Finally I had the chance to visit Patbingsoo and dine in their premises. I had previously order delivery from one of the platforms and could only order simple meals like bibimbap or ramen.
Located at the basement of VivoCity shopping mall, the outlet itself is pretty small with both seats inside and outside of the restaurant. With the recent social distancing measures, many of the seats were not available so seating is quite limited now. Carrying the same name of a popular Korean dessert, the restaurant is filled with cheerful lighted signboards and pop coloured wall visuals. The cashier and bar counter resembles a drive through meal van which is quite popular in Korea.
With reference to their name, the restaurant also serves a variety of the shaved ice dessert together with a regular Korean casual dining menu which includes ramen, bibimbap, fried chicken and more.
The more popular items in the restaurant are these hotpot selections which are mostly Korean spicy stew with different toppings and soup base. All of these pots are made for sharing between 2 to 3 person.
We ordered this pot called the Twi Gim Jjigae which is basically fried tempura items cooked with Korean spicy stew soup. Compared to other items like the army stew, tteoknokki stew ore seafood stew, this is something not found at other restaurants. The stew has tempura prawns, sausages, mushroom, enoki mushroom, mussels, instant noodles, tofu and rice cake.
You can also choose to top up ingredients at an additional cost. We topped up pork belly for SGD 7.90 and luncheon meat for SGD 3.90 which is really quite expensive for the portion given in this small plate.
All of the fried items are fully cooked so you can either remove them from the pot and set them on the small plates given to eat them crispy or leave them in the pot to absorb the spicy stew. Personally, we liked our toppings cripsy so we removed them from the pot and only dipped them in the stew for flavour. At the base of the stew, there is also raw cabbage so you should allow the stew to boil and cook the vegetables and instant noodles.
Personally, the flavours of the stew is very general and really reminds me of the street side snack store selling spicy tteobokki. The flavour of the stew taste quite similar to those tteobokki sauce except it is slightly sweeter. The cooked noodles and vegetables taste good when it has fully absorbed the stew. The fried ingredients are also crispy and fresh. I especially liked the rice cake as it is lightly fried with a crispy outer layer but the inside of the rice cake was soft and fluffy. As we did not have any other dish, we shared the pot between 2 persons and it was just nice.
Generally, I find that Patbingsoo offers reasonable priced Korean casual food more like those you find in Seoul Gwangjang markets rather than a proper Korean restaurant. The bibimbap and ramen I ordered for delivery were also decent. Expect to find casual street food quality which is friendly to the pocket.
Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, #B2-27 VivoCity, Singapore 098585
Operating hours: 11.30 am to 9.30 am
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