Japanese Pub (Isakaya) - Darak

A friend of my wife has recently opened a Japanese pub here in Daejeon, so we went to check it out on Saturday night with some of Jihyeon's friends. I've written this up as an informal review to see if I can drum up some business for him. 

In summary it was a good evening out. The food was tasty and reasonably priced. Many of the drinks were also cheap (3000 won for a CASS tallie) and there were 3 different varieties of Sake on offer for between 19000 and 33000 won a bottle. The chef is also a good guy and can speak a little English, which makes the ordering process easier if you don't have a group of translators with you.

The name of the pub is Darak and it is located in the south western corner of Daejeon at 127-3 Doma-dong (97 Dosan-ro) <naver linky> <google maps linky>. 

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If you have a car there is parking out the back of the building. 

The freshly renovated venue.

The chef at work. 

The menu.

I've bolded the menu items we ordered.

• 야끼우동 : Yaki Udong (Fired Noodle) 13000 won
• 오꼬노미 야끼 : Okonomi Yaki (Sea food pan fried cake) 13000 won
• 골뱅이 소면 : Golbangi Somyeon (Bay top shell and cold spicy noodle with vegtables) 13000 won
• 치킨 가라아께 : Chicken Garaake (fried chicken) 13000 won
• 케이준 샐러드 : Cajun Salad 13000 won
• 오징어 다리 튀김 : Ojingeo Dari twiegim (Fried squid leg) 80000 won
• 해물 누룽지탕 : Haemul Nurungjitang (Spicy seafood stew with crust of overcooked rice) 15000 won
• 나가사끼 짬뽕 : Nagasaki Jjambbong (Nagasaki spicy seafood noodle) 13000 won
• 오뎅탕 : Odeangtang (Fish cake soup) 13000 won
• 마른안주 : Marunanju (Dried squid and Nuts) 8000 won
• 한치 : Hanchi (Grilled Dried Loligo) 8000 won
• 반건 오징어 : Bangun Ojingeo (Grilled Half dried squid) 10000 won
• 해산물 버터구이 : Haesanmul Buttergui (Grilled seafood with butter) 12000 won
• 돼지고기 숙주볶음 : Fried pork and bean sprouts 13000 won
• 해산물 숙주볶음 : Fried seafood and bean sprouts 13000 won
• 회무침 : Spicy Seafood salad with chilly paste 13000 won
• 키조개 구이 : Grilled pan shell 10000 won
• 사시미 : Sashimi 15000 won
• 쥐포 : Dried filefish fillet 8000
• 날치알밥 : Flying fish roe with rice in a hot pot 4000 won
• 해물라면 : Seafood rameon 3000 won

The drinks fridge packed with the standard assortment of popular beers in Korea, the ubiquitous Soju and also some Saki. 

The first menu item was Sashimi (사시미). I didn't try this because it isn't my kinda thing, but everyone else said it was fantastic. 

Next up was fried pork and bean sprouts (돼지고기 숙주볶음) which was my favourite dish for the night. Normally I'm not a huge fan of bean sprouts. Some varieties can be really chewy. Happy to report that the variety of bean sprouts used in this dish went down well. The pork was tender and just enough pepper was added to give it a bit of zing, but not enough to overpower the other flavours. 

Next up was the fried chicken (치킨 가라아께). It was cooked just right and there were no bones in it which made me happy. I hate bones :(

There was also some sweat and sour sauce and soy sauce to go with the chicken. 

This isn't one of the menu items. The chef knew I don't love fish, so he also cooked some cream spaghetti for us. Thanks~

Last up was Odeangtang (오뎅탕) aka fish cake soup.

The idea is you use the ladle to spoon the soup into the cup and then drink the soup and use your chop sticks to fish the bits of fish out of the cup. The soup didn't have an overly strong fishy taste and went down well. 

Let the good times roll....

Thumbs up.