[Singapore Restaurant] Experience Korea's Most Beloved Dishes from Bibigo

The wave of Korean Fried Chicken + Beer has hit the sunny island of Singapore when this food combo known as Chimaek (치맥) was featured in the popular Korean drama "My Love from the Stars" (별에서 온 그대) earlier this year.  The word "Chimaek" originates from the word Chicken (Koreans pronounce the word as Chikin) and Maekju (which means beer in Korean).  Chimaek is especially popular during the summer seasons when the heat wave is up and the beer has the cooling effect.  It is so popular that an event "Daegu Chicken and Beer Festival" is held annually! 

 

Being summer all year round in Singapore, it is timely that Bibigo has added Chimaek to their menu starting from September!



 

What's unique about Bibigo's version of Chimaek is that, you get to eat the fried chicken with 2 different sauces (soybean and sweet & spicy) and salt!  Personally, my preference would be the soybean sauce, followed by the sweet & spicy sauce.  The salt is dry and doesn't quite stay on the chicken.  The plus point about having Chimaek is the refreshing pickled white radish.  But honestly, the plain fried chicken itself is already quite delicious and addictive.

Order the Gangnam Chicken as an ala carte dish (6-piece chicken) at $10 or top up another $10 for 2 bottles of iced-cold Hite beer.  Hite beer is really popular in Korea!

For an authentic Korean meal, order a Spicy Kimchi Stew ($10) and Kimchi pancake ($9).  The stew comes with a bowl of Korean short grain rice and a kimchi side-dish.  In fact, these 2 dishes have been newly added to Bibigo's menu and they are quite decent, although I think the pancake would have tasted even better if it was crispier. 

 

Just a small tip to share.  The Kimchi pancake does not come with any dipping sauce.  But not to be disappointed, the soybean sauce from the Gangnam Chicken dish is a perfect dipping sauce for the pancake!

 

For non-spicy food lovers, another dish on the limited-time menu would be the Seafood Noodles ($9).  Udon is used as the main staple, cooked with seafood and a generous portion of green veggies, it makes a good option on days when you just feel like having something light and soupy.

 

Overall, the pricing for these new dishes are quite affordable and there is no price differentiation between lunch and dinner.  The food portion is easily sufficient for those with small to moderate appetite.  Head down to Bibigo with 2 to 3 other friends to experience all these dishes!

 

 

Website: http://sg.bibigo.com/index

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/bibigo.singapore?fref=ts

 

Bibigo Suntec City

Suntec City Mall Tower 3 #B1-107 Singapore 038983

Tel: 65-6338-5809
Opening Hours: 11am to 10pm

(Nearest MRT Station: Promenade Station on Circle Line)

Bibigo NEX Shopping Mall

23 Serangoon Central, #03-08 NEX Shopping Mall, Singapore 556083

Tel: 65-6509-8272

Opening Hours: 11.30am to 10pm

(Nearest MRT Station: Serangoon Station on North-East Line)

 

Bibigo Raffles City

252 North Bridge Roadm #B1-74 Raffles City Shopping Center Singapore 179103

Tel: 65-6336-4745

Opening Hours: 11am to 10pm

(Nearest MRT Station: City Hall Station on North-South Line)

 

 

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Osaka Town

Osaka Town

252 North Bridge Road

#B1-72/73/74 Raffles City Shopping Centre

Singapore 179103

Tel: 63365363

Discovered a new Japanese Gourmet Town at Raffles City.  I guess due to limited shop space, it is only enough for Osaka Town.  The okonomiya looks yummy.  Okonomiyakis are japanese pan-cakes filled with shredded cabbage and pork or other ingredients. The pancake is covered with savoury brown sauce and mayo.

I watched the chefs through the window panels who were pan-frying the okonomiya and the pancakes just look irresistable.

This is the Sakura Ebi Okos.

The pan-cakes are about 15cm in diameter and served on a hotplate.  They can be cut into quarters (similar to pizzaz) so that you do not need to lift up the entire pancake when eating it.

The okos looks better than it taste.  Pan-cake floor, cabbage, ginger and a few shrimps are about all the ingredients that make up the okos.  After a while, it gets a little boring, and it might be a better idea to share it with another person.  The brown sauce wasn't quite enough to savour the entire pancake, so is the mayo.  If you're some who prefers stronger taste, then you'd probably need to ask for extra brown sauce.

There is a promotion going on and the okos costs $9.80 (usual price is $12.80, I think).  Even for this promo price, I would prefer that they serve a small prices and make it less pricey.

Marvelous Cream (City Link)

Marvelous Cream

#B1-04, City Link Mall,

One Raffles Link, Singapore 039393

TEL: 6238 1683

Originates from Japan, this is its first franchaise outlet in Singapore, located at the end of City Link near the exit to Suntec City. Its 2nd outlet is at ION Orchard (B4-81/82/83).

With its pretty and attractive facade, it is difficult to miss the shop.

What's interesting is that, you get to see the ice cream chefs doing up your ice, mixing your choice of premium ice-cream with toppings and whipped cream on a ice marble top.  There are 28 ready creations available or you can "customise" your own creation.

The toppings are irresistable... check out the cookies, sponge cake cubes, fruits, macaron etc.

You can an option to have your ice-cream served in cup or waffle cup or waffle cone or chocolate waffle cone.  I chose to have mine in a waffle cone.  Ta-da!

The ice-cream isn't too sweet and not as creamy as it looks.  It melts quickly under Singapore's warm climate.  At $6.90, it is a little expensive for an ice cream cone, but I think I will be back to try out some of the other creations when my craving comes.

Other than ice-creams, dessert lovers can also check out other pretty cakes in the shop.

Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe [Closed]

Many people are probably familiar with Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe... has anyone tried Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe located at City Link?  I haven't and am very interested to check it out one of these days.

This cafe serves street food such as salted crispy chicken bites, fish paste sticks, curry chicken chop rice, braised minced pork rice, mee sua etc....sounds yummy, eh?

Here's the menu....

Will be back with review, hopefully soon.

TCC - Coffee Connoisseur

Enjoy a cuppa on a lazy afternoon at TCC....

Had the Matcha Kiss - a green tea drink with soy milk. Something unique but not quite to my liking though.

Add a slice of super rich chocolatey cake - Devil's choco cake.

Bobby's @ CHIJMES

While planning for this year's gathering, this was one of the places which we were seriously considered using. But for practical reasons, we chose our alternative choice.

Was back at Bobby's Taproom.Grill.Ribs for a casual dinner with my friends and my, the food, especially the BBQ ribs and pizza are really delicious. We were told that a second outlet was scheduled to open @ Cuppage in September. A quick check from the website and realised that they had a 'soft opening' on 2 Sep.

There's also Happy Hours for drinks from Sunday to Friday, 5pm to 8pm. Beer and selected alcoholic drinks are at $10nett.

We shared the Buffalo Wings. Looks are deceiving... though it does not look extremely appetising, I do like it very much. It has cripsy skin and juice meat... of cos, best to eat it while hot. It was so delicious that I forgot to dip into the mayo sauce.

I ordered the Bobby's wood-fired pizza which was huge. I guess it was at least 12 inches in diameter. It came in 8 slices and I thought it would be achievement if I could finish 4 slices while I have the other 4 slices to my friends. Boy, and I did finish all 4 slices!!!

The pizza filling was quite simple - tomato, cheese and BBQ pork.
 

So some unpleasant reason, the restaurant gave us a slice of their brownie with ice-cream as their token. The warm chocolate brownie came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream covered with a THICK layer of fresh cream and chocolate mousse, sprinkled with crushed peanuts.

Overall, it was a very satisfying dinner! Can't wait for another dinner at Bobby's soon.

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!

Curry Favour Japanese Reataurant

CURRY FAVOUR

39 Stamford Road

#01-09 Stamford House

Singapore 178885

Tel: 68831087

Can't remember when Curry Favour was setup... As far as I can remember, I have been wanting to try the curry @ Curry Favour for the longest time but no kakis to go with.... what's more when it is Japanese curry.

My group of very wonderful colleagues decided to celebrate my birthday in a small way ie. just the few of us, though there will be another one 2 days later, where it is normally done in a big way, like 20 of us.

When they asked me where I'd like to go, somehow I could only think of Curry Favour... it must have lingered in my mind for too long that the name just got stuck there.

The restaurant is located at Stamford House... the building where the signature MPH store used to be located. The curry restaurant was just a few doors away. It is not a big restaurant. Probably can only house like 50 customers at 1 go. The entire ambience was cosy.

All 5 of us ordered curry and there was nothing else but compliments on how tasty the curries were. Well, I was both heartily satisfied with the food and also that my colleagues like the curries. Phew!

This is the Half-size Chicken Stew Curry. Besides the tender chicken chunks, there were also potatoes and carrot pieces. It came with Japanese rice and a scoop of potatoe salad. With an additional $1.50 top-up, we get a miso soup + a drink (either green tea or soft drinks).

We ordered a side dish - potatoe to share... it was well mashed yet there are potatoe chunks in between. The taste is pretty unique and delicious.

My colleagues bought a slice of "birthday cake" from a connecting cafe, for me. It is chocolate chip brownie with ice cream. Surprise!

It was a really enjoyable meal... with good food and what's more, excellent companion.

Prego

Haven been to Prego for a long long time since I have not been to Raffles City for a long long time as well.

This visit, I decided to try something different from my standard Carbonara. So, I went for Wood-fired Pizza Margherita. The pizza is really huge and hm... portion for 2 pax? It was cut into 6 slices.

The crust is thin and crispy. The combination of tomato sauce, cheese and tobasco sauce can't go wrong much. Anyway, I finished 3 slices and R & R finished the other half of the pizza for me, in addition to their pasta main course. Haha...

We ordered 2 desserts - Tiramisu and Creme Brulee. The tiramisu is served in a bowl with a Prego logo on top. The tiramisu cream was light and R thought a little bit more rum would make it taste better.

Below is the creme brulee which was served in a rather big plate, definitely a size good for sharing. The top lay of sugar came in small bits instead of a uniform crispy layer. And, i thought there was just too much sugar when the creme brulee below is only a think layer of about 1.5cm.

I suspected that 'red ball' is actually raspberry ice-cream and I was too lazy to confirm if i was correct... It was a little sour and filled with berry taste.

Would I return for more desserts again? ... I think I'd prefer to go Menotti located at the other corner of the building.