Modern Korean restaurant on Commercial Road, South Yarra
Mudo combines basic Korean ingredients (gochujang, buckwheat, soju, sesame) with the types of dishes Melbourne diners will recognize from any inner-city restaurant menu.
Mudo Food & Bar
korean$$
Potato gnocchi with red sauce is placed on the table. Sprinkle parmesan on the long rectangles of pasta that come out of the pan and are soft enough to cut with a spoon. But this is not an Italian restaurant. The sauce is flecked with gochujang, the earthy Korean chili paste known for its firepower, but here it’s softened with browned butter.
Mudo chef Happy Cho created this dish by keeping one eye on tteokbokki, Korean chewy rectangular rice cakes, and the other eye on his typical customer who recognizes gnocchi from rigatoni. Like a Harry Potter novel, food says different things to different groups. But the main thing is that it has an extraordinary taste.
Cho quietly opened Mudo before Christmas with frontman Whale Kim and a slogan: Australian flair, Korean supremacy. The long dining room is tastefully decorated with creams and caramels. But the food is nothing but beige.
Basic Korean ingredients — gochujang, buckwheat, soju, sesame — are combined with the types of dishes customers will recognize from inner-city restaurant menus over the past three years.
Restaurant reviews, news, and the latest openings delivered to your inbox.
become a member
Korean-born Cho has been cooking everywhere from sushi joints to high-end restaurants for more than two decades. While interning at Benu in San Francisco in 2019, she saw Korean American chef Corey Lee transform his culture into award-winning menus. Can Cho also draw on his diverse experiences as a chef to create something unique?
Steak tartare walks the line between a wine bar favorite and the Korean raw beef dish yukhoe. Flavored with shallots, chives, soy sauce and sesame oil, Wagyu is mixed with chopped nashi pears, a favorite tenderizing ingredient of Korean chefs.
Rich, bronze-skinned duck shares the dish with pumpkin and beets, but also kohlrabi lozenges turn into exciting kimchi. Take one and consult your doctor if symptoms persist.
Grown in Korea much longer than wheat, buckwheat is as important culinaryly as butter to France or masala to India. It’s used here in noodles, which provide a counterweight to Mudo’s larger flavors, and in crumbled sponge cake over salted caramel with sesame ice cream and a sweet, salty, and spicy tuile wafer.
Some tables are making their first attempts ssam, Korean lettuce wraps that add crunch and contrast to barbecued meat. Others need no introduction the pickled jangajji that brightens up the barramundi fish burger, or the herbal rice wine baekseju that replaces Campari in the house negroni.
You can ask about ingredients you don’t know and the staff will help, but there were so few waiters on my visits that you’re unlikely to get a conversation when you first open your menu. Some people will love this, but there’s a lot to be said in this case.
That sponge cake plate? As I later learned, it contains all three of Korea’s “mother sauces.” Doenjang, a soybean paste similar to miso, deepens the caramel. Gochujang brings the heat into the wafer. Korean soy sauce Ganjang adds a crunchy crunch to toasted nuts and seeds.
Other dishes are just there because they’re delicious. A decent golden brick shrimp toast is never a bad idea. Potato rosti topped with roasted mackerel are two divine bites of fish and potatoes, a timeless combination.
The meals are sold at a price that can only be called a steal in 2026. The duck main course costs under $55. A decent, entree-sized plate of gnocchi for $18. Half chicken with carrot and pickled fennel: $29. People are rightfully sensitive about prices, but I wonder if dropping a few extra dollars on the menu would pay off another waiter on the floor and result in a better experience all round.
On my way home, I see a billboard advertising Subway’s latest special. Steak sandwich with Korean barbecue sauce. Australian weather or Korean weather?
Down
Atmosphere: Softly lit room adds a backdrop to the excitement at the plate
Dishes to use: Wagyu tartare ($24); gnocchi with gochujang ($18); duck breast ($42); nori makguksu noodles ($12); me-mil buckwheat cake ($14)
Beverages: Cocktails starring Korean rice wine (soju); are considered non-alcoholics; affordable Australian, Italian and French wines
Cost: Approximately $140 for two people, excluding drinks
This review was first published on: Have a nice weekend magazine.
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and independently paid. A restaurant cannot pay for a review or inclusion on a list. Good Food Guide.
Emma Breheny- Emma is Good Food’s Melbourne dining out and restaurant editor and editor of The Age Good Food Guide.
