Six Suburban Korean Soup Spots to Warm You Up

Winter is here, which means so is soup season. These six suburban Korean restaurants have some of the best fiery broths and nourish soups in town. Gaon, Carnegie Gaon, from husband and wife duo chef Michael Kim and Kyung Lee, opened on Koornang Road at the end of last year. The casual restaurant specialises in beef soup, making two distinct versions. The first is seolleongtang, a nourishing and cloudy broth made by simmering beef ribs, knuckle bones and trotters for 14 hours. Then there’s gomtang,

a clear broth that Kim makes from four cuts of beef: brisket, heel muscle, cheek and heart. Both soups are cooked in 240-litre gamasots (cast iron pots) imported from Korea. No seasoning is added to the broth. Instead, you’re encouraged to add salt and black pepper to your liking. Beyond beef soup, there’s jangeotang. Kim’s take on the traditional eel soup is inspired by the one his grandmother made growing up, and is made using ground freshwater Tasmanian eel that the chef collects directly from

the airport. Shop 2/23 Koornang Road, Carnegie Gong Gan Korean Pantry, Kew East Chef Rio Yoon moved from Ulsan, South Korea to Australia 25 years ago. After working in hotel kitchens, including the Sheraton and the Ritz-Carlton, in 2024, Yoo opened Gong Gan, a diner and pantry that focuses on home-style cooking. A menu highlight is the Jeju Gogi Guksu, The dish sees a milky broth, made by slowly simmering pork bones and beef bones for more than 48 hours. It’s served with sliced pork

and noodles imported from a noodle maker on Jeju Island where the dish originated. G/661 High Street, Kew East Sogumm, Cremorne Sogumm from chef couple Changhoon “Kimmy” Kim and Suhyun “Su” Kim arrived on the scene last year, and quickly made a name with its house-ferments and temple-style cooking. The duo serve food that straddles a fine line between comforting home cooking and envelope pushing, drawing on their culinary careers. After working at Matt Moran’s Sydney restaurant Aria in 2018, Kimmy spent a year at

Baekyangsa Temple, studying Korean temple cuisine and fermentation under revered Buddhist nun and fermentation expert Jeong Kwan. Su has a considerable fine dining background, and has worked at Gimlet, two-Michelin-starred Restaurant André in Singapore and under Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athénée in Paris. A highlight of the Sogumm menu is the gomtang. To make the exceptionally clear broth, beef and water is simmered for hours, cooled completely before impurities are removed, and finally strained through a cheesecloth. The resulting broth is served over white rice,

sliced beef, spring onion and shredded egg omelette. Seoul Society, Hawthorn East Seoul Society chef and owner Jun Cho travelled across South Korea, seeking out specialty samgyetang restaurants. His goal was to refine his own recipe for the ginseng and chicken soup, which is typically served with a whole chicken stuffed with jujubes and short grain or glutinous rice. At Seoul Society you’ll find two versions of samgyetang. One is more classic and is served with half a chicken. The other, incorporates perilla seed powder,

which gives the samgyetang a richer, nuttier and slightly more savoury profile. If you’re after something with a bit more heat, there’s also dakgaejang – shredded chicken and mushrooms served in a fiery red, spicy chicken broth. 669 Burwood Road, Hawthorn East Misty Pot, West Melbourne Jun Kwon, a chef whose resume includes 18 months at Vue de Monde, and his wife Emily Seo opened Mistry Pot in West Melbourne in 2022. The menu is extensive, ranging from Korean fried chicken rice bowls to kalbijjim

(braised beef spare ribs in a savoury and sweet soy sauce gravy). Here you’ll find spicy kalguksu, the restaurant’s signature soup and a dish that’s relatively hard to find in Melbourne. It sees fresh wheat noodles in a spicy and slightly smoky broth – a flavour that bears some resemblance to Shin Ramyun. It pairs well with Misty Pot’s house-made ginseng liquor. 35 Dryburgh Street, West Melbourne Ymone Haejanggook, Glen Waverley This Glen Wavery restaurant has a number of exceptional soups including soboyangtang, and nourish

beef soup, and ugeoji haejangguk, a savoury soybean paste-based broth often called hangover soup. But the highlight is the gamjatang, a hearty and spicy pork-based soup from Jeolla Province. At Ymone Haejanggook, gamjatang is designed to share. The pork-based soup is filled with potatoes, dried Korean radish leaves and sujebi – pieces of hand-torn wheat dough – and arrives to the table with a portable gas stove, so it can continue to simmer away while you eat. 185 Coleman Parade, Glen Waverley

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