There are plenty of Korean restaurants in Singapore with many opened by Koreans with authentic Korean chefs and recipes. You can find most of them scattered throughout Tanjong Pagar area but I did chance upon this restaurant located in Suntec City which serves pretty good and affordable Korean dishes.
Most people will cringe when they see the name of the restaurant, I did as well since having Kimchi as the name of the restaurant is really quite uncreative. The owner probably had a lack of choices when they were naming the restaurant but don’t let this stop you. The restaurant is quite spacious with many tables as well as 1 private room
You can find all kinds of Korean dishes here in Kimchi restaurant from Korean street snack, bbq, stews, soups to noodles and rice. Any Korean dish you crave for, you can find it here at a pretty reasonable price.
There is a free flow of side dishes as you can help yourself to the side dish counter. The side dishes available include seasoned bean sprouts, kimchi radish, kimchi cabbage and fresh vegetable salad.
You can also pay for the free flow drinks and the choices include; barley tea, omija tea, yuzu tea and maesil tea. All of them are typical Korean drinks and is very delicious plus they complement the Korean dishes really well.
Starting from snacks, they have some really interesting choices on the menu like this fried glass noodle gimbap. Glass noodles are wrapped with seaweed and fried till golden brown. The dish comes with a soy dipping sauce as well as mayonnaise. The texture of the snack is very interesting as the noodles are soft and chewy while the seaweed skin is crispy and light
Next is the Yangneom chicken which is Korean fried chicken glazed with a sweet and spicy sauce. The chicken is fried till extremely crispy but the meat is still tender and juicy. The yangneom sauce is sweet from the tomato base and yet has a small kick from the gochuchang. This dish is perfect as an accompaniment to drinks when hanging out with friends.
The japchae which is glass noodles is slightly on the salty side although the noodles are cooked perfectly with a nice spring. The noodle is well seasoned with soy sauce and the sliced carrots and onions provide a good texture to the chewy noodles.
The kimchi pancake is well fried and the thickness of the pancake is perfect as it is thin enough for the pancake to be pan-fried till crispy and yet thick enough for you to taste the savoury kimchi flour mixture. The pancake has strong kimchi flavours and is light enough for one to finish at least half of the pancake
Something that is worth mentioning is the steamed egg which is very common in most bbq restaurants but the ones here are light and has an additional crunch due to the flying fish roe which is added into the egg as a topping. The steamed egg itself is very fluffy and light with nice egg and sesame flavours.
Something that got me hooked to this restaurant is their bean paste soup. I can say that this is the best doenjang jigae outside of Korea that I have tasted. The fermented bean flavours are deep and flavourful and when combined with the fresh seafood used to make the soup, there is a good balance of savoury umami taste. They are also very generous with the ingredients as there are blue flower crabs, clams, mussels, prawns, tofu, mushrooms, onions and squash. This soup is so authentic, I feel like I am transported to Korea immediately.
The most basic kimchi soup is also very savoury filled with ingredients like mushrooms, tuna fish, tofu plus aged kimchi. As they are using aged kimchi for the soup, the soup tends to be on the more sour and savoury side which is similar to how kimchi soups are cooked in a Korean household.
As they had a promotion for their Korean bbq meats, we decided to order 2 strips of pork belly.
Despite a SGD 9.90 price tag for 1 strip of pork belly, the quality of the meat given is very good as you can see a good separation of fats and meat. The meat also bbq well and taste very well. There is no service for the bbq unlike some other restaurants as they are quite short on staff.
Overall, I like all of Kimchi’s dishes as they are full of authentic Korean flavours just like how I would have tasted them in some small Korean alley. Most importantly, the prices of the dishes are really affordable and servings are very generous. If you are not greedy like us ordering multiple dishes, a bowl of simple soup and rice would have made for a good meal. Some of the big pot of stews are also very popular and taste good but it would be a dish to order when you have 4 to 5 persons in the group. If I am to pick out 1 negative, that would be the service. Not that the service is bad as they are very helpful and polite but they are extremely understaffed during meal times so trying to get service during peak periods is really tough and this can prove to be a bad thing to some diners. For me, the food is good enough to bear with a longer service time.
Address: 3 Temasek Blvd, #02-387 Suntec City West Wing, Singapore 038983
Operating hours: 11 am to 3pm and 5 pm to 10 pm
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