Hackney has a fair few restaurants and cafes that take advantage of everyone’s penchant for a rustic little place to eat great food. However, none of them even come close to Hurwendeki’s inimitable rough edged charm.
The Bethnal Green café was first a boutique that then graduated into a café before launching a Korean evening menu. All about the exposed deformities and visible chinks the venue’s chipped brickwork, peeling paint and wobbly wooden furniture creates an intimate environment. By candlelight Hurwendeki is just about as attractive a restaurant as we’ve ever been in. Okay, there might be a touch of hyperbole there but if you like the idea of squeezing up, sharing dishes and interacting with the chef then this is the place to come. Casual is an understatement. Hurwendeki’s interior reminds you of the charming tumbledown wreck that you hope you’ll one day inherit from a long-lost aunt you never knew about - or something.
We visited in the evening and sampled the Korean menu. Sharing plates of vegetable dumplings and kimchi were excellent and as a big group we agreed with the chef that we would pay per person and eat as much as we wanted. It’s informal like that. Main courses of Bi Bim Bap – Korea’s national dish – were equally as good as the sides. Although, the rice, bean sprouts, pork and vegetable served in a red-hot clay bowl possibly missed the saltiness that miso sauces served at less ‘fresh’ establishments often give the dish.
As if Hurwendeki needed extra points the place is also BYOB. Which means the cost of a meal with drinks of your choice amounts to little over £18 per person. For home-cooked Korean food in an engaging environment, that’s a bargain.
