Ah Ssak

Pork bone soup was really flavorful and the pork bone was huge. Can’t go wrong here! It’s quiet busy so the service may be slow but we’ll worth it.

Recommend the bibimbap and soondooboo. I personally liked the bimbimbap more. I felt that the soondooboo could be further enhanced by adding a greater variety of ingredients such as more exotic vegetables. My soup felt a tad limited in that the primary ingredient felt a tad limited to tofu. I liked that the flavor tasted very authentic. I felt the location was in a relatively hip part of town and easily accessibly by pedestrians. Our waitress delivered kim chee dishes which were also tasty too. Service was good in that she refilled our favorites without much prompting. Overall, I give this restaurant a thumbs up as we saw locals and tourists here.

The BEST fried chicken in Auckland. So good that I have dreams about their fried chicken. A half chicken order of the regular fried chicken and a half order of the spicy fried chicken is the perfect amount for three hungry people (or two very hungry people).

Awesome bbq pork and chicken. Best kimchi I’ve had. All condiments delicious. Very busy but well worth it.

Open from 5pm till 2am every day, Ah Ssak attracts both the diner looking for their stomachs to be replenished and the jovial drinker, eager for the taste of Korean wine and spirits. As such, the menu offers both light dishes such as fried pancakes and dumplings to absorb the soju as well as large hotpot sets (that numbered the few items over $ 20), which can serve three or four people.
Being a brazen carnivore who admires the Korean penchant for barbecuing at any time of the year, I was disappointed to hear Ah Ssak was out of charcoal. Instead I settled for the next best thing, the perennial bulgogi (sliced barbecued pork with rice $ 13) whilst Kevin ordered the fried flounder with rice ($ 14). We also ordered the kimchi and seafood pancake ($ 20) for the table.
The bulgogi was a surprisingly large serving of meltingly tender pork fried on a cast iron dish with a mildly spicy red sauce that was moreish and tasty. Although intended to be a single serving, I couldn’t imagine one person managing to finish this alone. Kevin’s dish was an impressive sight, a whole flounder that had met the deep fryer and come out crispy but not over-​cooked.
Our two mains came accompanied by two sets of banchan (side dishes). These consisted of kimchi (a traditional spicy, pickled and fermented cabbage that I can’t get enough of), a vegetable-​filled pancake dressed with a green onion and chilli dressing, pickled chilli cucumber and braised flounder with potato. They were all delicious in their own right, and paired with the barbecued pork, the two more than make a meal.
The kimchi and seafood pancake arrived piping hot with crispy bits around the edges; orange in colour and filled with chopped squid, it was a well executed fritter made all the more delicious by the tangy soy and chilli dipping sauce.
Our final and without a doubt best dish of the evening came in the form of fresh raw fish with vinegared vegetables and red pepper paste ($ 30). A specialty of Ah Ssak, the salad was a splendid mound of some of the freshest fish I’ve ever had, thinly sliced and tossed with shredded pear, cucumber, lettuce, cabbage, spring onion and roasted seaweed and topped with sesame seeds and a properly Korean-​hot dressing that doused the salad a warm red colour. The dish was also laced with a mysterious pungent herb I had never tasted before, of which its identity evaded even the Koreans at the table. So utterly delicious was this salad that it converted Mark, a previous fish-​avoider who ironically works in the seafood department of a supermarket, from no to go as far as raw fish is concerned. «That’s delicious!» he cried, «It doesn’t taste like fish at all!» as he went in for a second taste of this game-​changing dish.
Ah Ssak is a versatile restaurant with something for everyone, bridging the gap between good food and a budget.

Ah Sak I love this Korean restaurant! My girlfriend and I used to come here regularly when we lived in the apartments nearby. When you walk up Queen Street, just after Real Groovy, you enter what I can only describe as Korean town. Seriously there is like eight Korean restaurants in a row here and although I haven’t been to all of them, I have been to a few, and Ah Ssak must be one of the best. I don’t know how these places can compete with each other, but they seem to be doing just fine as there are always people dining in around here.
Anyway this place has the best Korean style barbeque dishes, my personal favourite being the beef. Very good prices too, especially for the amount of food that you receive. The elderly lady here never looks all that impressed to serve me, but maybe she’s just sick of seeing my face all the time.