Miga

good quality, good value cooking

Make no mistake, Miga is a Korean family business in the most deep-rooted way. Grandma sold ox-bone broth in Seoul before a transcontinental uprooting of the clan led to the establishment of a venue in New Malden, epicentre of the expat Korean community. It's possibly an even bigger cultural leap from the suburbs of Greater London to the streets of Hackney, where a polyglot restaurant scene saw Miga welcomed with open arms by locals. Despite the spare decor (the minimalist aspect is broken by a single painting), the place exudes the warmth of familial hospitality, with Mr Ko cooking in the open kitchen and his sons running the front of house with great enthusiasm. The food brings a contemporary sensibility to the traditional cooking methods and red-alert seasonings of Korean food, adding tofu and marrow, for instance, to gang doenjang, a thick stew founded on soybean paste. King prawns in gochujang sauce marry seafood freshness and assertive chilli heat to stimulating effect. Main dishes try out innovative treatments such as perilla-seed aïoli with slices of tender brisket, leeks and baby leaves, but don't miss the galbi jjim, traditional beef short rib braised until the meat falls obligingly off the bone, partnered with pear, carrot and shiitake mushrooms – a ‘comforting hug’ of a dish in the words of one reporter. The ox-bone broth, a tribute to grandma's original spirit of enterprise, is nourishing and cleansing, a fitting end to the experience that stands in for the usual empty calories of a pudding. There’s still no dessert menu – coffee and a bun at Italian Forno next door is an option if you’re there during the day – but Miga is now licensed and has a short list of soju, natural wines (from £35), and beers including Korean Cass and Five Points, brewed down the road. Teas come from Korean specialists Be-oom in Clerkenwell.

Translating as 'flavourful house', Miga is a family-run Korean restaurant led by Hyun Sang Ko in the kitchen, alongside his two sons, who take care of the front of house. The family's culinary history is displayed in a mural on the restaurant wall, which traces their roots through previous generations, including their grandmother's influence as a chef in Seoul in the 1970s and their father's training under Korean and Japanese master chefs in the 1990s. Reflecting a direction set by the next generation of the family, Miga offers a modern take on Korean cuisine with a menu that draws on traditional Korean flavours while presenting them in a contemporary style, shaped by the family's culinary background and evolving approach to their cooking. The backbone of its cooking is its bone broth, a recipe passed down from generations for which the restaurant has become well known. In a restaurant world where there is much jostling for attention, Miga is the polar opposite. The restaurant's whitewashed exterior and small handwritten style signage make it a place you could easily walk past with knowing. It's Instagram page, comprising just five posts (of which only one features the restaurant's food) is equally unassuming. But don't let first impressions put you off, Miga is an extraordinary restaurant.