If you’re a Korean food fanatic craving for some authentic kimchi, fried rice cake or spicy octopus, the place to go is Upper Bukit Timah Road.

A little Koreatown has blossomed in the area between Bukit Timah Plaza and Beauty World Centre.
At last count, there are four Korean food outlets and a Korean supermarket, all within 10 minutes from one another.

And their biggest selling point? Homecooked food by native Koreans.

No Signboard

Kim’s Family restaurant is the latest to open last month along Lorong Kilat, a small, quiet road next to Jurong Gardens School.

Its owners, chef Kim Soon Il and wife Jeong Kyung Ju, have been so busy whipping up their best dishes, they didn’t even have time to make a proper signboard for the restaurant, or print name cards.

Madam Jeong, 39, said her husband used to work at a Korean restaurant in Chinatown, but they decided to start their own place in Upper Bukit Timah because many Koreans live in the area, including the nearby Signature Park and Hume Park condominiums.

The New Paper understands that an estimated 15,000 Koreans live here, and they like Upper Bukit Timah because it’s close to the city and is known for its good schools.

Madam Jeong added in halting English: “The business is very good, even though no advertisement, only by word of mouth. I have no signboard yet, no time! Every day busy, busy.”

Half of their customers are Korean, and the rest Singaporean. Credit analyst Megan Kim, a Korean
who has lived here for two years, heard about the restaurant from friends and she has gone there four times since its opening.

“The food is very good, it’s just like mum’s food,” raved Ms Kim, 25. Her fiance, payment analyst Tim Yu, 30, added: “The food here is very close to that in Korea, it’s better than just good.”

Kim’s Family also stands out for its extensive menu, topped with pictures for all its 85 dishes – including favourites like kalbi (BBQ short ribs), bulgogi (marinated beef mixed with vegetables cooked over slow fire), bo ssam (roasted pork with kimchi) and all kinds of stews, noodles and rice.

Chef Kim recommends the spicy octopus fried rice ($10) and seafood stew ($30). He imports the octopus from Korea and concocts his own chilli and soup base.

Picture Menu

Singaporean real estate agent Tay Mei Shan, 25, said the pictures on the menu make it easier for customers like her to “choose what you think is delicious to you”.

She and fiance Lim Hon Wee, 26, live nearby and stumbled upon the restaurant after going for foot reflexology a few doors away.

They are now regulars at the restaurant and have been there “about 20 times”, and they have taken many friends and relatives there. Mr Lim’s mother, a fervent Korean drama fan, also loves the food there and he often buys food to take home.

Ms Tay added: “The food here is cheap and nice. It’s cosy and what they serve is like home-cooked food, so you’d feel like coming back again. And if the Koreans come here, it must be good.”

A short walk from Kim’s Family is Korean BBQ Restaurant, situated along the busy food street along Cheong Chin Nam Road, opposite Beauty World Centre.

It was started in 2005 by Mr Yoo Dong Hoon, who moved here from Korea because he wanted his twin daughters to grow up studying both English and Chinese. The girls are now 5 and attend kindergarten here.

Mr Yoo, 38, said 60 per cent of his customers are Singaporean, and the rest, Korean.

He claimed his stir-fried intestine soup ($14.80) is “very famous in Singapore”, but also recommended the stir-fried octopus ($19.50) and seafood pancake ($17.50).

Singaporean event manager Estelle Tan, 33, likes the alfresco seating area in the restaurant, which reminds her of the small food tents typically seen in the streets of Korea.

“The food was okay, but the ambience really stood out,” said Ms Tan, who tried the BBQ pork belly and short ribs and ginseng soup.

“It has a rugged feel to it and you can go find beer kakis and chit chat. It feels like one of those small food tents found in Korea, where people go for beer and snacks at night.”

Located not far away in Bukit Timah Plaza are two Korean food outlets – Barley Field and Ming Jia Korea Food – that attract mainly shoppers at the anchor tenant NTUC Finest.

Their menus are similar, comprising mostly rice and soups, except that Barley Field is bigger and offers more choices, like ginseng soup and omurice (omelette rice).

Casual

The smaller Ming Jia is a lot more casual, like a coffee shop.

The woman in the kitchen is Madam Kim Hak Soon, 47, who moved here a year ago to care for her two teenage children studying in an international school here.

Her signature dish is kimchi soup ($5.50), and she makes fresh kimchi every day. She makes up to 200kg of kimchi a month.

Most of her customers are Singaporean and foreigners living nearby, as “Koreans can cook all of these in their homes”, she added with a laugh.

Mrs Ann Hoo, who owns a floral shop nearby, pops by once every two weeks to buy takeaways.
She likes the homecooked style and said everything on the menu – from soups to ramyon (instant noodles) and stir fried rice cake – is “quite nice”.

K-pop fans Lu Jing Nan and Fan Yue Jiao, both 18, are also regulars there as they live nearby. The two students come from Harbin, China, where there are many Korean immigrants, so they are used to eating Korean food.

Yue Jiao said the food at Ming Jia has a “familiar taste”, while Jing Nan said it gives her a “warm fuzzy feeling”.

Some Koreans are drawn to the nondescript eatery by its food court prices, like business development manager Kim Ja Dong, whose office is in the same building.

Mr Kim, 23, said: “The taste is good and the price is reasonable. I’d have to pay at least $12 if I go to a restaurant. I eat at least one meal here a day and my favourite is bulgogi.”

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 20, 2008.