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Introduction
Kkongdon in Korean language literally means best price value. With philosophy in mind the first Korean BBQ restaurant was opened in Sinchon, Seoul in January 2005. As Kkongdon provides high quality Korean BBQ at a reasonable price, thus it manages to capture the young generations who seek quality food at a chic and modern environment.
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Opening Hours
Mon - Sun
11:00 - 22:30
Above information is for reference only. Please check details with the restaurant.
Signature Dishes
Kkongdon is located on the first floor of SAFRA Toa Payoh. It is a 5-min leisure walk from Toa Payoh Interchange. The restaurant is not immediately visible upon entering the cold building, one has to walk right in, past the lift lobby and through a pair of glass doors. We were here for dinner after a company event.The interior is dark because of the dim lighting in the middle and the strong lighting hitting against the walls from spotlights. I think that having Japanese katakana on the board below the shop's logo is a bit confusing for people who are not familiar with both cultures.One table sits four people with a big pan in the middle and a smoke vent on top. There is a set of 5 types of sauces on the left and right side of each table. I didn't try them at all because they looked like they're pretty hot. The restaurant's not very spacious but it was still able to accommodate us when we requested for extra chairs around our table.The salad bar was very tiny. There were 8 types of vegetables at first. None are remotely nice except for maybe the super sour seaweed, raw lettuce and boiled lotus root. Later, halfway through our meal, they added big bean sprouts, and luckily it's not weird-tasting like the others! I tried all and only a few were okay, it's quite sad for a veggie lover like me.My colleague and I had Set A. Sweet marinated short ribs and spicy chicken. ($20.80++) The set includes:The raw ribs and chicken.Korean rice cakes.Bean paste stew with tofu.And rice.The service staff did brush a layer of oil or something on the flat pan but our chicken and short ribs got stuck to the pan pretty badly!! They became charred really easily!! So the bits stuck onto the pan kept getting more and more charred. -_-"The meat was still sticking to the pan even after the service staff came to brush layers of oil, twice. -_-"Though the pan was really bad, the meat turned out quite okay. Mainly because of the marinate?The short rib is tough and hard to separate from the bone. But the marinate makes it taste nice. It's not too salty nor sweet.The spicy chicken is also tough and true enough, it's hot and spicy but nothing I can't take. However, it's a tad too spicy for my colleague.The stew is okay, still edible. The tofu is soft and Singaporean market tofu. Didn't notice any meat inside though they're supposed to be there.As for the final dish, it's the rice cakes. Like.. The colour of the dish is okay and may make one think it should taste nice but it's got no taste actually. Bland. Looks are deceiving.Overall, it's a very bad dinner, it's the first time in a while for me to have such a disappointing meal. I will never go back to any Kkongdon in the future.
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This Kkongdon Barbeque outlet is located at the first floor of Toa Payoh Safra, about a 10 minutes walk away from Toa Payoh MRT station. A convenient location to have a satisfying meal if you are around the area, or at the Safra enjoying their facilities.This is my first time dining at Kkongdon Barbeque and I was pleasantly surprised at how clean & well furnished the restaurant is. Each table comes with its own BBQ stove pan and smoke vent. The height of the smoke vent can also be adjusted. When you are leaving the food to cook, you can lower down the smoke vent so the smoke & BBQ smell does not get into your clothes and hair. Very thoughtful design indeed.The restaurant serves Ala Carte meals, but you can help yourself to Korean side dishes at their free-flow salad bar with order of any of their meals. My personal favourites are the Korean marinated beansprouts and their fresh lettuces.For my mains, I ordered a Short Rib with Black Pepper & Pork Belly Set ($20.80) to share with my colleague.The set comes with a good portion of meat enough for 2 person to share. The pork belly although a little fatty, is good for oiling the pan as well so the food doesnt get burnt.The Short Rib marinated with Black Pepper was too spicy for us as we cant take heat well. We feedback to one of the staff about this and she immediately suggested helping us to wash away some of the black pepper on the meat. Kudos to her and her great service that we do not have to let the meat go to waste. Instead we actually enjoyed the short ribs as the meat was fresh & tasty, after taking away the overpowering black pepper.Also included in the set is a bowl of Chicken Bean Paste stew soup, and a small portion Korean rice cakes.The Chicken Bean Paste soup is very tasty, with flavours of the Korean miso but not too salty. It comes with generous amount of ingredients like chicken, cucumber, golden mushroom & tofu. The rice cakes are chewy although the sauce that comes with it is a little bland. An okay complimentary dish.Overall my experience at Kkongdon Barbeque was great. Although it was Ala carte style, the food served was more than enough.. with free flow salad bar, meat, soup & rice cakes for less than $30 for 2 pax, I would say that it is really affordable & worth it.Coupled with a nicely furnished relaxing setting and great service, I would definitely come back again with some friends for a get-together eating session!
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Eating Korean BBQ can be a pain sometimes when as I do not like ending up perspiring and leaving the place with a stench of unpleasant oil all over. Thank goodness for Kkongdon Barbeque, which is situated at the newly built SAFRA Toa Payoh, those who are craving for Korean BBQ can no longer suffer the fate of the oily stink and drenched clothes.Entering the restaurant was a complete different atmosphere compared to those Korean BBQ located at shophouses of Tanjong Pagar. The entire place was very well ventilated, cool air-conditioning and equipped with smoke suction pipes on every table to absorb every single bit of stench from the enclosed dining area. There are tables fitted to sit 4 paxs as well as tables to sit 8 paxs for couples, families and big groups to enjoy the BBQ together.Upon seated, I realize that the Korean BBQ hot plate was slightly slanted to an angle so to allow the grease from the meat to flow onto the plastic sheet. Equipped with a gas stove under, diners can easily control the temperature of the grill according to their preference. I thought these little details are very thoughtful as people these days are very health-conscious as to eat healthy. Over here, after ordering the raw food from the menu, patrons are free to help themselves to the free flow of Korean banchans (side dishes), at the buffet counter which has a good range of home-style vegetables ranging from kimchi, ikan bilis, bean sprouts and lotus root.Not to forget, crunchy pickled radish and a whole lot of fresh green lettuce to be eaten along with the BBQ meats, exactly the style I love eating Korean BBQ! My colleagues and I had the Short Rib with Black Pepper & Pork Belly Set ($20.80++) BBQ set (for 2 paxs)which comes with Bean Paste Stew with Tofu (choice of chicken/beef),Korean Rice Cake and individual portion of steamed rice. Although I didn't enjoy the Bean Paste Stew and Korean Rice Cafe, from the colour of the Short Ribs, it seems that they had spent a lot of effort to marinate it with black pepper, hence the dark colour.I couldn't wait to place it on the hot grill to savour the juicy succulent meat wrapped with crunchy fresh green lettuce. Indeed, smoke from the grilling was all absorbed by the pipe that's above which is a PLUS POINT because my eyes are easily irritated by grease and smoke. Thankfully I didn't have to tear while enjoying the decadent pork belly and flavoursome short ribs. Since I kept on filling my table with vegetables and more vegetables, the staffs were very attentive to help me clear the dishes that were stacking up and also topping up on our hot tea. When we asked for more spicy fermented bean sauce which is a MUST to have it on the meat and eaten wrapped in lettuce, they were very quick to give us more of it too. *thumbs up for great service!* I enjoy my dinner very much and before leaving the restaurant, I saw this on the wall with fellow Singapore bloggers recommending Kkongdon Barbeque. After dining here, I can understand why were they raving about and I have to say that you should visit this place for clean, cooling and delicious Korean BBQ that is of good value!***Korean BBQ Tip***If you are feeling very "gelat" from the meat and you're not a big fan of spicy food, get some kimchi and grill it on the plate. Take a little of it and eat it along with the meat especially for fatty meat like pork belly. It will not only help to get rid of the "porky" flavour but also taste appetizing too with the pickled sour taste! After grilling, the kimchi won't be as spicy compared to eating it raw.
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It was my 2nd visit to kkongdon. (My previous experience at the ang mo kio branch was not bad.) Ordered their set dinner for 2. It comes with a plate of meat ( beef short ribs and pork belly), one small plate of spicy rice cake, a bowl of kimchi soup. There is also a buffet counter with a few types of kimchis. The Rice cake was quite soft but the cockles that comes with it tasted abit too fishy to me. The soup was not too bland and it was a little spicy. Overall, still not bad.
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This pork belly is a bit too thick which quite take long to cook. We never used the condiments or the sauces because its quite funny taste to combine.Sauces are quite unique and have a different taste and so we never tried all the sauces. Beef Short Ribs is not smokey. There are bones in the beef that is why it is quite hard to cook. It is nice to eat with lettuce. The rice is like the japanese rice. Overall rating is quite ok.
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