A sister brand of the popular samgyetang spot, MODU restaurant, Song Gye Ok specialises in lesser-seen chicken K-BBQ cuts like heart, softbone and neck, grilled over a charcoal fire. Opened in Telok Ayer in 2025, the new Korean restaurant gathering place, Song Gye Ok, drew large crowds and long queues during meal times, and you can almost not get a table without a booking
We made a pre-booking, so we got a table for 4, and it was the last available table, which was not in the best location
The restaurant was decorated cutely with little Hanok huts as well as normal table seating. There were about 4 of such huts, which seated about 10 diners per hut on high stools. These huts come with the pretty traditional tiled rooftop you find in traditional hanoks
We were served a platter of cream sauce, salt and sesame oil. For their menu, they have sets which cover all the different parts of the chicken, or you can choose to order the specific parts you prefer. Other than grilled chicken, they have stew and soups as well as noodles and sides like fried mushrooms, chicken skin and gizzard popcorn
Firstly, for drinks, I ordered both the shikhye and the Makgeolli. The shikhye came in this cute milk-bottle-shaped plastic bottle and was served with a chilled metal cup with ice. The shikhye was extremely refreshing and thirst-quenching, which was a perfect drink for the meal. The makgeolli was milky and sweet and was served in this aesthetic bottle and kept chilled in an ice bucket. The white ceramic cups were also fancy and fit the drink well
We ordered the signature grill platter, which came with all the different parts of the chicken and some vegetables, which were also grilled with the chicken. We were also served 2 banchan: the white kimchi and seasoned radish greens. Since there were 4 of us, we also added a single serving of chicken thighs
We also ordered sides like the grilled rice ball and bibim noodles, which were dry noodles mixed with both raw vegetables and seasoned greens with minced chicken meat and gochujang sauce. I was really surprised by the grilled rice, as the crust was crispy and had a nice soy flavour, while the inside was filled with soft, fluffy grains. We wanted to order it a 2nd time but were told the rice balls were sold out. The noodles were more disappointing, as the flavours were a little sour and spicy, which is not like the usual bibim noodles we are used to. It was missing the savoury depth, and we hardly finished the bowl of noodles
It was a full-service dinner as the staff started grilling different parts of the chicken and putting the cooked meat on a serving plate for us. They will do a short introduction to the parts which are ready before they serve it on the serving plate. There is a sequence to which part gets grilled and served first, and I have to say every single part was done quite perfectly, with the meat remaining succulent and juicy and yet having a nice charred, smoky outer skin. It was a slow dinner as you wait for the staff to cook each part to perfection, so if you are hungry or an impatient eater, you might get frustrated while waiting
Overall, the food was ok but nothing too extraordinary; the meat was flavourful from its own natural juices and flavour, as there was not much seasoning. You taste the chicken for its own flavour, and you can dip the meat into the sauce given. For chicken lovers, this meal was great, but for others, the meal gets quite boring as each part starts to taste pretty similar. Another thing to caution is that all of us walked out smelling like smoke and greasy meat, so it is better to sit at the lower tables
Address: Song Gye Ok, 113 Telok Ayer St, 068582
Opening hours: 11 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 10 pm
