Tanjong Pagar is where you’ll find the majority of Korean restaurants in Singapore, with most of the restaurants on Tanjong Pagar Road, but there’s also a really good Korean restaurant – Hyangtogol – in the Amara Hotel which is just minutes away from Tanjong Pagar MRT.
Hyangtogol has been named as one of the world’s top 5 overseas Korean restaurants by the Korean Food Foundation and although it can be a little pricey during dinner time, they offer lunch sets on weekdays from 11.30am till 3pm that is great value. Lunch sets start at only $9.50 and it comes with rice and a selection of banchan (small dishes).
Barbecue Squid With Chilli Sauce (Ojingeo-Bokgeum)
The food in Hyantogol is really good, I had the barbecue squid with chilli sauce ($13.50) when I was there yesterday. It had a lot of squid in it as well as green pepper and onions. The squid was perfectly cooked and tender and the chilli sauce was sweet and delicious. It came with rice, seaweed soup, kimchi, steamed broccoli in a spicy sauce, vegetables and potato pieces in salad cream and a slice of orange. All the banchan were nice especially the kimchi and a cold spicy soup with kimchi and apple in it was also served before the meal. Hot corn tea was provided complimentary too.
Soft Beancurd Soup (Soondooboo-Jjigae)
My friend had the Soft Beancurd Soup which she said was good but according to her it wasn’t spicy and she had asked for it to be very spicy – mind you her tolerance for spicy food is very high! She can eat platefuls of really hot chillies without breaking a sweat ^^;
The restaurant was very busy when we went, mostly with businesspeople having lunch. You could tell that the waitstaff were pretty stressed. Service was ok except that my friend’s lunch set and my lunch set weren’t served at the same time which you would expect in a restaurant of this calibre. They also forgot to bring extra chillies when my friend requested it and one of the waiters was quite rude to her when she asked for them. Also considering this restaurant is in a 4 star hotel you would expect the staff to speak good English, however when I rang up to reserve a table, the woman I spoke to couldn’t understand what I was saying and had to hand the phone over to someone else who fortunately managed to understand me perfectly. The lunch was good though so I’ll definitely be back to try their other sets. They also have takeaway available for their kimchi ($8 small portion, $13 large portion) and marinated beef ($22 for 220g).
Hyangtogol Korean Restaurant
Address: 165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Level 2 Amara Hotel, Singapore 088539 (Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar)
Tel: 6220-7160
Opening Hours: Daily 11.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Hyangtogol review, please feel free to leave a comment below with your own review or if you have any questions!
>> Enjoyed this post? Follow me on Instagram:@stephy_law Twitter: @stephy_law <<
