Kkongdon Korean BBQ @ Marina Square (Marina Link)

JP Pepperdine launched its first outlet of Kkongdon Korean BBQ Restaurant at Marina Square (Marina Link).  As most of you will know, JP Pepperdine started with the popular Jack’s Place Steakhouse in 1966.  Since then, it slowly introduced other dining concepts into Singapore such as Restaurant Hoshigaoka, Brewbaker’s kitchen and bar, Eatzi Gourmet etc.

"Kkongdon" translates to "best price value" in Korean.  With this philosophy in mind, the first Korean BBQ restaurant was opened in Sinchon, Seoul in January 2005. Providing high-quality Korean BBQ at reasonable prices, it has managed to capture the young generation who seek quality food in a chic and modern environment. Over the years, Kkongdon has grown and to date, there are a total of 67 outlets in Korea.

The design of this restaurant is adapted from Kkongdon Korea. 

Another distinctive plus point here is that you can find individual retractable exhaust pipes installed at each dining table to minimize the BBQ smell.

At the salad bar, you can find lettuce (which can be used to wrap the BBQ meat), leek, green cut-chillies, raw onion rings and garlic cloves. 

If you don't take BBQ meat, maybe you are just accompanying your group of carnivorous friends for a BBQ dinner, you may opt for their kimchi and salad only at $5++.  

The four different types of dipping sauces that they offer are namely sesame oil, the Oriental dressing (sweet & sour sauce), soya sauce and Ssam Jang sauce (a spicy chilli sauce imported from Korea). These are popular dipping sauces used in Korea.  In fact, as per most Franchise Agreements, the majority of the sauces and dips are imported direct from the Master Franchisor in Korea.

Onion Sauce was also served and the staff told us that we should dip our BBQ beef finger onto it to enhance the taste.

Spicy Pork Belly ($16)

We BBQ the meat on our own and also cut it to slices on our own.

As what the staff had recommended, we dipped it in the onion sauce to try it out first.  Somehow, I felt that the pork belly were sort of "chewy".  Be careful, the meat were rather spicy too.  Make sure you have your water ready by your side.

Beef Fingers ($16) were nicely presented on the plate.  Beef fingers the parts at the ribs and these were very fresh.  The beef served at the restaurant is chilled, prime steer cuts and natural-fed Beef that is directly sourced and shipped from N.Z. Silver Fern Farms. This beef is from the very batch imported and served at Jack’s Place restaurants.  As such, the quality is not being compromised.

Probably we BBQ them for too long, the beef fingers were quite tough though.  It does take some skills to BBQ them well.

Eat it the way the Korean eat!  You can wrap the meat onto the lettuce together with some beansprouts and sauce.

Kimchi Pancake

Bibimbap (Smaller portion)

Kimchi and Pork Belly Stew Hotpot

This was one of our favourite dishes, with the hot soup warming our stomach.  The pork belly in it was very tender and absorbed the flavour of the kimchi soup.

Cold Kimchi Noodles

The noodles were smooth and this dish was quite refreshing.

Steamed Egg

 The restaurant was full at around 1pm+ on a Saturday.  However, the setting was quite comfortable and you wouldn't really feel hot and sweaty in this BBQ place.  It is a good choice if you want to have BBQ in an air-conditioned and comfy setting.

It was an enjoyable lunch here with my hubby on a relaxing weekend.  

Thanks Ms Evelyn Lew from JP Pepperdine for this food tasting session.

Kkongdon Korean BBQ
6 Raffles Boulevard
#B1-01/02 Marina Square, Marina Link
Tel: 63362580
Website: http://www.jppepperdine.com/kkongdon

(Nearest MRT Station: Esplanade)

Munch Saladsmith @ Marina Link Mall

Marina Link Mall is a newly opened underground mall in Raffles Place area. We had a hard time finding the entry to the carpark of Marina Link Mall and it took us quite a while to locate this place. Of course, if you take MRT, it shouldn't be a problem. Marina Link Mall, to our disappointment, is much smaller than our CityLink Mall. Not many shops, about four restaurants like "Ding Tai Fung", "Paradize Inn", "Ichiban" and "Absolute Thai".

We parked our car at B1 and realized that the entrance to the mall is at B2.

Marina Link Mall

We were here for "Munch" as we got the E-voucher from BigDeal.sg.  As such, we paid $10.50 for the 2 hotplates (I had the dory fillet and hubby ordered the roasted chicken) + 4 salads (should be side dishes).

Side Dishes:  Pasta with Bacon, Thai Salad
Hubby commented that the roasted chicken was quite tasty.

Side Dishes:  Pasta with Tuna, Chicken with Walnuts, Roasted Chicken

The staff was very friendly and gave me additional portion of side dish as he said the my second side dish got not enough chicken.  Haha.. so I topped up with roasted chicken with no extra cost.  Actually, the servings was really really very generous.

Without discount, it would have costed about $10.50 for a plate like this.

Very bright and neat setting.  Food was decent but a pity that there isn't any crowd here.  We were the only customers at 7.30pm on a Friday night.  I like the side dishes more than my dory fillet which I thought was a bit overcooked.  Also, it would better if the "hotplate" ie the dory or the chicken is served hot.  The side dishes were quite filling for me, probably I chose all the "meaty" type.

Gourmetestorie gave a wonderful review of Munch.  But do note that probably due to economical reasons and to keep their salads fresh, you will not be seeing such a big spread of side dishes at the salad bars shown in his blog during dinner time.  When we were there, we only had a choice of less than 10 side dishes to choose from.  Maybe they have a bigger spread during lunch hours to cater for the people working around the area.

MUNCH

B2-19

Marina Bay Link Mall

Website : http://www.munch.sg