The latest addition to the "Korean Street" in RWS has arrived!
Presenting to you the arrival of Insadong Korea Town, a Korean-themed restaurant set to mimic the "Insadong" streets of Korea, selling an assortment of authentic Korean and Korean-fused-with-Chinese-Japanese-Western cuisine.
RWS calls it the "Korean Street" because Trick Eye Museum (hailing from Kimchi land) and Missha (a Korean cosmetic brand) also recently opened their doors to visitors.
It comes as no surprise that this will officially be my favourite street in RWS.
Naturally, I am as hyped as the next Korean-food lover, so let's check them out shall we? :)
Ordering kiosks at the entrance. Typical Korean self-service style.
When Oppa and I tried the machine out for ourselves, we found it pretty laggy and not as "touch-sensitive" as I'll like it to be. Also, the menu seems pretty messy and if the restaurant is crowded, the line will be hogged up with people trying to make their orders and decide. I think there needs to be a more efficient system for this!
How the menu looks like ^
Signs around to direct ^
As you can see, the whole place is bustling with workers (some authentic Koreans so you can go ahead and converse with your oppas and unnies)
There are also "street stalls" around selling Korean snacks - namely fried tempura, spicy rice cakes and fish cakes in soup!
Now, on to the food!!
Korean side dishes - Kimchi is ON POINT. One of the very rare times in Singapore that I find good kimchi.
Kimchi Pancake - YES! Tastes exactly like the Korean ones. You can trust me, I ate god knows how many kimchi pancakes during my exchange in Korea.
Toppoki - These are the Korean rice cakes I was talking about just now. Very spicy, very Korean. It burned my mouth and lips but I just kept going back for more.
Ginseng Chicken Soup - There was no ginseng taste at all for this, sad to say. The broth was bland and unsavoury. But it was slightly better after we spliced the chicken open and mixed the broth again. I would say this dish leaves much to be desired.
Bossam - sliced cold pork to be wrapped with kimchi, green chills and korean thick paste inside the veggies. The pork was not as tasty as it should be, and was a bit tough.
Xiao Long Bao in Kimchi Soup - Ah this one is good. Tangy kimchi soup with piping hot xiao long baos. Very unique pairing but I daresay it sat well with all.
Pumpkin Spaghetti - It tastes a lot like salted egg actually. The paste/sauce is thick and creamy. But I still feel something's off. You definitely have to eat it hot, because it tastes quite bad when it turns cold and the spaghetti clumps together.
Beef Bulgogi Baked Rice - Stay away from this.
Mushroom Beef Bulgogi Hotpot...
... cooked by the head chef!
Tadah! Final product!
Tastes as good as it looks. The vermicelli is springy and the beef is perfectly bite-sized. The only bad thing is that I think the hotpot is too small...? Everything was just flying about while cooking.
Mixed Fruits Shaved Ice - Korean bingsoo. I was sorely disappointed about this because it looked so good? But tasted so bad :(
The ice cream was not creamy (how can it right??) and everything else was just wrong. How can shaved ice go wrong?
Red Bean Pancake - On the other dessert hand, this was superb. Very crispy exterior and the red bean was warm in my mouth.
First star of the night: Watermelon soju!
Oppa has been dying to try this out for the longest time, but couldn't really go with me because well, I don't really like soju. Though I think he actually can finish the whole thing by himself la, lol.
I still tried this though, and surprisingly it was good (by my low alcohol standards). Very mild! Good for non-lovers of alcohol.
Second star of the night: J-cone!
This is hugely popular in Korea, and I had it in Sokcho while on exchange. In Korea, the J-cone is one side vanilla, one side chocolate. That was good! For Insadong, they only have one option of vanilla. Still good.
With the pretty Kaiting who sat with Oppa and I the whole night, together with her boyfriend Ken! Fantastic company :)
Overall, I would say this place is worth a visit if you're in Sentosa, simply because most of the food is good! There is authenticity, and quality is also up there. My rating: 8/10.
Insadong Korea Town
26 Sentosa Gateway #01-30/31/32/33
Singapore (098138)
Tel: 62388221
Web: http://insadong.sg
Operating hours: 11am - 10pm (daily)
Remember to hashtag #insadongsg and tag them @insadongsg when you're dining there!
xoxo,
G.
