Seoul Restaurant 서울 @Chijmes (Singapore)

My kinda buffet.

A bunch of friends wanted to try out the ‘Korean BBQ’ at ‘Seoul Restaurant’ at Chijmes tonight and at first I wasn’t too excited because buffets and semi-creative restaurant names make me sceptical. The place however looked quite nice and they sat us in one of their separate rooms. The buffet they has on was à la carte buffet (?) which we had to leave our private room for as apparently it’s not available in there. Anyhow, back in the main room with the crowd we ordered loads and loads of stuff from the slightly reduced “buffet” menu.

All the food and meats were fairly nice and for the amount we ate at $50ish per person also pretty reasonably priced but the two outstanding dishes for me were the ‘L.A Galbi‘, soy sauce marinated bone in beef short rib and the chilled ‘Mul-naengmyeon‘ 냉면.

The ribs were rustic beefy, deep flavoured from the soy and even though a bit tougher to chew my favourite of the carnivore options.

The buckwheat noodles were truly outstanding, refreshingly chilled with some crunchy textures from radish and cucumbers and the noodles itself had a weirdly awesome slippery texture, chewy and squeaky. Following a friend’s recommendation I used the entire accompanying mustard mixing it into the cold broth, which brought tears to my eyes, made it nose-cuttingly sharp and surprisingly fun to eat.

The place is good, value for money with a tasty selection of meats and other dishes and the à la carte buffet concept takes out the queues and battling for the most popular plates, usually longer exposed to the air than one wishes for, so definitely my clear preference on a buffet take. Just weird rules like the different menu for the private rooms is probably due for a makeover.

Seoul Restaurant 서울
30 Victoria Street
#02-01A Chijmes
Singapore 187996
Tel: +65 6338 8548
http://www.seoul.com.sg/