Seoul Kimchi: ‘The soup should be offered on prescription’ – review

This tiny restaurant is as uncomfortable as it gets, but the Korean cooking makes it all worthwhile

Seoul Kimchi, 275 Upper Brook Street, Manchester M13 0HR (0161 273 5556). Meal for two, excluding wine: £30-£45

The cab rumbles down a broad street just to the south of Manchester city centre, of the sort even its planner would struggle to love. To one side is the hefty sprawl of the Royal Infirmary. To the other is the blood centre. If you’re leaking, or bits of you are falling off, this is clearly the place to be. It is not the kind of drag you would necessarily go down in search of dinner. But then sometimes worthwhile restaurants are the product of happenstance rather than design.

This is cheap, gutsy Korean soul food, which will curl your hair with a faint sheen of sweat