The Korean food scene in Colombo has been getting stronger for the past year, and The Bibim is its newest member. We dropped in for an early lunch recently, and here's how our experience went.
Ambience
The most distinct thing about The Bibim's ambience was the smell. A smell that my hair still carries up to this moment. It's not a bad thing, it smelt like fried chicken to be precise. Who doesn't love fried chicken?
Anywho, as you can probably tell from the picture, it's not a big place. The kitchen is opened up to the eating area which really helps with determining how long your food is going to take. The place was well-maintained and we have zero complaints about it.
The Bibimbap
To those of you who need a bit of a Bibimbap 101, here goes,
- bibimbap
/ˈbiːbɪmbap/
noun
A Korean dish consisting of rice topped with sautéed vegetables, chilli paste, and beef or other meat, sometimes with the addition of a raw or fried egg.
- How To Eat It:
Spill all the stuff in the side bowl (not the broth) into the bowl of bibimbap and mix them till it resembles a monochromatic porridge. Then, you eat.
On the left you have the Seafood (Rs. 600), and on the right, there's the Pork (Rs. 600). The seafood one was comprised of three prawns, while the pork one had a good amount of minced pork.
This was my first time eating bibimbap and tbh, I was kinda surprised at how good it was. It tasted like a very sauced up version of fried rice, and a delicious one at that. The sweet and spicy elements of the dish were perfectly balanced, while the portion was quite big – so you might have some difficulty finishing this off in one sitting. Especially if you order other stuff to go with it.
This is the Sweet and Sour Chicken (Rs. 900). While we didn't find any particular sourness in the sauce, it was very very sweet. The Chicken, on the other hand, was brilliant. Cooked to perfection and coated in a light, crispy batter, it puts the popular KFC fried chicken to shame. We suggest getting the sauce separately so you can indulge in the chicken – so you can try the sauce only if you feel like it.
Drinks
The Bibim doesn't do many drinks. Actually, they only have around five drinks on their entire menu. We decided to go with the Korean Coffee (Rs. 200) and the Sikhye (Rs. 300).
While we couldn't get a proper picture of the coffee, it isn't very difficult to describe. It essentially tasted like an instant coffee, which surprisingly went down well with our meal.
This is the Sikhye (Rs. 300). At a glance, it looked a lot like a cordial drink, but tasted like a really nice version of barley. With actual pieces of barley just swimming towards the bottom of the cup, it was a good one. We thought it was quite nice but according to Lamindu, our resident Korean stuff fanatic, it was a tad too sweet.
Service
In terms of service, there's absolutely nothing we can complain about. They were accommodating, brought our food in around 10 minutes and they even helped with arranging the dishes for the pictures.
Conclusion
All in all, we liked our experience at The Bibim. They serve up some pretty solid Korean dishes and it's worth everything you pay for it.
