Awon Korean Restaurant (BBQ & Steamboat Buffet) [Closed]

Awon Korean Restaurant (BBQ & Steamboat Buffet)

#04-01, 5 Coleman Street, Excelsior Hotel

Singapore 179805

(Update on Jul 2010 : The restaurant has moved out from Excelsior Hotel.  New location is not known yet)

This is my 4th visit to Awon over 8 years. First was in 2001 with a big group of Korean, 2nd was with my Korean Language class, 3rd was with an ex-colleague and 4th with my present colleagues. Back in 2001, it is not uncommon to find Korean restaurants in Singapore. There were a couple of them along Tanjong Pagar Road, one near Miramar Hotel, Korean stalls at Suntec and food court in the current OG Orchard before it was taken over by OG.

So actually, Awon is quite a old Korean Restaurant.... don't be surprise to see furnitures that are a little run-down and deco that isn't zen-ish like what we see in the newer Korean Restaurants. In fact, we are spoilt for choices when it comes to Korean Restaurant.

Back in 2001, I remembered there was no BBQ & Steamboat buffet, there were just ala carte and set meals (very reasonably priced ones). Not sure when they started serving buffets.

We had 2 steamboat pots, one for beef eaters and one for non-beef eaters. This one is topped with marinated chicken. The steamboat pot is actually 2-in-1. The top section is actually for the BBQ and the lower section is for the steamboat.

We were supposed to use the soup stock to BBQ the meat by constantly drenching it, no oil required. After drenching the meat, the soup stock will flow back into the steamboat section. You can imagine, at the end of it, the soup is actually quite 'sweet'.

The chicken BBQ is actually quite tasty, at least better than the BBQ pork which I find that the slices were too thick.

And this one is topped with marinated beef. My colleagues commented that the beef tasted quite good as well.

We added glass noodles, prawns, fish cakes, vegetables etc into the steamboat pot. As the pot is quite shallow, only limited food quantity can be cooked at 1 time.

Vegetable section....

 

UOB Cardholders are entitled to a 30% discount. So for a Friday dinner, we spent about $20.60 per pax. Heard it used to be 50% discount for UOB cardholders.... Hmmm....

The meat section - beef, chicken, pork and prawns...Noodles and steamboat ingredients section...The buffet spread also lacks variety. This is the pickle and sauce section.Side dishes - actually I was quite disappointed with the variety and the quality of food. There were no potato salad, lotus roots slice and eggs! It was just kimchi, anchovy, sausage, bean sprouts, spinach and tofu. Very pathetic!