TJ’s Korean Restaurant is a family-run Riccarton dining room focused on Korean comfort food, with dine-in, pickup and delivery all available from its Straven Road address. The menu is especially good at separating individual meals from larger dishes, so it can accommodate a solo rice plate just as readily as a table sharing a bubbling pot. Banchan and rice connect many of those formats, adding variety around the main dish rather than leaving it to stand alone.
Rice meals offer a direct introduction to the kitchen. Bibimbap layers vegetables and other toppings over rice, while bulgogi brings the savoury sweetness of marinated beef. Osam bulgogi combines pork and squid, and the wider selection moves through pan-fried fish, spicy squid, spicy chicken, spicy pork and teriyaki chicken. Garlic, sesame oil, gochujang and chilli-soy seasoning in the spicy chicken show how the restaurant builds depth as well as heat.
Soups and stews provide the menu’s warming centre. Kimchi stew supplies fermented tang and chilli, while rice-cake dumpling soup takes a gentler, more textural route. Pork-bone stew and spicy steamed pork ribs suit diners after something slow-cooked and substantial. These dishes make sense as complete meals, yet their broths and sauces also complement drier rice plates when several people order across the menu.
For a shared dinner, the large dishes change the rhythm of the table. Korean seafood pizza offers a broad savoury centrepiece, while chicken pot stew and pork-bone pot stew arrive in formats designed to divide. Steamed seafood with vegetables provides another communal option without repeating the meat-heavy pots. Choosing one large dish alongside several individual plates is an effective way to experience the family-style character of TJ’s cooking.
Address: 3 Straven Road, Riccarton, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand
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