Seoul Noodle Shop made its debut in Singapore as a pop-up at Tanglin Mall’s Market Blue, and later stayed on as a permanent fixture in Market Blue due to the overwhelmingly positive response from its pop-up. Its latest store which opened on September 14 occupies a unit along Tanjong Pagar – Singapore’s unofficial ‘Korea Town’, and this is its first full-fledged restaurant with a dedicated space.
Chef Lee Won-il was present in person at the store’s opening last week, working tirelessly in the kitchen and personally serving and interacting with guests. He is most known in Korea for his appearances in food-related variety shows such as the popular Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator. Meanwhile, the other face of the restaurant, Chef Hong Seok Cheon, is an equally acclaimed chef and restaurateur in Korea, running several restaurants in Itaewon, Seoul. He was similarly featured in Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator and other variety programmes like Running Man.
Seoul Noodle Shop offers 12 kinds of kalguksu as well as other popular Korean dishes on its menu. Each bowl comes with slippery, elastic noodles with a chewy bite, and is served with handmade kimchi and other side dishes like pickled radish and doenjang dupbap (fermented soybean paste rice).
A must-try is the pork bone spicy noodle soup ($20.50). The highlight here is definitely the gigantic hunk of pork spine with fall-off-the-bone tender pieces of meat. Make sure to get those chopsticks into every crevice so nothing goes to waste. Reminiscent of traditional gamjatang, the soup is also topped off with a dusting of perilla seed powder that adds a nuttier and earthier taste to the broth. While locals might pass this off as a ‘hearty’ dish, don’t be surprised to hear Koreans describe it as ‘refreshing’ or siwonhaeyo (시원해요), a common term used to express the feeling of being energised after having something spicy and hot.
We did find, however, that the heat could have been dialled up on the pork bone soup. For fellow spice-loving folks, alternatives include the Yukgaejang noodles ($18.50) which is a beef-based soup, the dry bibim noodles ($16.50) served with a special sauce, or the cheese dakgalbi ($38.50) which sees mozzarella cheese torched right at your table.
As a nod to Singapore’s culinary heritage, the restaurant also offers the Singapore-exclusive Busan shrimp noodles ($20.50). This features fresh shrimp and fishballs swimming in a broth that invokes flavours of local prawn noodles as well as Busan’s seafood-based noodle soups. Other interesting kalguksu variations include the half chicken noodles ($18.50) – a nod to the summer-staple samgyetang dish with a clear and clean-tasting broth, as well as fragrant perilla noodles ($16.50) that come served in a creamy off-white sauce infused with finely ground perilla seeds.
While the noodles retain their bouncy and chewy texture for a decent amount of time, it’s still best to slurp them up while they’re fresh – the last thing you want is limp, bloated noodles in your bowl. Make sure to also come extra hungry, because this is one restaurant that doesn’t intend on letting you leave anything less than stuffed. While prices are standard compared to the other Korean establishments in the vicinity, the portion sizes for each bowl of noodles are generous to say the least.
And in the unlikely event you’re still feeling peckish, there’s also the option to add on the crowd-favourite kimchi dumplings ($5 for three pieces), or a side of mini gimpbap ($3 for six pieces). Finally, wash it all down with a refreshing swig of the signature makgeolli ade ($17.80) that combines traditional Korean rice wine with Korea’s famous Chilsung cider, or the yuja ade ($4.80) as a non-alcoholic alternative.