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)
