Korean Feast Weekend - Red Pig Korean BBQ Restaurant

I started to crave for Korean food 4 days after we came back from Korea. Leecher decided to cook kimchi jjiage for dinner to satisfy my cravings, yums! The hubby is simply amazing in the kitchen, whipping out dishes after dishes to feed my hungry stomach. Even though it was his virgin attempt, Leecher did a fabulous job that we gobbled down (almost) the full pot and truly deserved 2-thumbs up!

 

The next day, lil bro texted me and asked us out for dinner with mummy dearest for she was craving for korean food too! Haha, mother-daughter-telepathy at work? After a round of brainstorming, we decided to head to Red Pig Korean BBQ Restaurant, located at Amoy for dinner.

 

During the weekends, the CBD area is usually a ghost town but boy, I was so wrong when we walked along the shop houses. Most of the Korean BBQ restaurants were filled to the brim, some with a queue forming outside waiting for their table. When we reached Red Pig, the whole restaurant was crowded. I was half cursing myself for not reserving a table in advance. Thankfully, we managed to get a table within minutes.

 

Cute cashier, very appropriate for the restaurant too. 

Leecher flipping through the menu while we waited for mummy dearest & lil bro to join us. Well, there isn't a wide variety of food items on the menu. For dinner, there are 2 pages of food items that you can choose from - ranging from BBQ meat, spicy stews or other side dishes.

We ordered 3 plates of  meat to kick-start the meal - Bbalgam Doiji (Red Pig, $20), Bbalgam Dak (Red Chicken soy sauce marinated, $18) and Galbisal (Beef rib meat without bone, $28). Lil bro can't wait to start, lol! They served pretty decent banchan (반찬) & my fave goes to corn with mayonnaise (one serving per table, additional at $5).

Makgeolli for the alcoholic us. We even got mummy dearest to try this, but she gave up after 2 sips. The 2 酒鬼 (Leecher & lil bro) shared the bottle between them while I sipped on brown rice tea as I wasn't in a drinking mood.
 
Out of the 3 types of meat we ordered, the best goes to Bbalgam Doiji (Red Pig, $20). For the pork lovers, there is another option of Ogyebsal (Pork Belly, $15). I strongly recommend the Red Pig version, since it is marinated with chilli+other ingredients and tasted more flavourful when BBQ-ed.   

 

Mummy dearest enjoying her egg roll & kimchi. Being her virgin trip to a Korean restaurant, mummy dearest was excited that she finally got to eat the food that she saw in K-drama, lol! Looks like I should start training my mum more, so she can come along for our Korea trip next time, heehee!

Seafood pancake ($18) which won praises from both mummy dearest & lil bro. This dish made it to the table twice, lol! The first plate was crispy and filled with a lot of ingredients. When we ordered the 2nd plate, it came slightly soggy and filled with more spring onions than seafood. Quite a disappointment but the rest still enjoyed it.

    
The must order for me in all Korean restaurant, Tteokbokki! I wished this came in a spicier version though - this version is too mild for my liking.
   
  With lil bro, who graciously paid for the meal! Wa, it's not everyday he offered to pay so must whack more, haha! 

Mummy dearest lamenting that she still needs to "cook" for us during her off-days, lol! Well, can't be helped since she's the best & most experienced cook :)
 
Enjoying her first BBQ-meat-wrapped-with-lettuce-experience (^^) & she really loved it!
 

  Mum really had a good time & most importantly, we all got a free meal thanks to lil bro! 

Red Pig Korean BBQ Restaurant
93 Amoy Street
Singapore 069913
Tel: 6220 7176

Kim's Family Korean Restaurant

 One of the rare times the uni gang met up for dinner on a weekday night. We drove all the way from work to Bt Timah area, braving the horrendous traffic jam, all in the name of Korean food.

 I have long heard about Kim's Family Korean Restaurant. When we were in the area previously, Leecher was busy checking out their menu & was planning for a trip back. So, here we are!

 

Find a spot on the wall and feel free to write anything. 

 

Simple utensils placed on the dining table. 

 The 12 banchans that were mentioned on every food blog that I chanced upon. There were more misses than hits, as A LOT of dishes were extremely salty. Even Leecher, who normally has a higher tolerance level for salt felt the same way. Disappointing start. In fact, I hardly find an entry that posted a bad review on this restaurant. I did have my reservations about raving for this place, when all we encountered were bad food & bad service.  We wanted to refill 2 banchans & after countless requests, only 1 banchan came. I have lost count of the number of times that I had to repeat my request to 3 different people who happened to walk past our table.

This was taken before our mood went downhill.

We ordered the recommended spicy seafood hotpot. When it came, it was just plain water with seafood and topped with lots of chilli powder (or some red powder, seasoning perhaps?). So we left it to cook & stir it occasionally. Once it was cooked, the broth tasted yucky & reeked of seafood smell. The smell is akin to you visiting the wet market and walking towards the wet section. Plus, it wasn't spicy. I need to rant about the noodles too, so please bear with me! When placing orders, I asked if they could add maggi mee into the hotpot. The waitress replied that they serve glass noodles in the hotpot, but I can top up $5 to add extra maggi mee. Since I love ramen, I went ahead with the extra charges. When the hot pot came, it came served in maggi mee! Not only that - the extra noodles that I paid for came in another bowl, cooked. By the time the hotpot was cooked, my noodles were soggy :(

We ordered a set of BBQ set to share as well. The waitress above proceeded to BBQ it for us. After she put the meat on the BBQ grill, she left the table. No indication if she will be coming back to finish the BBQ or are we supposed to do it on our own. We were left clueless for a few minutes before we decided to BBQ it ourselves. Our request for more lettuce, again, went unheard 4 times before it finally arrived. We finished our meal asap & all of us were thankful to step out of this space. In a nutshell, I don't think I'll ever head back to Kim's Family Korean restaurant, for they made me feel like an outsider intruding within their premises.   

Kim's Family Korean Restaurant

17 Lorong Kilat

#01-06 Singapore 598139

Tel: 64650535

Jang Won Restaurant @ JB

Blogging on the roads once again, while waiting for my flight back to Singapore in an hour :) Whenever I can't get onto an earlier flight, I'll head straight to Starbucks for a cup of beverage, power up my laptop to type out the summary + follow ups for the trip, then hooked onto wifi to blog while waiting for time to pass. In fact, quite a couple of my posts this year were churned out in airports and hotel rooms (^^) I find it easier to pen down my thoughts when traveling, maybe being away from the office/home does help to clear the mind more. 

A couple of months back, we brought parents-in-law & Roger to Jang Won for Korean food. My last visit was during CNY last year with the brothers & sisters. I wasn't familiar with JB's directions, but with a few pointers from Sister Fling, we managed to reach the place safely. 

 

The times when I like wearing midi & stocked up quite a couple of those. Some in the same design but different colours. Only my BFF can relate to this, cuz she has the same habit as me, lol!  

 

The carpark located near the restaurant.  

 

Gigantic restaurant sign that is too hard to miss. They are located on the 2nd floor, use the stairs at the corner to head up. 

 

They cater for both outdoor & indoor seating. As the restaurant is facing the sea, it would be ideal to sit outdoors and enjoy the sea breeze. There wasn't any when we arrived, so we headed indoors instead.  

 

 The place was relatively empty on a weekend afternoon, with only 2 tables occupied. We spotted one korean family dining here & conclude that this place must serve authentic korean food. 

 

There are several set menus to choose from, so pick according to your preference. There are ala carte items on the menu too. We tend to order set menus, so there are more items to share amongst everyone. 

This has officially become my fave korean drink, Bon Bon Grape Fruit drink (I think this is the name). Drinking white grape juice with little chunks of grapes at the bottom. The chunks get sucked up if you drink with a straw & it's absolutely delicious! My must-order whenever I head to a korean restaurant.

A wide array of banchan (반찬) - meaning side dishes in English - available. I googled and found that according to the number of banchan that is added to the table, the table setting will be called 3 cheop, 5 cheop, 7 cheop, 9 cheop, 12 cheop bansang, with the 12 cheop used in Korean royal cuisine. Eh, I think we were served more than 12 banchan in a single seating, so we are more royal than royal??

Preparing the fire for BBQ session.

 

In a Korean restaurant, banchan are set in the middle as they are meant for sharing. At the center of the table will the secondary main course, such as galbi, bulgogi and a shared pot of jjigae. This time round, we had bulgogi :) That's the whole highlight of the trip! 

  

Bring on the food! 

 

I can't really remember, but I think we ordered pork & chicken set.  

 

Soju to go along for the meal.   

 

I love that they always have someone on standby to cook the meat for you, cut it into small pieces once they are cooked. Thumbs up for service :) You can also BBQ it on your own, if you like.

Eating it the Korean way! Wrapping up the meat with a piece of lettuce, topped it up with seasoning + garlic :)

Another of my fave Korean snack, dukboki! These were not that spicy & good for sharing.
 

More BBQ meat to feed everyone. I think we over-ordered but still managed to finish everything on the table. #gluttonus.

Pajeon, Korean pancakes. "Pa" literally means "green/spring onion" in Korean. I think we had kimchi pajeon in the above.

 

The guys were on a drinking spree, ordering bottles & bottles of soju. I been wanting to try poktanju 폭탄주, a "bomb drink" by mixing a shot glass of soju into a pint of beer. Will definitely try it next time, or when I'm in Korea!

 

Saving the best dish for the last :) 

 

Ramen cooked in spicy broth, with kimchi, sausages and egg. 

 

with mummy-in-law.   

 

Happy faces after a satisfying meal :) Will be back for more (^^)

Jang Won Restaurant

K3-211, 2nd Floor, Block C

Kompleks Perniagaan, Taman Stulang Laut

Jalan Ibrahim

Johor Bahru 80300