear. Chicken drumsticks come three ways – glazed in sesame and soy, or dredged in corn starch and twice-fried until bubbled and crisp, served with or without the shellac of sticky chilli sauce. You’ll want a piece of all three.
Electric frying pans keep the food hot. Dion Georgopoulos
The banchan buffet includes up to 10 choices, ranging from kimchi, made fresh on napa cabbage, cucumber and daikon radish so it’s light, hot and not too sour, to sauteed morning glory and sesame-tossed bean sprouts. Load up on the japchae, a springy tangle of sweet potato glass noodles, threaded with capsicum and wood ear mushrooms. If given a choice, ask for the purple rice, a mix of black and brown grains that’s nutty with a nice chew.
That’s the daily line-up but sometimes there are specials. Tteokbokki, slippery rice cakes simmered in a red chilli broth, and andong jjimdak, chicken braised in ganjang (Korean soy sauce).
Once you’ve stacked up your plate, help yourself to a glass of cold barley tea and try and find a seat. “We do free tea and free miso soup, like you’d give to family,” Lee says.
The bento box. Dion Georgopoulos
By 2pm the pans are scraped clean and the shop has emptied. Dishes can sometimes sell out early since Lee is limited to how much food she can prepare in the mornings. “I’m old, so I can’t make a lot of food. I just make what I can,” she says.
The restaurant is tiny, with the entire kitchen on display and just a handful of tables squeezed between bookshelves and Lee’s desk, which is taken over by boxes of cooking sake and seaweed sheets.
The lunchtime rush lasts from noon to 2pm.Dion Georgopoulos
When the rush is over, Lee sits back at her desk and starts rolling Korean triangular sushi and packing lunch sets, both of which she supplies to Thai Kee IGA in Haymarket, where you can pick up her packaged meals to eat at home.
But there’s something special about the restaurant itself, which feels less like dining out and more like visiting your grandmother’s house. Get there early. Try everything. And if you love it like I do, tell someone about it, too.
Three more under-the-radar spots in Surry Hills
Beta
This high-tech coffee bar by award-winning barista Chris Maybury is a testing ground for fully automated coffee, made using pre-batched espresso and machine-steamed milk.
76 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, betacoffee.com.au
Aamare
If a Coco Pops latte isn’t your idea of breakfast, this cafe also does New York-style bagels, soba noodle salads and porchetta panini, which comes in a half size portion if you’re not that hungry.
407 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, aamare.square.site
Mado Matcha
Co-owner Emily Hansen sources first‑harvest matcha from Shizuoka in Japan and whisks each drink to order. Get it classic, sweetened with floral Earl Grey syrup, or topped with cheese foam.
414 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, instagram.com/madomatcha.brew
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.From our partners