Work lunch with Lenka took us to Sam Sam where we were quickly seated in a funky little dining room. I ordered the spicy stir fried pork belly and Lenka went schnitzel. Both dishes came with rice. 

Servings are generous and tasty and arrived quickly. The pork was a little sweet so I think I prefer the Seoulja Boy version plus that one has a runny egg which makes all things better. However this was still good and we both enjoyed our meals and concluded that Sam Sam is decent place for a Korean lunch.

I had a great Saturday! Caught up with Stef and Teresa and we went to a matinee performance of Burn the Floor at the Arts Centre which concluded with a cheeky Bellini at Fatto Bar in the sunshine. It was about 5pm and we wanted a delicious early dinnner. I'd seen social media postings about Seoulja Boy so offered it up as a suggestion and the price point seemed good so off we went.

At just after 5pm, it wasn't surprising we were the only table. We enjoyed a spacious booth a friendly welcome and before we knew it, drinks had been ordered. Cocktails come around $13 and I really enjoyed the tart fruitiness of the number known as Mo Problems.

The dining area is large and roomy with some bar tables, high level seating actually at the bar, booths for larger groups and a DJ station. It's charcoal and neon with the odd shot of hot pink - it feels contemporary, a little bit hip and a lot of fun.

There's some tongue in cheek humour at Seoulja Boy. He's a funny chap; cheeky "Seoulex" logo as well as other fun pokings of that RnB life but credible enough with live DJs playing music at a reasonable volume that it doesn't make conversing difficult. DJ started later in the evening and not when we arrived at 5pm! Also if you enjoy a good quote to make you smile, take a trip to the bathroom for some inspiration.

Through the course of the night we saw couples come in for a date; some lingered, others enjoyed a quick bite to eat. There were families and like us groups of friends so a good cross section of folk. I liked that mix of clientele and that some spent an hour there and others longer and we ended up there for 3.5 hours! But more on that later...

We decided to go with the $35 per person Feed Me option (minimum 2 people) which includes 4 of the anju (starter size dishes), 1 main and a dessert. For us, the Feed Me kicked off with:

• Kingfish sashimi, white kimchi and fish roe with yuzu soy dressing and wasabi mayo
• Nori crumbed prawn Kdog with mustard mayo

The sashimi was prettily presented and a generous serving for the 3 of us; about 4 slices of each. The balance of the citrussy soy and the mayo was good and the fish was certainly fresh. Teresa found a pin bone in hers but no major damage caused.

The Kdog is a plump croquette on a stick. More prawn flavoured mashed potato with a crispy crumb so more soft and fluffy rather than anything dense or meaty in texture. It's fun to eat and I don't like mustard but didn't find the mayo too overpowering.

The other anju dishes were:

• Lightly salted taro chips
• Edamame with roasted nori salt

Granted, on paper these two dishes didn't sound that interesting but they were actually very good. The edamame was good quality and didn't have that slimey goo that sometimes happens and the nori salt gave it a bit of a twist to the usual sea salt. The taro chips were crispy and not greasy so had a nice "beer snack" feel to it. Again, generous servings.

Our greediness meant we wanted supplementary items to the $35 menu! We were tempted by fried chicken, dumplings, pancake, corn...but we went with the interestingly described Sushi Slider - tuna on tempura kale, spring onions, fish roe and Seoulja Boy sauce.

It was attractive to look at - cubes of deep red tuna against a white cracker with shades of green running through as well shades of orange sauce and roe. Probably less slider and more sashimi on a cracker if I'm going to be fussy about words. It was a but difficult to eat as the kale is quite tough being the vegetable it is. The sauce is that Korean spicy chilli sauce with some sweetness; gojuchang and it's super tasty but I did feel it overwhelmed the fish a bit.  Not a terrible dish by any means but not as well balanced as the kingfish sashimi.

As there were three of us dining, rather than three serves of one main dish to share, it was organised that we could have two dishes that each served 1.5 so same volume but we could enjoy some variation. Great customer service, team Seoulja Boy!

• Korean style slow cooked braised short ribs sticky glazed and simmered on a low heat for tender, sweet meat
• Char grilled Porterhouse steak with Korean spicy ssamjang sauce and roasted garlic

So two different ways of serving cow and each different and delicious. We also each had a bowl of purple rice.

The ribs were just as tender as described and definitely had the sweet sticky glaze but not too heavy. Pretty tasty with the rice and a little but of the sliced green chilli and spring onion to make it a bit fresher. I really enjoyed the steak and we were advised to take a piece of the medium rare meat and have a bit of the chilli sauce, some ribbons of the spring onion and a garlic clove and eat it altogether. What a delicious mouthful and the garlic isn't too intense as it's been roasted to mellow it out.

Now having put in a sneaky sushi slider as an extra and with dessert to come, we really didn't need any more food but talk tuned to one of Seoulja Boy's specialty dishes being the Ddeokbokki Carbonara and we were lucky enough that the original Seoulja Boy i.e. Benny the owner provided us with a complimentary serving to try.

The chewy ddeokbokki (rice cakes kind of like gnocchi) were perfectly cooked; soft but still bouncy and that creamy, bacon and onion sauce was just amazingly delicious. It's definitely a rich dish and I don't know if I could eat a whole serve to myself but I'm they type to struggle with a whole portion of pasta carbonara anyway. This is a must order and yes, share away but make sure there's enough for everyone!

So having put away all this food, we were so full. The attentive waitresses checked in several times to see if we were ready for dessert and we had to ask for a ten minute breather. After a couple of ten minute breathers, we faced dessert. By the way, when we were asked about dessert it wasn't to rush us and we felt no pressure to have to leave.

Dessert was the creatively named C.R.E.A.M which stands for Cakes Rule Everything Around Me! Described has homemade cheesecake icecream and banana cake with a lemon dressing, we weren't sure about how all these flavours would work. But, no fear, dessert didn't let us down. The banana cake was soft and moist. The icecream had a lemon cheesecake tang. It wasn't the smoothest of ice creams and we mentioned that to Benny and he explained that because of some technical issues with machinery, the ice cream was being churned by hand! Well no wonder there were ice crystals and I can forgive that knowing there is some poor kitchen team member having to hand churn ice cream!

Seoulja Boy is a hit! It's not unlike Rice, Paper, Scissors which is close by but it's less frantic. I think it is excellent value for money and I'm looking forward to trying more of the menu. There's an incredible sounding pork belly main dish for two to share which I must sample! It's a place that can be all things to all men - casual lunch joint, quick dine and dash or a longer leisurely meal like our's. Suitable for couples and groups, it's a good place for good times!

We were doing our usual weekend grocery shop in Richmond and it was lunchtime. Seoul Soul was conveniently located and I remember having a decent meal there a few years back and Steve fancied trying it.

We ordered some pork dumplings and some veggie dumplings and they were tasty with a crunchy outer shell unlike the steamed or fried dumplings we usually have. These tasted more baked. The pickled veg they were sat on was fragrant with sesame and packed a fiery punch.

We both ordered a stone pot bibimbap and I had the spicy pork and Steve had the beef. With a drizzled of chilli sauce we were set to dig in. The bowl is deceptively deep and there's quite a bit of rice. It was tasty and sometimes I find Korean food overly sweet but this was balanced well flavour wise and I enjoyed the spicy sauce.

The stone pot retains the heat so it does get warm eating it and add the spice then it can get pretty hot. The restaurant itself is quite small and not particularly cool but with it being lunchtime it wasn't too busy so it was good. The food arrived quickly. The service was brisk and efficient but not unfriendly. Pretty well priced and a pretty satisfying and quick option.

Thursday night post a few drinks means two tipsy girls need tasty food stat and we stumbled into the brightly lit Oriental Spoon on Elizabeth Street which had only opened earlier in the week, so we were told.

The welcome was warm and friendly. The menu isn't that big but we managed to find a couple of dishes to share.

We had the spicy rice cakes and the kim chee and bacon fried rice...carb overload. We needed some protein so ordered a tonkotsu fillet afterwards. The rice was served on a big shovel so the novelty factor was there in spades...boom!

The spicy rice cakes packed a punch and I liked the chewy texture. The fried rice was flavoursome with salty bacon and then a slight tang of kim chee. Accompanying pickles, kim chee and miso soup were pleasant enough. The tonkotsu was very thin but super crispy and just what was needed.

Oriental Spoon is the epitomy of cheap and cheerful but also satisfying and just what was needed.

My colleague Bianca who enjoys Asian spicy food suggested I join her for lunch as she'd "discovered" somewhere new so I took up the offer and we meandered the CBD  streets and lineways going behind Swanston where a whole new world opened!
We arrived at exactly midday which meant we were the first of the lunchtime crowds and in the 45 minutes or so we were there, the place just filled up with hungry CBD diners mostly the office worker crowd.

There are soup noodles that come under $10 otherwise everything is just over so for many it's probably not an every day lunch. There are lots of choices - the traditional tofu stew caught my eye. I've not had that since 1998 in a Korean restaurant in New Jersey and oh the memories but I refrained for fear it wouldn't live up to that. Sharpened pencils and a tiny order pad make for easy ordering and helps the memory when going up to the cash register but the print is very fine so some squinting necessary.

I was happy to pay the $12 or so for the stewed short ribs that came in a tin pot bubbling with savoury, spicy sauce, huge chunks of potato and pumpkin, tender braised meat and steamed rice. Oh it was soul warming and so delicious.

Bianca had the beef bulgogi which came with rice and a choice of side dishes and she went for the pickles. I sometimes find Korean cuisine just too sweet but my taster of her beef bulgogi convinced me that this was a genuine, authentic sweetness and not the cloying sugaryness that sometimes happens.

The restaurant is light and airy - modern decor and appealingly clean.Service was with a smil and efficient. I think I've found my new favourite lunch spot! Thanks Bianca.

We came with hungry tummies and high expectations due to what we'd heard from friends and on the digital grape vine. We, being myself, and the Choongs being Ling and Noah. Barley Boy had another social engagement so the three of us agreed to try and find our Seoul souls.

This little alcove like dining hall is cute and well constructed. We were pretty early dining around 6pm but there were already people there and more showed up as our meal progressed. There's good use of space and it certainly lends itself to food spying and eyeing up what the party next to you orders.

 The dinner menu is quite wide and it's hard deciding where to start so we took the easy opion and went for a set dinner. We were hungry and the $100 price tag seemed reasonable enough and probably around what we'd spend anyway so we went for the four person dinner to share between three.

The first dishes to come out were fishcakes, kim chee pancake and a fried tofu salad and we also had a small dish of kim chee and pickled turnip.

The fishcakes were sweet in flavour and had what's known as fish floss sprinkled over it which is dehydrated fish that is cooked, baked and flavoured so that it's very strong flavoured and has the texture of dry cotton. Fish floss and the more common pork floss are not really my thing and I found the fishcakes a bit too synthetic and artificial tasting for my liking.

The kim chee pancake was nice enough with a light soy dressing and the tofu salad was probably the winner although I didn't expect it to be. The cubes of tofu were well seasoned and crispy and the salad ingredients fresh and crunch and even the random pieces of strawberry and peach didn't offend me.

Next were two rice dishes - bibimbap and spicy pork teriyaki. The bibimbap was really well flavoured and I enjoyed it when it was mushed up along with the egg. It resembled fried rice really with a bit of spice.

The pork teriyaki was pleasant enough but not particularly memorable.

Next came some skewers of prawn, scallop, shiitake mushroom and rice cake. The scallops were very small and didn't have much flavour. The prawns were ok. The shiitake and the rice cakes were probably the better ones and likely to be the cheapest. We'd probably have preferred it if they were all shiitake and rice cake.

The grilled dishes came soon after - belly pork covered in a sweet slightly spicy sauce and grilled beef short ribs along with one bowl of rice. The pork belly was nice enough and the short ribs although well flavoured were quite tough. There was also a bowl of hot soup. Good thing we are all good friends who don't mind the dreaded double dip because we weren't really offered smaller individual dishes to pour it into. The soup was tasty at first but towards the end started to taste overly salted.

Service throughout was quietly effective - not overly warm and friendly but distantly polite and efficient.

So did Seoul Soul speak to our souls? We left not overly full in spite of getting a 4 person banquet when there were three of us. Some of it was tasty enough such as the teriyaki and the grilled dishes but others were a bit of miss. It's ok priced but I wouldn't be rushing back in a huge hurry. A big bowl of pho for $8 would probably warm my soul more.