TOGI @ TRIPLE ONE SOMERSET

Location: Triple One Somerset #02-16

How to get there: Somerset Mrt Station Exit A, once you reach this exit, turn right and follow the sheltered pathway. It will lead you to a office/shopping mall building. Walk up and walk towards the "Shops" section. 

Opening hours: 

Daily: 1130am - 1500pm

         1800pm - 2200pm

Contact Number: 67377397

HELLO!!! It's the third day of 2014 in Singapore right now! How are things going for you all thus far? I took part in FPA (Film & Performing Arts) CCA recently and there's a production coming up on the 11th of January! If you peeps are interested in plays, this is one to go for! (I'm a play buff, and this play has very interesting elements! Do come and watch^^) 

The production: The Chapters of Love will be held at UCC (NUS) at 7.30pm on 11/01/2014, tickets are going at $18 each :) You can email fpa@mymail.sim.edu.sg to get your tickets and find out more information about this production^^

Okay, so much for promoting:) Back, to fooooood! I have visited Togi @ Triple One Somerset with my friend some time back last December before she flew off to America for exchange. I gotta say boy were we impressed. The interior decor of this outlet was really pretty with all the wall mount plants; it makes one feel very serene just stepping into it!

We ordered a Budae Chigae for 2 persons ($38), added some dokbokki and mandu ($2) and ordered a Kimchi Pajeon ($12). We paid a total of $62.01 The menu's included here as follows! Do note that they charge $0.50 for water too-.- 

Budae Chigae:

• Consists of: mushrooms, dokbokki, sausages, ham, ramen, tofu, spring onions, kimchi. It's really a lot! And we added dokbokki and mandu somemore! (The menu did not state the whole list of ingredients inside hence)  It was ALOT!
• The soup base was really good and tasty.
• The portion was really huge! It could feed more than two! Easily 4 people!! It's definitely worth your dollars if you come out with friends to share! Sadly, both of us could not finish it :(
• It came with side dishes, and one of them was porridge, definitely not something you see daily in a Korean restaurant.

(This was how much we have left after filling our stomachs to the brim!!)

Kimchi Pajeon:

• The thickness was just fine. It was starchy just the way my friend liked it.
• The taste of it was good, and $12 is definitely very worth it for something this size!
• One down point was that it did not come with the vinegary sauce that other Korean Restaurants provide.

Overall, I would say that this is one place worth visiting, with a bigger group if you intend to try the budae chigae. My experience here was rather good, the staffs were very polite. Have you been to Togi before? Let's hear your experience! Comment or email us :)

Till the next time lovelies, cya!

<3FJ

BIBIGO @ NEX

Location: Nex Level 3
How to get there: Serangoon Mrt Station
Opening hours: 
Daily at 1130am - 2200pm (last order at 2130pm)
Contact number: 65098272

Hihi! Life's been great recently! How are you all doing?? Have been doing loads of catch-ups and meetings with old friends! Had one recently a Bibigo. Being a Korean fanatic, I know that this place was famous for having stars like Rain and CL visiting. Even the gangnam style PSY is endorsing for them! As a passionately curious Korean food lover, I just had to check this place out!

Bibigo is kinda different from your everyday Korean restaurants for they have decided to add "healthy" into their marketing strategies. I have to say, it's working well, who eats bland and tasteless food when Bibigo offers you tasty and healthy dishes? But personally, it's mostly healthy not entirely, but mostly. 

So we had a Spicy Pork Tofu Stew ($9.90), a Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice ($9.90), a Hot Stone Bulgogi ($9.90) and 2 sides: Japchae ($5.90) and Pajeon ($5.90). The total bill came off to a total of $43.90. The menu is included as always^^

 (We only ordered from this menu as its prices are naturally friendlier)

Overall Advantages:

• I love how the restaurant was spacious enough to have your own privacy and their food presentations looked rather great!
• The Hot Stone Bulgogi was filled with all sorts of mushrooms, loads of well marinated beef and a good amount of glass noodles. It was certainly very appetizing for us. The meat lovers should really give this a go!
• Next up would be the Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice that one of my friends was utterly anticipating. She kept telling me how good it was and I wasn't disappointed. They used old kimchi and hence there is this sour-ish taste that wouldn't have you cringing at it's first taste. It is in fact rather flavorful. It came with a sunny side up; runny yolk! Awesome!
• The Pajeon was not bad. It was crunchy and goes well with the sauce.
• The Japchae was good,there was minced meat and mushrooms! I literally turn into fungi after eating that meal, but it's good for your body! Another note on the Japchae would be the lesser amount of sesame oil used, but the taste is still there!

 (Hot Stone Bulgogi)

(Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice) 

(Japchae)

Overall Disadvantages:

• Spicy Pork Tofu Stew was not fantastic. There's this odd taste to it that didn't settle well with me. Also, it had this layer of oil that had me eyeballing the word "healthy" in their marketing strategies. Not something that I will order again.
• The appetizers while palatable were kinda expensive in my opinion. You should see the size on the Pajeon; T-I-N-Y. I know how appetizers are supposed to be small but nah ah this one does not justify the $5.90.

(Pajeon) 

(Spicy Pork Tofu Stew)

Note:

• GST and Service Charges apply.
• If you hold a POSB Everyday card, you get a 10% off your A la Carte orders. (And hence the slightly lower amount for our total bill)

Overall, I would highly recommend you peeps to try out Bibigo's Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice and Hot Stone Bulgogi! Those are the ones that will keep me going back for moooooore!!!! Have you been to Bibigo before? You can always share with us your experience! We're always happy to hear from you all! We would love to have recommendations from you peeps too!!! Let us know!

Till next time!

<3 FJ

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

SEOUL YUMMY

Location: Bugis + Level 4 (Next to Poulet)
How to get there: Bugis Mrt Station
Opening hours: none stated at Bugis + website, none stated on the name card i took and none stated at their official website-.-
Contact Number: 65096900

Hey all!! How's it going this week? It's been a pretty hectic week for me! CRAZY would be a better word to describe it! So what better than to relax and chill with food? :D This review's  actually on a subsidiary of Kim Dae Mun Korean Food & Beverages.

Here's introducing Seoul Yummy which provides an awesome lunch deal for you peeps here at the Bugis Plus outlet! This was the only reason that got me started on this review. Deals; where your pockets will feel lighter but not much as it's cheaper and your tummy will feel full and delighted without feeling shortchanged!

You wouldn't miss this restaurant. Not with its fancy high tech decor surrounding the restaurant itself or the multi mini TVs playing different Korean MVs on different screens or the tables filled with quizzes on Korean artistes or the wall filled with different Korean artistes names. (I spotted Big Bang and 2NE1, and I stop my search ^^) 

Okay! Jumping straight into the topic, my friend and I have decided on a Spicy Chicken Soup ($11.99), Japchae ($11.99) and 2 add ons ($3.99 each): Kimchi Pancake and Fried Pork Mandu. Our bill totaled to: $37.62. The lunch special menu is included here.

Spicy Chicken Soup:

• Sweet
• Chili flakes here provide the spicy taste.
• Chicken is well marinated!
• Vegetable is provided: Xiao Bai Cai (My favourite!!)
• Toufu texture is kinda hard
• Overall this dish feels normal. It feels like something you can get in Kopitiam except that it's in a larger portion.

Japchae:

• Smooth and Q!
• Spicy! (Different from the one I've tried in Hanwoori)
• The spiciness and sesame taste makes this dish very flavorful!
• Also, the taste goes very well with the vegetables given!
• Don't judge the book by its cover, it only looks small~but it's rather filling.

Fried Pork Mandu:

• Crispy 
• Strong peppery taste
• Goes very well with the sauce they've provided! 
• Pork filling contains glass noodles too!

Kimchi Pancake:

• Goes very well with the sour sour and slightly salty sauce provided!
• Soft, has onions inside! 
• But it's kinda flat, it would have been better if they could have thicken it~

Side Dishes:

• The kimchi we tried was too sour :/ (i prefer kimchi with a slightly sweet taste instead of sour)
• But their ikan bilis is good! Salty and spicy goes wells with Korean food any day!
• They have this toufu in chili sauce, that's awesome too!

Barley Tea:

• We had hot Barley Tea that tastes just as bad as the one at Sarang-.- (Guess it was meant to taste like caffeine water)

Advantages:

• The place blasts Korean music! So all Korean fans, here's a must go!
• Food comes rather quickly.
• It's actually rather filling, we did not manage to finish all of it~

Disadvantages:

• It's kinda cramped between table to table.

Note:

• Lunch Special is from: 1100am - 1700pm as told by one of their staffs.
• GST and Service Charge is included.

Overall, I feel that Seoul Yummy is a place to dine when they offer reasonable deals like this one here. They are actually promoting their Army Stew too which costs more than $40 :O Wells, it's kinda high for me so yeaps, it's better to nomz here with deals! 

So when you peeps decide to hit Seoul Yummy, go for their lunch deals! Till next time!

<3 FJ