Cafe Arirang

Café Arirang. I don’t like to chuff on about myself, but I’m what you would call an adventurous eater. Snails, stew made from duck intestine, fish head broth, I’ve scoffed the lot. I found myself in Café Arirang one evening; I’d been perusing the menu and before I knew it, I found myself inside, ordering something called ‘bulgogi’ — I even had a stab at pronouncing it but competely mucked it up. It has two hard-​pronounced Gs, should you ever go in.
What I got from the friendly Korean chap was a cracking dish of spicy pork in a tomato and red pepper sauce and lovely fluffy rice with tons of veg, for not much more than a fiver.
I was sufficiently interested to read more about Korean cuisine and their culture. It turns out that bulgogi barbecue restaurants are popular in South Korea, and apparantly Arirang is an ancient word with no real modern translation, but it pertains to a folk song. Interesting, no?
Arirang also offers stuff like coffee, sodas, Ulster Frys, sausage rolls. I hope that the friendly Korean owner hasn’t been forced into these options in order to stay afloat… Maybe he really does have a passion for fried soda bread, who knows?
But come on, people. Try something new. Go to Café Arirang, point at something you can barely pronounce on the menu, and enjoy. What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll be trying something called Kimchi in a couple of days time.

I’ve been in this place once and it was an odd experience to say the least!
The food is ok, not life changing, but fresh and tasty enough. It’s a strange combination of sandwiches and Korean food, who aren’t the most obvious of bedfellows!
The best thing about the place was the owner though. Well, I’m assuming he was the owner. He was just so attentive and odd and chatty and brilliant that he made the experience totally memorable.
We were the only people in the place though, so maybe when it’s busier you don’t get the one-​on-​one treatment I got!

Café Arirang is a Korean café serving your usual café food– sandwiches etc with the added bonus of some Korean kimbab (like sushi). I decided to go for something Korean as I’ve never had Korean food before and I settled on the spicy pork bulgogi and boiled rice which was yummy. I didn’t think I was very hungry as had originally just popped in for a sandwich of some kind, but had soon polished of the reasonably sized portion. I tried their roasted rice green tea (well when in Rome) and it was really nice too! Overall its a nice place and definitely worth a visit if you’re looking for something a little bit different!

I’d been puzzled as to what this place was. It always had large placards outside selling their hot frys and breakfasts, little did I know it was a Korean owned and run eatery.
I was here a few months back with my girlfriend and after browsing the slightly jarring menu (a combination of sandwiches, paninis and Korean sushi) I’m calling it sushi because I can’t for the lift of me remember what it was called.
It was a vegetable based seaweed coated roll filled with carrot, beetroot and some other root vegetables. That along with a dipping sauce and soy it was pretty tasty, a little bit bland but very fresh and a real change from the usual lunches on offer.
It was cheap too. A strange one but certainly something worth trying.

This place looked relaxed and inviting so I thought I’d give it a go rather than some of the pricier places around.
It’s predominantly a coffee and sandwich shop with a few Korean dishes thrown in. There is an array of Korean Sushi (kimbab) with no raw fish. Now where’s the fun in that? I settled on the spicy pork bulgogi and boiled rice which was yummy. I didn’t think I was very hungry but had soon polished of the reasonable portion. (apart from the bits I spilled down my chin in my eagerness to eat it). I particularly enjoyed the roasted rice green tea I had with.
All in all a decent enough place with nice food but nothing wowed me, hence the cautious 3stars. I expect it does a fair amount of daytime students looking for a place to chill in it’s laid back 2 storey interior.

This café serves the usual tea/​coffee drinks, ulster frys and light food such as sausage rolls, scones and muffins. There menu includes a number of Korean dishes such as bulgogi and kimbab.
The interior is quite relaxing and when I have visited it has been quiet which is a bonus. Some of the food is a little on the pricey side and it seems like they have reduced some prices, such as their tray bakes etc.