arisana restaurant @ rowe st., eastwood

When it comes to cheap food & eating, come to Eastwood and you'll be spoilt for choice. On one side of the station, you find home to Korean food and the other, Chinese food (mixture of Cantonese, Peking, Northern Chinese). I probably haven't tried as many of the Korean restaurants as I should've and the other night, when J&I were looking for a quick bite to eat, we thought we'd give one of the places a go.

Way back in the times of primary school, Arisana was more of a formal sit-down Korean restaurant. Stepping through the doors this time round, it was clear that things had changed a little, the set up was a lot more modern (probably had changed owners) and the place was attracting more of a mixed crowd, from young families, your 20 something groups, people that probably lived just down the road and were grabbing a bite to eat. Upstairs must be a function room as halfway through our meal we saw a busload of people coming trampling down.

A mixture of sides. The pieces of raw onion look lethal but were actually alright with the black bean sauce that came with it.

It took us a little while to pour through the menu and at first, did remark on how expensive everything was. We were set on ordering 3 dishes but mid-order, the waiter stopped us and said that the two would be more than enough. We took his word and certainly did not regret it. Our jaws dropped when this plate of chilli chicken came to the table.

Followed by this plate of Arisan Black Bean Noodles.

These two plates could've easily fed four! Each dish was a bit over $20 which made it a little expensive for two of us but with 4, it's clearly a bargain. For the first time ever, J&I stuffed ourselves and dejectedly asked for the rest to be doggy bagged. Both dishes were fantastic and when I got home with the takeaway boxes, they were gone by the next morning.