BIG MAMA KOREAN RESTAURANT

Location: 2 Kim Tian Road
How to get there: Tiong Bahru Mrt Station, get out of it.. Cross the road at Anna's cafe and turn left. Walk straight and you'll see Kim Tian Road
Opening hours:
Daily: 1130am - 1430pm
Daily: 1730pm - 2300pm
Contact number: 6270 7704

Yoohooo! Loads of reviews in queue recently as holidays are here and I am finally sinking into holiday mood by hanging out with my friends and not caring how much money is depleting from my bank. (Not a good thing, better check my balance later.)

So yesterday, my friends and I decided on an impromptu meet up at Big Mama. I have heard of it's amazing food and seen several reviews online and hence I was really pumped up to make a trip down!  However, before having successfully settled our asses in the restaurant, we had a miscommunication with the staffs regarding reservations. I made a call inquiring if they had a table I could reserve at 7.20pm. The lady on the receiver's end told me they do not have one then, but they do have one at 8.10pm. I told her I'd consider and get back to her and when I did, I told her I'd like to have the table at 8.10pm for 3 people, and the conversation went haywire. So apparently, I thought I'd have a table at about 8.10pm (She didn't take down my name or contact information, it was kinda dumb until I realized that I may not have a reservation made since she did not do that, but I clearly heard okay and stuffs. Okay, I was just not in the right state of mind I guess) and she thought I'd just not make a reservation and try again another day or something. 
So I arrived with friends (already madly hungry) but with no table. After a few minutes of trying to sort things out, we were shifted to the 8.30pm slot. I was thankful that they even try and managed to slot us in, as from what she was trying to tell me, apparently, there was even a WAITING list after the reservations list.

Oh wells, so the waiting had the 3 of us HUNGRY, I think the stomach acids had burnt a layer of fat in our tummy just by waiting for our turn. Anyways, when we finally entered, we ordered a Dukgalbi ($15/person, we ordered a 2 person share), Sundubu Chigae ($14) and a Kimchi Jeon ($15) and our bill totaled to $64.90. We paid about $21.60 per person.

We were served with 6 appetizers:

• Spinach tasted good with a tinge of sesame and salt
• Their kimchi was slightly spicy than the usual ones I've tasted, but still yummy
• Japchae was less oily; they used less sesame oil (healthier in any case)
• They had this homemade chewy water-chestnut cake/kueh that tasted really awesome with the sauce it was served with. This was good!
• Their lotus was very crunchy with a nutty after taste.
• Their ilkan bilis was soft and slightly sweet.

(This was the water-chestnut cake/keuh I was talking about) 

Kimchi Jeon:

• Personal favourite. They provided this unique sauce that provides more flavour when you eat the Kimchi Jeon.
• It was slightly thin, floury, soft but not crsipy. (Personal preferences applies here)
• It had generous amounts of seafood (shrimps and squids)
• The serving size was worth the $15.

Sundubu Chigae:

• Had 2 big prawns and mussels inside
• Had a VERY strong seafood taste (think it came from the mussels they put inside)
• Because of the strong seafood taste, it made the Sundubu Chigae rather unique.
• I would say that it was slightly salty.
• We feel that it was a rather small bowl for the price we were paying for. But on the other hand it was not so diluted compared to restaurants that served bigger bowls. So it's a give and take I guess?
• I'm kinda sad as it did not have tofu inside. I mean it's not a must, but I'd really love to have some inside though.

Dakgalbi:

• This is their recommended dish and here I recommend you peeps to try!
• Consists of cabbage, carrots, chicken, onions and ddeokbokki (directly translated from korean letters, I know some people spell it differently)
• The ddeobokki was VERY chewy! Tasted nothing like the one I have tried in food courts before (which incidentally tasted EWWW) Here's the difference between authentic Korean food and those that weren't.
• Chicken was tender and chunky.
• Sauce was yummy!!!! But spicy at first bite and had us wanted more subsequently.
• We mixed the rice which came with the Chigae ourselves inside the Dakgalbi and it was good!
• One of my friends told me that the one she tried in Korea had more ingredients (mushrooms, bean sprouts etc) than this one.
• The staff there actually helped us mixed the Dakgalbi and informed us when we could actually eat it. It was a plus point for us as we concluded that none of us would be able to tell whether it was cooked or not and may end up eating half cooked chicken.

Overall Advantages: 

• Its a personal thing but their chairs were sooooooooooooo comfy.
• Authentic Korean food was served.
• While it seemed reasonable in serving size, our tummies were filled to the brim after the meal!
• Service was good. Even with the miscommunication, they tried to slot us in and gave us a table. This was good enough for me and they even said thank you (the one that sounds really sincere instead of those that say because they have to) before we left. 

Overall Disadvantages:

• It's rather small, space wise. They can hold about 8-10 groups of people at one go only. And it depends on your group numbers as well.

Note:

• It was written on their menu that customers should make reservations at least 2 days before their actual dinning date for them to serve you better. I would say, make it 3 days. And avoid the miscommunication I had by ensuring that they do take down your name and number. (It was a really dumb mistake made by me I have to say-.-)
• They only charge service charge, no GST on top of the price stated in menu.

Overall, I would say that my experience at Big Mama's was one of a kind as it was my first go at Dukgalbi which proved to be an awesome experience. I would definitely want to go back again and would definitely make a reservation! If you guys visited Big Mama before, I'd love to hear your experiences. Or if you guys have any awesome Korean places to recommend I'd love to hear them too! Till next time, ciao!

<3 FJ