If there's a day when I'm in the Orchard belt and I feel like having authentic, heart-warming, soulful Korean food prepared by the Koreans, there's just one place I will go.
Kim Dae Mun at Concorde Hotel.
Sure, the place isn't as snazzy or hipster as some of the bingsu cafes that have sprouted all over town, or as atmospheric as some of the BBQ restaurants along the Tanjong Pagar stretch, but when you consider that Kim Dae Mun used to be a stall at the basement food court in the same building but now has its own place.... now, that's a lovely thought, isn't it?
This is a place popular with just about anyone. It doesn't matter whether you're alone or with a companion. I've seen office workers here at lunch time. I've seen couples. and I've also seen individuals have a comfortable meal with their phones for company.
There's little to scream for décor- I'll give you that. Here you won't find beer posters on the walls, you won't find posters of Kpop groups, Hallyu artists or K-dramas, and there's no Kpop music blaring through hidden speakers. But it doesn't matter, no, not one bit at all. Kim Dae Mun is just a place that is all about the food. Go in, place your order, sit down, wait for them to call out your order, go take your food, have conversation if you're with someone, and eat.
What they do have on the wall right next to the counter is a huge lit sign that shows the menu. There's quite a bit to be had. You have the fish- a full sized grilled one that you pick out with chopsticks, potato pancake, mandoos, bibimbap, beef and chicken hot plates that you have with rice, lovely soups, and ramyun.
I like the soups, particularly the seafood one and the soybean one, but most of the time I tend to hover my meal choices between ramyun and bibimbap, whilst my Co-Diner prefers the hot plate beef, and mandoos from time to time.
The portions here are fairly large, and each set comes with a single dish of banchan that you can choose. I take kimchi most of the time. The sour, sour taste whets my appetite. And my Co-Diner goes straight for the snack-like deep fried anchovies.
The bibimbap comes served piping hot in a stone bowl, chock full with chopped vegetables and the beef, so all I do is to mix in the gochujang, try not to break the lovely fried egg sitting delicately on top, and just eat, each mouthful filled with vegetables, beef, rice and all.
There are days when I want noodles, and so ramyun, prepared with the springy QQ texture, it is for me. Here, the dish can be served spicy, or non-spicy. I've had both, and because my spice preference is dependable on the weather outdoors, I usually go for the non-spicy version, which, with the flower egg and all, cosies me up nicely and makes me think of warm chicken soup tinged with a bit of seaweed.
The mandoos here are cute little fried dumplings served with a dipping sauce of vinegar and a bit of ginger, and which I find crispy at the edges with lots of chives and meat filling inside.
I haven't had the hot plate beef, but I hear the meat is quite tender, and then there're onions and cabbage all marinated in a great-tasting sauce.
What I love most here are the vegetables that come with every dish ordered. They're really generous with the portions here, whether they be stewed together with the sauce in the beef hot plate dish, boiled in the soup that comes with the ramyun, or mushy and soft in the soup that comes in the little bowl when you order dishes with rice.
I just have to try their potato pancakes, and other shared dishes one day though. :)