Friday, July 28, 2006

Mario Kitchen Korean Restaurant

My first taste of authentic Korean food was in LA in 2001. Steaming hot spicy Sundubu (tofu soup with clams, eggs and meat) is the best thing to have in cold weather. Since then, I've been trying to find good Korean food in Singapore. Unfortunately, LA has some of the best Korean food in the world so the Korean food here does not come close at all to what I'm craving... but you never know when a good Korean place will open up so the hunt continues...

I noticed this place while having dessert at Ji De Chi right next door. Also read it about it on mr brown's blog so I thought it might be worth checking out.

We ordered the Medium BBQ (Beef) and Steamboat set which cost $33++.













The beef was quite tender and relatively tasty. The soup in the steamboat was not as spicy as it looks. Lot of stuff in the steamboat - pork ribs, potatoes and veggies. It was quite a lot of food for two people...

What I love most about Korean food is the side dishes - kimchi, ikan bilis etc. I find that most Korean places in Singapore never give enough side dishes, compared to the huge variety and portions that you can get in LA *sigh*

The place was casual, seemed like a popular hangout for SMU students. And there was no air-con - thank goodness it was not too warm that night. Oh, and the grammatical error in the name bugs me too! Should it not be "Mario's Kitchen"?!?

Good-sized portions for that price and the food was not too bad but I'm unlikely to go back unless I'm in the area and totally craving kimchi.

Mario Kitchen Korean Restaurant
8 Liang Seah Street
#01-04 S189029
Tel : 6333 9379

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Please go try Ju Shin Jung at 27 West Coast Highway #01-18/19 YESS Centre and tell me what you think. I think you'll like the side dishes there, my fav is the cold tofu. Go for their grilled beef and kimchi jigae. I have yet to taste good sundubu in Singapore.

Joe Yap said...

Du du du du du dng ! *hums super mario theme song*

Looks good despite being a little stomach churning (all the onions and spice). There's a nice korean place over here called Kimchi Grandma and they always start the meals with 6 little side dishes. Not big on quantity, but variety is always interesting.

Photos getting better ! Keep it up !

Esther said...

oh yes! i totally forgot about that Korean place near my house! actually, i also read on a local food blog about another Korean BBQ place at bukit timah. and i'm supposed to try out Jeju also. yay, more Korean places to try. glad to see you're reading my blog, dot! :)

Joe : Erm, i can't take credit for the photos at Mario Kitchen :P

Unknown said...

of course I read! I tend to prefer reading blogs of people I know. Go try JSJ OK, since you like the side dishes, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the ones they serve there.

Anonymous said...

jeju is really authentic, to the point where the servers speak halting engrish. oo, may be popping by the west tmw, to satisfy my milo peng and sotong balls craving.

yes, you should brush up on your photo-taking skills ;)

auds