Dosirak Review: DIY Korean Rice Bowls You Need To Shake Before Eating

Whenever I have to mix stuff in a bowl or stir through soup, some bits and drops inadvertently end up on the table, and I’ll have to sheepishly clean them up. That’s one thing I won’t have to worry about at Dosirak , which serves Korean rice bowls meant to be shaken before eating.

Just like Doodles , which requires you to shake your noodles before eating, Dosirak lets you DIY your meal. Once you’ve got your food, pour Dosirak’s special sauce into it, put the lid back on and start shaking!

Dosirak - Korean Rice Bowls You Need To Shake Food at Dosirak First up, a bowl of Salmon ($9.90) rice bowl. Each bowl on the menu comes with short grain white rice by default, which was what we had with the salmon. For $1 more, you can have it on brown rice or buckwheat noodles.

An additional $2 can get you a base of tofu or cabbage, and cauliflower rice costs an extra $3. We drizzled some of Dosirak’s special sauce, which is a blend of gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and apple cider vinegar, into our bowl and – over the protests of our rumbling tummies – put the lid back on the container. In Korean cuisine, dosirak refers to food packed in a metal lunchbox, usually rice and side dishes such as meat and kimchi.

Just like how old-school Korean lunchboxes are enjoyed, you gotta shake your Dosirak tub to mix all the elements together. Dosirak’s sauce is all at once spicy, sweet and sour, making it a flavourful accompaniment to all the other elements. The bowl of Beef Bulgogi ($8.90) was too tempting to resist any longer.

We chose to have cauliflower rice (+$3) as the base in this bowl. The “rice” had the texture of minced garlic and just the slightest flavour of cauliflower. It was interesting to try, but we missed the chewiness and fluffiness of rice to go with our meat.

Finally, we set our sights on the Cold Crab and Fish Roe ($13.90) rice bowl. Dosirak was really generous with their elements; there was a heap of crab meat and spoonfuls of roe in our bowl.

We liked how the flavours came together: sweet crab meat, sour pickled radish and the savouriness of fish roe. We chose buckwheat noodles (+$1) as the base in this bowl and it was our favourite.

The well-flavoured noodles won us over with a savoury depth that contributed to the overall flavours of the bowl.