We ended up at Hyangtogol Raffles City for lunch. Inspired by the latest K-drama : Jinny’s Kitchen Season 2, we looked for dishes that were featured in the menu of a Korean restaurant in Iceland run by famous actors in an entertaining reality show.
Not Quite “Welcome to Iceland”
Set in Iceland’s Reykjavik, the Korean restaurant in Jinny’s Kitchen Season 2: Welcome to Iceland is set in a small traditional house with a spacious interior with classic country home decor. With a lake a short walk away and a range of snow-peaked mountains as a backdrop the pop-up Korean restaurant exudes calmness and serenity. Hyangtogol Raffles City, on the other hand is located in a dark basement of the popular shopping mall. Tables are placed so close we could hear all the office politics being discussed by our neighbours. At lunch time, it was one of the most popular restaurants and all the tables were filled. Tranquility is in short supply here.
Instead of seeing the bubbly and smiling K-celebrities Jeong Yu Mi, Park Seo Joon, Choi Woo Shik and Go Min-Si at work, we saw few smiles but the staff were generally helpful and courteous.
Hyangtogol Raffles City Menu
We have not been to this restaurant in a while. Our last visit was in 2018. We decided that it was time to revisit Hyangtogol Raffles City. A wide range of dishes are available in the restaurant menu. Some of them like tteokbokki and ramyeon were featured in Season 1. For this visit to a Korean restaurant in Singapore, we looked for items from the menu in Season 2. We found two for this visit – haemul soondubu jjigae ($18) and dolsot bibimbap ($15). Here are some sample pictures of the menu.
Haemul Soondubu Jjigae
This spicy tofu with seafood soup is available at Hyangtogol with various levels of spiciness. We decided on a zero spicy version which explains why this haemul soondubu jjigae looks so pale. With some spicy powder or paste, it will look better with an orange glow.
Despite the pale look and the lack of spiciness, the soup was nice with a rich seafood flavour. The tofu was soft and clean tasting. Don’t worry that is not a hair in the soup, but the feeler of a prawn inside.
Each of our dishes were served with the usual Korean side dishes (banchan). We thought that these were the least impressive ones we have seen.
Dolsot bibimbap at Hyangtogol Raffles City
We picked dolsot bibimbap as this was a dish that was placed under the watch of the new intern at Jinny’s Kitchen 2 (Iceland). The hardworking intern (Go Min-Si) always cooked the mixed vegetables and rice in a hot stone pot to perfection. We note an emphasis that the pot must sizzle, to create a charring of the rice (similar to our claypot rice I guess).
The Hyangtogol Raffles City version was not as intricately decorated as the one made by Go Min-Si but still rather attractive, thanks to the shiny raw egg. The main thing missing when it arrived was a sizzling sound or the smell of one. Other than that, it was quite a pleasant vegetable rice, especially when the accompanying sauces are mixed with the rice.
But it would be nicer if there were burnt bits of rice. This pot looks too clean.
Hyangtogol Raffles City
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-74, Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Opening Hours: 11.30 am – 9 pm
Nearby MRT Stations: City Hall (EW13 NS25), Bras Basah (CC2)
The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog
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