If you recall, we had an earlier post on Kim Dae Mun at Concorde Hotel. It has since been relocated, to the front of the hotel, which is much more visible. Hope it doesn't get too crowded :x Prices seemed to have gone up a notch -- Bibimbap now costs $0.50 more and the Steamed Saba went up by almost a dollar!

Even more spacious than before. Regulars will find the furniture familiar. Now there's even a queue ticket system (can't remember if this was already there haha).

There's another counter for drinks (incl. soju) & ice cream.

Lets talk about the Steamed Saba first! This dish is so unique that Kim Dae Mun is the only place we know of that serves it in Singapore. It's a huge & tender hunk of saba (mackeral) that's stewed with a rich, midly spicy tomato-ish sauce. Good enough for 2! This is a homely dish that goes perfectly with the rice. Also comes with a whole boiled potato. Sher likens it to Ayam brand canned tuna :')

Next up is the Bean Paste and Vege Stew which Sher opted for the non-spicy version. As you can see, the bowl was filled to the brim with plenty of assorted vegetables and seafood. The best part is the tasty (miso) broth which you'll definitely slurp every last drop.

We will definitely revisit Kim Dae Mun if we are around the vicinity! Maybe the Pan-Fried Sliced Fish next?

Kim Dae Mun Korean Cuisine
Address: #01-04, Concorde Hotel, 100 Orchard Road, 238840
Opening Hours: Tue-Sun, 11:00-20:30; Closed Mon
Website: https://www.facebook.com/KimDaeMun/
Contact: +65 9112 5910
Damage: $8/pax

The eponymous gimbap looks pretty on the plate. Taste-wise, it was quite authentic: the beef bulgogi was tender and the pickles were fragrant. S isn't a huge fan of this though -- he claims it tastes 'plasticky'.

Next up was the Doenjangmari soup noodles. Basically, the stock was made from fermented beanpaste and was quite spicy. Besides the noodles (which were very similar to ban mian), there were just a couple of mushrooms and zucchini. Not particularly satisfying.

To go, we had a buckwheat tea, the safest of the tea options on the menu. If you are feeling adventurous, you can go for the more exotic names: omija, esel, doraji etc.

Seoul Yummy is extremely popular for its stews and the unmistakable black pan was present on almost every table when we were there. We opted for the Signatures Combo ($48.70 for 1 appetizer, 1 main and 1 dessert). Army Stew (Budae Jjigae) is supposedly one of their must-orders, and we chose the meat (as opposed to the seafood) version. Our Army stew came with a hunk of frozen chicken, pork and beef, assorted vegetables and ... wait for it... sausages, luncheon meat, baked beans and maggi mee -- all of it dumped unceremoniously into a huge pan and left to simmer. Note that the maggi noodles are actually concealed underneath the meat.

The next step is simple, just chop everything up and wait for the meat to cook through. For the steep price, not only are the ingredients cheap and poor in quality,  they don't even give you a lot of meat. We struggle to see how this pot of Army Stew should even cost more than $10. Many fans have raved about the broth, which we found to be quite tasty and not very spicy, albeit a little on the salty side.

For appetizers, we had the potato pancake. This was pretty decent and we could feel the strips of potato in the pancake. And like most Korean restaurants, you get free flow banchan! Always a small plus.

We chose the chocolate and banana bingsu for dessert. The chocolate ice cream was nice and creamy, the bananas were coated in caramel and sprinkled with crunchy bits. Well in fact everything was yummy except for the bingsu, which was coarser than what it should be. Sigh, what a let down!

Visually, the popcorn ice cream is without a doubt, a head turner. Taste-wise, the ice cream was rather sweet but creamy. With the caramel popcorn, what we got was sweet on sweet, almost to the verge of being cloying. Thankfully, the cheese popcorn lent a much needed saltiness to the whole affair. 

Milkcow, a Korean soft serve ice-cream chain, prides itself in its use of 100% organic natural milk honeycomb. All superfluousness aside, Milkcow does serve up an extremely milky and creamy ice-cream. The ice-cream is milk-flavored, without a trace of vanilla. As the relatively new kid on the block, Milkcow has to compete against the likes of Honey Creme, llaollao, and umm Thai Ice Cream Rolls just to name a few. 

As you can see, you're pretty much spoilt for choice over here. Well, we're going to run through a few items on their menu, so hopefully you will be able to make a more informed decision when you get there. Lets begin!  

Snow Drop ($5.90) -- Candy floss on top, organic salt ice cream, jelly beans and M&Ms. What could possibly go wrong with this beauty? Almost everything actually. Unlike salted caramel or salted chocolate, where there's a balance between sweetness and saltiness, salt and milk seems to be pushing it a little. It tasted pretty weird too in our opinion. But of course, opinions are subjective. The nail in the coffin was, however, the jelly beans. Word of advice: stay far far far away from those, lest you want a broken tooth. Loved the candy floss by the way.

Milky Cube ($5.90) -- This is the poster girl/boy of Milkcow. Soft serve ice-cream with a slab of organic, unadulterated honeycomb. No bees included. The honeycomb was kind of hard to enjoy though as it was waxy, cloyingly sweet and stuck to the roof of our mouth.  

Milky Honey ($5.50) -- This was probably the best of the lot. Plain and simple, just the ice-cream with a drizzle of the organic honey. We loved how the sweetness of the honey contrasted nicely with the savory ice-cream. 

S is on an instagram giveaway winning steak -- 3 in a month! With a $10 Kokomama voucher in hand, we headed down to the cafe at SOTA for lunch. To be honest, we weren't expecting much of Kokomama, having read some rather unflattering reviews of this place.

For some reason, Bingsu is so darn expensive in Singapore. It's just shaved ice and syrup for goodness sake. There's something cheaper called ice kachang out there. Kokomama's Bingsu is priced about mid-range, a notch cheaper than the more popular chains. They also serve a baby version, which is cute, but probably not worth your money because the prices don't seem to have scaled down proportionately with the size (on the poster).

There is a decent array of korean fushion dishes on the menu. Prices, we felt it were a little on the high side, considering the clientele. Perhaps there's a student meal deal somewhere that we missed out on. Wanted to try the highly raved chilli crab (black) bread bowl but decided against it due to the 2 chillis (need to train Sher to eat spicy food).

S had the Jumping Prawn Aglio Olio ($12.90), which was quite a huge & generous portion and looked photogenic. Probably one of the least korean dishes on the menu, it tasted decent enough.

For just $2, you can add on a drink. It's a huge drink though, and perfectly shareable between two people. The weather was a little on the hot side, so we had the refreshing honey lemon drink.