Introducing a series of alternative city guides, specially curated for the cultivated traveller.

Hop off the train at New Malden, and you’ll soon grasp that – as the many advertisements for Korean-Canadian stage play Kim’s Convenience (actually back in the other direction at Finsbury Park’s Park Theatre) dotted around the platform might have already signposted – this little south London suburb has a more eclectic cultural history than its unremarkable reputation suggests.

This is, in fact, the epicentre of London’s Korean community – home to approximately 10,000 Koreans (including 600 North Korean defectors) in the immediate vicinity, and a total of 20,000 in the wider Kingston Borough. That makes it one of the highest concentrations of Koreans in Europe – with a gradual migration triggered in the 1970s by the simple fact that the Ambassador for the Republic of Korea lived here, prompting Korean firms like Samsung Electronics to open up offices nearby thereafter.

It would be a stretch to say that stepping off the platform feels like you’re being transported back to the bustling backstreets of Seoul, but there is undoubtedly a novel charm to the area owing to the plethora of Korean-facing businesses: from Seoul Car Centre and SeOUL Estate Agents to the Korean-language newspaper The Hanin Herald.

Feeding all of the locals, of course, is an abundance of top-notch Korean restaurants, cafés and supermarkets, which are well worth seeking out when in search of sustenance. Check out some of AnOther’s highlights from London’s unlikely Koreatown below.

Cah Chi

79-81 Kingston Rd

There is no shortage of traditional Korean restaurants in New Malden, with the high street alone gratefully outnumbering jumbo-sized British establishments like Nando’s and Pizza Express two-to-one. Take a right once you reach the roundabout, though, for one of the newer and more impressive establishments: Cah Chi, an unpretentious and reasonably-priced gem that excels thanks to vibrant dishes, fresh ingredients and smiling staff.

Alongside bright and colourful mixed banchan – including, on the most recent instance, complimentary sweet soy adzuki beans and red-pepper-specked potatoes – Cah Chi offers all kinds of sumptuous marinated meats for the centre-table barbecue, with the beef LA galbi (short rib) a mouthwatering stand-out. Their soondae – black pudding stuffed with vermicelli noodles – is meanwhile served with chilil salt and saeu-jeot: a dipping sauce built on tiny, fermented shrimp. Fresh-tasting and lightly-sour kimchi jjigae (a classic stew made with kimchi, thin slices of pork and silken tofu), meanwhile, cuts through mouthfuls of the restaurant’s springy, pumpkin-coloured kimchi pancake.

H Mart

Unit 1, Leigh Close

The biggest Korean supermarket in London – the ‘H’ stands for han ah reum (“armful of groceries”) – lies just a few clicks down from Cah Chi on the road towards Kingston, and it’s a mini-mecca of fresh produce, store cupboard essentials, and offbeat bric-a-brac.

Here you’ll find crates of ripe Korean pears, tanks of fresh crabs and lobsters, and shelves full of Ottogi brand instant curry pouches, recognisable for their distinctive bright yellow packaging; often paired on the table with kimchi and rice. Elsewhere, there are more idiosyncratic goods to be found: fish sausage corn dogs; tteokbokki mouse pads; and brew-your-own makgeolli (Korean rice wine) kits. Of course, there’s a rainbow-coloured wall of instant ramen to get busy with as well. 

KCafé

143 High Street

For cheap eats, you can do far worse than stopping by this white-wall café in the middle of the high street, which acts as a tasty facade to the Korean Culture and Arts Center; a modest community hub and function room host to all kinds of cultural events.

The main draw is the excellent value – with £5 tteokbokki (rice cakes with sweet-spicy sauce), japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) and gimbap (Korean sushi stuffed with options like beef bulgogi, cheese and egg) all worthy for a budget lunch with an authentic flavour.  They’re served with a free soup if you’re dining in; if not, browse the well-stocked fridge at the back for generously portioned take-home boxes of seasoned radish, stir-fried anchovies and vinegar seaweed stems.

601pm 

38 High Street

Admittedly, this high street café and karaoke parlour, which features mismatched tables and chairs, faux-velvet headboards, esoteric board games, and, most bizarrely, a glass chandelier, does almost feel like Koreatown’s answer to Creams. But you didn’t come here for a lesson in interior design – you came here for the bingsoo.

Bingsoo is a shaved ice dish quite unlike anything native to the standard British dessert menu. A big bowl of tiny milky shards that look exactly like desiccated coconut flakes, but taste instead like a kind of creamy snow, is topped, traditionally, with a scoop of mushy red beans and a drizzle of sweet condensed milk. At 601pm you can trade the latter toppings for mango or Daeji Bar (a Korean vanilla ice cream with chocolate coating) – or order other snacks like beef bulgogi paninis and “Seoul toast”.

Over the road is the more famous bingsoo hole, Cake & Bingsoo Cafe – which was frequented by King Sausage Fingers himself in November 2023 during a visit to the suburb to commemorate 140 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and the UK.

You Me Korean Restaurant

96 Burlington Road

Another noteworthy dinner spot – sandwiched between The Biriyani Centre and the Sambal Express Sri Lankan deli counter – is the living-room-sized You Me Korean Restaurant, a charming, wood-furnished eatery offering classic Korean home cooking.

Though the wooden decking out front is a newer edition, You Me Korean Restaurant is actually one of the oldest of its kind in the local area, having celebrated its 35th year in business in 2023. On the menu: handmade jajangmyeon noodles served with a thick black bean sauce; fried mandu dumplings; and a variety of fresh, rainbow-coloured bibimbap. The restaurant owner holds herself to a high standard – unsurprising, given that she’s also the president of the Restaurant and Supermarkets Association in New Malden.

Chick and Beers

282 Burlington Road

If you’ve made it this far, down the road towards Raynes Park; under the A3 overpass; and past the enormous drive-through Krispy Kreme doughnuts centre (another local landmark) then reward yourself by pulling on the plastic gloves and tucking into an entire baking tray of crispy, meaty, and thoroughly succulent Korean chicken wings.

As the name suggests, these are Chick and Beers’ speciality – and they do them well, with each chunky portion made fresh-to-order to ensure an impressive equilibrium of crunchiness and juiciness. There are a few different sauces available for lathering – the most popular being garlic soy and sweet chilli – and if you like pig toes and whatnot you can also add a portion of spam fries to your order. The latter mystery meat is a much-loved foodstuff on the peninsula, having first been popularised via US army rations during the Korean War.

Whatever you order, be sure to add a tiny bowl of sweet and punchy pickled radish – for like, a quid – in order to cleanse the palette and offer the illusion of there being some kind of healthy vegetable present. Wash it all down with Gordon Ramsay’s favourite beer: Cass.