It's always a pleasure to find real down-home Korean cooking without having to make the trek up to Okubo, so we were thrilled to discover Halleluyah on a fashionable Aoyama side street. When we saw the bottomless bowls of kimchee and bean sprouts on each table, the imported Hite beer and makkoli on the drinks menu, and the huge nabe-style stew simmering away on the next table, we knew we'd found something more interesting than run-of-the-mill Korean barbecue.

Halleluyah's decor is playful and subtle - cheap-looking red tables with spindly aluminum legs, cement floors, wooden shingles on the inside walls, half-rusted corrogated metal on the outside. It all evokes a kind of post-war, retro-chic aesthetic without being pushy about it. (There are no cutesy fifties-era advertising posters, for example, and it's easy to miss the effect entirely.) But it's clear that some designer worked very hard, and probably spent a good chunk of money, making things look this cheap.

Although they have a diverse menu, the specialties of the house are the spicy stews that are cooked on a grill at the center of your table. Among these is an excellent version of dakkalbi - a dish originally from Chunchon (near the north-south border) that's become popular in Seoul and the rest of the country over the past few years. Succulent grilled ji-dori chicken, Korean mochi (rice cakes), potatoes, carrots, onions and other vegetables are simmered in a thick, spicy red sauce. Portions are ample, and the smaller size (Y2500) should be sufficient for four hungry people, assuming you're ordering other dishes as well.

And there are plenty of side dishes worth a try, like the ebi hotate itame, with big, flavorful shrimp and sushi-bar-quality scallops stir-fried in a rich, spicy miso-infused sauce. There's also braised oxtail - intensely beefy in flavor - and vinegared sesame leaves (best accompanied by a dab of white rice), that make a nice contrast to the rich sauces of the other dishes.

Given the hefty size of the portions, this is a good place to come with a group. And should your group settle in and make an evening of it, the pig's foot (Y3500) provides good nibbles to go with a few rounds of drinks. It's all sliced up and ready to go - just add miso paste, raw garlic slivers, hot peppers and kanimiso (crab guts), wrap the whole thing in a lettuce leaf and you've got a balanced meal. In case you crave a few more vitamins, though, a good accompaniment to the pig's foot is a dish called muku - basically a salad of exotic greens, cucumbers, nori (toasted seaweed), and odd greyish-brown chunks of buckwheat-flour tofu, all in a sweet and spicy dressing. Drinks include domestic and Korean beer, soju (shochu), makkoli (a mild, milky-looking traditional rice wine), and a clear Korean rice wine called chungha - it's not quite sake, but very similar, and it's a decent match for spicy food.

The crowd is a lively mix of after-work office staff, fashion-industry underlings and local residents, with more families on the weekends. Private rooms up on the second floor handle the overflow and cater to small parties.