Korean BBQ

I had my first taste of "Korean food" at Tiong Bahru food court when I was still in Primary School. Honestly, the food wasn't authentic and I thought Kimchi tasted very bad then. Over the years, I tried on various Korean rice set at different food courts. The best one that I ever had was at Marina Square foodcourt (before they renovated). It was quite authentic as the stall was operated by a Korean lady boss and god, their Kimchi was very good. I also learnt how to overcome the weird taste of Kimchi and starts to appreciate it because her's.

Few years ago, I wanted to taste real Korean food at a real korean restuarant. I surf the net and found one at Pek Seah St. There are a lot of such resturants there but the one I picked one called New Seoul. I had went there with my Poly Friend and it was a quite an unique experience for us.

When having Korean meal, they usually accompanied by lots of small appetisers and there are a lot of types of Kimchi. We did not know then that the cost are already factored into the main course, so my friend and I were worried about the bill. After that, we realised how silly we were as customers can request refilling of those dishes as many times as you like if you can finished them. Another surprise was that the grill meat was not like what we have in foodcourt - spicy and red. They have different varieties and common ones are marinated in soya sauce etc. To eat, customers can often dipped into sesame seed oil and sugar mixture. After meal, restuarant will served up a sweet gingery flavoured tea - it was decorated with a little bit of pine nuts floating in it and we were told it will aid digestion.

I had Korean food recently with colleagues at the Korean Shopping Mall. Food was common and they wasn't as generous in refilling their small appetisers as like other restaurants. The place looked posh, but a pity that meal was eaten in a very rush manner. However, I have to say their spicy chicken was not bad - sweet but it wasn't spicy enough for me.

They served up a lot of small appetisers. However when we requested for refill, they took orders, but didn't serve them.

State of the art retractable exhaution vacuum to suck up the greasy smoke. Look cute, but noisy.

The not bad spicy chicken. We had thought they were going to grill it, but it turn out to be stew like with a lot of vegetables. Not bad, but I think it can be done better.

What is this you asked? It is suppose to be a soya milk based soup. When they had served us, it was boiling and almost overflowing. When cool, it looked like this. We have not even scooped out any yet. Taste like toufu bits in some salty liquid and there is nothing else in it. Guess how much it cost? $15 dollars... I couldn't understand why they can serve this.

Verdict- Pricy and food is common. There are more worthy restaurants to experience authentic korean cusine than this one.