Obongzip 오봉집

I was really attracted to this Korean restaurant, not because of the main dish, but the dessert they offered, which cannot be found in any other Korean restaurant in Singapore

Obongzip is a renowned Korean restaurant chain with over 300 outlets in South Korea, offering fire-grilled spicy Octopus and steamed pork belly. With outlets in both Japan and Australia, Obongzip is very popular with local K-food lovers as well, and it is yet another restaurant with long queues during weekends

There is nothing too special about the interior of the restaurant, with the usual side plates and tablets for orders, which are commonly found in most Korean restaurants

For a start, we were served the side dishes, which were quite a good selection of 6 different kinds of items. There were seasoned chives, fishcake, bean sprouts, edamame, seaweed, and pickled kimchi. There was also fresh garlic and chilli given with a shrimp chilli sauce and bean sauce dip

We ordered the set, and the first item served was the clear clam soup with chilli, which was surprisingly refreshing. Every time, while watching K-dramas, they like to go for a refreshing drink when they taste a light soup. While it may sound cliché, this is exactly how I felt when I had this soup. The soup was clear and light with a good depth of umami flavours from the clam, which is savoury and sweet at the same time. It doesn’t taste clogging and heavy, but very addictive

The next dish served was the steamed bossam served with cabbage kimchi and dried radish kimchi. The pork has a great portion of fats and lean meat and is steamed perfectly without the meat being overly oily. The fats provide a nice, juicy crunch with the meat, and when combined with the dried radish kimchi, it was a perfect rice wrap eaten as a meal

The next dish was the highlight: the stir-fried spicy octopus with cabbage. While it does not look pretty on the plate, the dish was full of wok hei, as you can taste the smoky flavour in both the octopus and cabbage. This same smoky flavour combined extremely well with the spicy sauce, which coats each piece of meat and vegetable very well. I did find this dish a little spicy, but it was addictive at the same time, so I had a burning tongue after every mouthful, but cannot help but keep going back for more servings

We also had the spicy noodles, which were served with shredded lettuce, cabbage, seaweed and generous amounts of peanuts. These noodles worked well to cool down my burning tongue from the spicy octopus. The flavours were mainly sweet with a slight spice, which helps to whet the appetite, and the chewy noodles grab the sauce extremely well to give an overall balanced flavour

In addition, the set provides seaweed soup and steamed eggs as side dishes, which were a nice add-on but quite general, like the ones served in most Korean restaurants

The final highlight we have is the grilled tteok (rice cake), which was the first item to catch my eye in the social media post. As a rice cake lover, I had to try this, and I have no regrets. In terms of flavours, it reminded me of the brown sugar rice cake at Haidilao, except this one was more gooey and chewy since it was grilled. The outside was crispy and fluffy with a gooey inside, which was very delicious. If I were to say the best dish of the meal, it definitely has to be the grilled tteok

Overall, highlight dishes like the spicy octopus and grilled tteok are definitely worth a visit since you cannot really find them in other restaurants. The soup was one of the dishes that surprised me with its refreshing taste and flavour, but the best dish will still have to be the rice cake

Address: 138617, Vista Exchange Grn, 1号 The Star Vista Mall #01-43/K4

Opening hours: 11.30 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 10.30 pm