Insadong Korea Town

We read about this new dining concept from a magazine review and decided to give it a try last night.

Location: Sited not far from the Malaysian Food Street in Resorts World, the entrance to this new restaurant is brightly decorated and easy to spot. Parking is always a problem at RWS, so we parked at the Beach Carpark ($1 per entry after 5pm on weekdays) and took the Sentosa Express monorail to the Waterfront Station.

Ambience: Very homely-looking dining hall, decorated with all kinds of Korean lanterns and flags, giving it a vibrant look despite the darker orange ceiling lights. Many of the staff here are younger, which gives the place a certain energy.

Menu and Ordering: You do need to know roughly what you want to get before you arrive, as the overhead menuboard can be a tad confusing. The self-service kiosks are divided into sections like "Korean", "Korean-Chinese" etc from which you can pick your menu dishes. The kiosks accept notes for the moment, but there are plans to add credit card payments later. For now, a cashier counter provides credit card and NETS payment service. The staff man assisting us was wearing a MOF uniform and hinted that the chain's privileges may be extended here in the future.

Remember to collect the food receipts from the ordering kiosks, each listing the stall or kiosk from which you will collect your food. Surrendering the receipt at the respective stalls, and you may then have to wait to pick up your food, or be given a pager to come back later.

Food: Rather authentic Korean tastes, with some hits and misses. We tried the Korean Black Soybean Sauce Noodle (Jja Jang Myeon) with hard little cubes of meat, Korean Seafood Pancake (Hamul Pajeong), Stir-fried Bugolgi Beef and the featured Xiao Long Bao in Kimchi Soup (8pcs/$13).

Before we left, we dutifully stopped to try the J-Cone ($6), a hollow tube of popped corn, with cream piped into it. The cream was tasty, but the corn tube was very very hard and ungainly to chew on.

Verdict: Mains start from about $12 which is a little pricey considering the small portions. Good for a one-time visit though.