My Korean food horizon has been further expanded courtesy of this LivingSocial deal for cash vouchers at Seoul Palace Korean BBQ. I have never had Korean BBQ prior to this so this was a new experience that I was looking forward to.
We were served the condiments first - the sesame oil was sweet while the sauce on the right tasted like it was used for the meat's marinade. The red bean paste was fermented and salty. I've been told that the meat will be dipped in the condiments then rolled into the salad leaves.
An array of side dishes arrived next and LC was a bit disappointed that they don't serve his favorite anchovies side dish here.
From top left: kong jaban - black beans, sukju namul muchim - bean sprout salad and kimchi
Second row from left: gaji-naengguk - cold egg plant, sigeumchi-namul - stir fried spinach and miyuk muchim - seaweed salad
Bottom row from left: Korean pancake, pumpkin, stir fried long beans and cucumber pickle.
For LC, the better side dish was the spinach and only the spinach while I didn't mind the seaweed and the pickled cucumber. The pumpkin was not cooked right through while the long beans were poorly seasoned. The Korean pancake was not great but quite alright. The kimchi, black beans and eggplant I did not touch because it looked too unappetizing.
We requested for the meat to be cooked for us and they grill it in an area within your sight below exhaust fans. The sliced pork belly came in a 50% fat 50% meat ratio caramelized from the sauce which turned out to be rather bland. I thought the hot chilli sauce was going to make a difference but it didn't. It tasted okay - not too dry and did not have a 'porky smell'.
I liked this one the most - no fat ratio and nicely marinated. The soy sauce flavored the pork and it was great dipped in the condiments and rolled in the lettuce leaves.
The roasted pork didn't taste roasted and was rubbed with a salty marinade and garlic! Didn't like this.
The rice cake dish looked promising until we took a bite at the rice cake. It was undercooked and too hard so it was quite hard to eat.
The bi bim bap did not come with enough sauce and had a sprinkle of unseasoned vegetables. Missing some bean sprouts there too.
Overall, the meal was disappointing and the meat portions were small for the price paid. It was a disappointing first Korean BBQ experience and I would never go back to Seoul Palace.