into something quite special and nutritious.Bibimbap House's arrival in early 2011 adds to the cluster of ethnic restaurants along Mill Road an authentic example of Korean cuisine. The place has a zen-like austerity, basic in decor, with only a piece of modern Korean art made from black wire breaking up the bare white walls and a large lantern in the window.

We found happy-looking customers at the other tables on a Tuesday evening, including a big group of Asian teenagers, a table of Germans, and then other mostly young diners. Their chatter echoed loudly in the small shop front space.

The menu is also fairly minimalist at the moment. The owner, who happens to be a nutritionist and also runs a Chinese restaurant in York with her husband, said she wanted to focus on providing really good, freshly made examples of just one dish. She chose bibimbap over other Korean dishes, because it incorporates lots of vegetables and can be made in a really healthy way.

Bibimbap - a name literally meaning 'mixed meal' - is basically cooked white rice, thin strips of marinated beef or pork, vegetables that are mixed together with the chilli sauce and put in a stone bowl serving so hot they fry a bit on contact. The diner is warned the bowl may be very hot to touch.

Bibimbap uses a wide range of vegetables. Our choice came with a fairly standard spinach, onion, and sliced carrot strikingly arranged in piles like sections of colour chart on top of the rice. All loaded with flavour in the way only just-picked items can be, they stayed slightly al-dente in the dish, their cool crisp flavours forming a really nice contrast with the strong sauce.

The sauce is what really wowed us. It would be overpowering on its own, but it soaks into the rice and vegetables to colour them a vibrant orange. Then it diffuses its really distinctive pickled and spicy flavour in each bite your take. We really savoured every mouthful we took.

Alongside the taste, the crisp pieces of carrot stood out against the plump grains of white rice, bringing out the textures of the ingredients. And at the bottom of the bowl the rice had fried against the stone. We loved digging down with our chopsticks and pulling up these crispy, golden pieces.

We also tried japchae bibimbap, which had a somewhat less stimulating flavour, but offered a similarly tantalising array of textures. The dish mixed the white rice with translucent sweet potato noodles that had an intriguing slimy springiness to them, together with mushrooms that had an elastic squid-like texture.

As always with Korean food, the main dishes always come with a selection of small side dishes orbiting around them. Our came accompanied by the Korean favourite of kimchee, which combined cooling pieces of white cabbage with a piquant red chilli sauce. They also had a dish of crisp radish saturated in the same kind of spice. Just right to round out a satisfying meal.