It’s taken time for me to warm to Topokki’s humble charms. The basic home-style Korean food was alright, it didn’t really hit the spots for me. But it sneaks onto the Brumfoodmap on the strength of one dish, the Dolsot Bibimbap. A red hot stone bowl filled with rice, finely sliced fresh vegetables and a choice of meat, beef all the way for me. Mix in the Korean magic ingredient gojujang (a smooth sweet, fermented, fiery chilli paste) and bingo! Instant satisfaction. Well not instant as it’s scorching hot but that’s the beauty of it, the heat cooks off the gojujang and aromatises the rice as you eat it. Better still there’a nice crust of browned rice at the end of the bowl. A truly delicious way to eat rice.
The fried chicken nuggets are tasty here if a little unsubstantial but the rest of the menu is a little boring. The kimchi is watery and bland. The room has been extended so it’s a lot more comfortable. Maybe a little too comfortable, everytime I’ve eaten there it’s been full of groups of Chinese yoofs passive aggressively treating the place like a lounge. Getting in the way of the patiently polite Korean staff after they’ve finished picking at their food ages ago. They’re obviously the restaurant’s main clientele and I’m not usually bothered by what other diners are up to, but there’s a line of rudeness that people skate very close to here. I just eat my bibimbap and go!
Topokki
Unit 1C Hurst Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B5 4TD
Tel:0121 666 7200
I find it very offensive the way you have picked out a specific ethnicity here to complain about.
Would it be acceptable to say ‘I try and eat my food quickly and leave because there are always a large group of black students who are rude to staff, getting in their way and treating the place as a lounge even after they’ve long finished eating’?
Instead of making a point of stating these customers’ ethnicity, why not just say ‘I found my visit here slightly uncomfortable due to a few customers acting in quite a rude manner towards the staff and treating the restaurant as a lounge’. To point out behaviour that you find unacceptable is fine, but to attribute this behaviour to a specific ethnicity is not acceptable. I would say this verges on racism.
Amanda
Is it racist when I complain about my own ethnicity? When an older Chinese complains about the behaviour of youngsters is this racism or just natural confucian order?