Specialising in signature “8 Colours” pork belly flavours, it is easy to link Palsaik with 8 Korean BBQ in Singapore, but both restaurants are not related at all. Originating from South Korea since 2007, the outlet has since opened over 100 outlets worldwide
The outlets in Malaysia started in 2014 and have been offering pork belly marinated in eight different flavours: ginseng, wine, pine leaves, garlic, herb, curry, miso, and red pepper paste
The restaurant has a typical Korean barbecue layout with the usual pipes to remove the smoke and oil from the cooking. The overall look is modern and grunge, with wooden walls and neon lights
They have an extensive menu with various combo sets to fit different party sizes and budgets, and most people will order the signature set, which features their 8 flavoured pork belly
As with all Korean restaurants, we were served side dishes, and they had some options which were really quite suited to my taste buds, like the potato salad, corn mayonnaise salad, seasoned mushrooms and kimchi pancake. They also had a side salad with light dressing while serving the platter of raw vegetables for wrapping the barbecue meats. They provided quite a nice variety of lettuce, perilla leaves, coral lettuce and cabbage
They used the flat slanted grill so the oil drips off the plate, and immediately they serve some seasoned cabbage and bean sprouts kimchi on the grill so you can enjoy warm kimchi with the grilled meats. As this is a table-side service restaurant, the staff will help to grill all the meats for customers
There is 1 strip of pork belly per flavour and is placed in a cute dish above, on top of a long wooden board, where each flavour is indicated clearly. The staff will grill the meats according to the strength of the flavour and also advise you on the sequence in which they should be eaten. I personally like the ginseng, garlic, herb, and miso flavours as they were flavourful and paired well with the pork belly without overpowering the original flavour of the meat. The curry flavour was too much for me and tasted like the calebee snack
As part of the set I ordered, we had the clam and seafood deonjang soup, which was served in this shallow pot and kept heated throughout the meal. The soup was surprisingly refreshing and addictive. Instead of the usual strong bean-based soup, it was light with a lingering bean flavour and umami seaweed taste
The meal was overall nice, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the meats. The different flavours were new and fresh as an idea, but the belly was not particularly grade A. While I was not impressed, it was not a bad meal. The surprising highlight for me was the soup, as you can tell how empty we left the pot
For those wanting to give a new kind of Korean barbecue a try, the cost of the combos is still quite worth it, especially if you are using the Singaporean exchange rate
Address: The Boulevard Office Mid Valley City, G(E)-013A, Ground Floor, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Opening hours: 10 am to 10 pm
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