I had my first Korean pot rice in Seoul, and I wasn’t impressed, so when the famous pot rice restaurant came to Singapore, I did not bother making a trip to the restaurant at all. I was in the Tanjung Pagar area for a famous Tonkatsu, but could not get a seat, so I started to wonder around looking for a possible dinner place when I chanced upon Sagye
Not wanting to continue looking for available tables, I decided to settle for Sagye, who has a couple of people queuing outside, but we waited only 5 minutes to get a table
The restaurant is longish in space, and the entrance is extremely narrow with the shelves holding all the bowls, plates and utensils set right at the front of the restaurant. You will need to walk past this cluster of items before reaching the main dining area, which consists of not more than 10 tables which can house different group sizes
While we came here for their pot rice, we saw that many other tables were also having their barbecue meats. For the pot rice, they have a different menu for the seasons, as well as different ingredients for different price points
For side dishes, they served 4 different types: cabbage kimchi, japchae, cucumber kimchi and broccoli with cream sauce, which were quite mediocre side dishes that we did not get a refill at all. We also had a claypot of seaweed soup, which had a light, clear broth, tofu and seaweed, which paired well with the pot rice
I ordered the scallop pot rice, which came with grilled scallops, boiled clams, salmon roe, flying fish roe, chopped spring onions, pickled radish, and sesame and seafood soy sauce, priced at SGD 28.80. The ingredients were plentiful for the pot of rice, but they were somewhat dry and a little overcooked. Just like the one in Seoul, I was not impressed with the pot rice as the flavours did not pop and were quite general
The 2nd pot we ordered was the sea bream with eggplant, which has the grilled sea bream, stir-fried eggplant with minced pork, flying fish roe, cured salmon roe, chopped spring onions, pickled radish, and sesame and seafood soy sauce, priced at SGD 30.80. I was hoping the stir-fried eggplants would give this pot more flavours but it was again disappointing. The rice and fish were dry, and there was not enough sauce, but I was glad there was soup given to pair with the rice
Overall, the price of the pot rice was not worth the dish we had, and I would much prefer the Japanese versions, which are a lot more moist. The flavours were muted and did not really bring out the natural sweetness of the ingredients
Address: 95 Tg Pagar Rd, Singapore 088516
Opening hours: 11 am to 3 pm and 5.30 pm tp 10 pm
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 