’s triple-fried chicken is the stuff of battered dreams but co-owner Kenny Yong Soo Son is on a mission to spotlight Korea’s lesser-known snacks. The plump, steamed jjim , for instance: dumplings packed with pork mince, potato glass noodles, garlic chives and tofu. The do-it-yourself gujeolpan: once the reserve of royal weddings, they arrive as eight sides spanning seasoned zucchini to shiitake, beef and omelette, next to a stash of freshly steamed beetroot pancakes.
Then there’s the gelatinous jok bal (soy-braised pig trotters), a sticky, caramelised, deeply satisfying one-hander.
One of Kenny’s favourites is the baechu jeok, a lightly fried wombok cabbage pancake served with a soy and sesame dipping sauce.
“That’s something that a lot of Koreans do in markets,” Kenny says of the delicate, crisp-edged pancake. “Very simple and so yummy, but it’s often overlooked in a restaurant setting.”
Sáng by Mabasa is the second restaurant from owners Seung Kee Son and wife Jin sun Son, who ran Balmain favourite Mabasa for eight years. For the sequel, a slick, slither of a restaurant in Sydney’s Surry Hills, they’ve enlisted the help of their son Kenny on design, management and front-of-house and his wife, Youmee Jeon, on pickles and desserts.
Wombok crisp-edged pancake. (Photo credit: Youmee Jeon) Source: Youmee Jeon
It’s in familiar hands but that’s where the similarities stop. For starters, Sáng is licensed.
“We love our food but we love our drinks as well, so we really wanted the drinks to go with everything we were presenting,” Kenny says.
Secondly, there’s more stuff to pick at beyond the tried-and-true Korean barbecue format.
“We felt we needed to show off this cuisine. I’m really interested in culture. I’m wanting to let people know there’s Korean food besides bibimbap and barbecue and fried chicken.”
Kenny’s parents are self-taught cooks who learned on the job after arriving in Australia in 1996. “Mum was in retail and dad had all sorts of jobs but when you migrate, you often don’t do the exact same thing because of language barriers and other complications.”
Jin sun and Seung kee Son are the wife and husband duo who run the Sáng by Mabasa kitchen. (Photo credit: Youmee Jeon) Source: Youmee Jeon
He wasn’t a trained chef but Kenny admits his dad was the cook of the house and always had a knack for flavour combinations. He’s brought those flavours to Sáng’s concise, to-the-point menu. Yes, there’s , cooked in a dolsot pot until the rice base crisps up and turns gold, but there’s also battered scotch fillets, steamed pipis bobbing in a Korean soybean paste, and the ever-moreish gim bugak (seaweed and almond chips).
If the food menu was brief, the drinks list is even punchier, but in a good way. Wines are well-thought out and almost all-Australian, there’s some soju, and craft beer is by Batch. A loan cocktail has even snuck in.
Sáng by Mabasa (Photo credit: Youmee Jeon) Source: Youmee Jeon
Kenny’s object design background (he runs nearby studio Studiokryss) adds thoughtful accents to the interiors in the way of copper pendant lights, ceramics made specifically for the Korean drinks and even hand-crafted sauce spoons. The contemporary touches drive home Sáng’s fresh, artful take on authentic flavours.
If you thought you knew Korean food, think of this as a re-education.
98 Fitzroy St., Surry Hills
Tues – Sat: 11:30 am-3 pm; 5:30 pm - 10 pm
Sun: 11:30 am-3 pm; 5:30 pm - 10 pm
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