Kim Dae Mun: Pocket Friendly Korean Food

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Hotel. The food court might be dingy but many people frequent the place mainly with KDM in mind.Le Meridien (KDM) when it was still located in the food court at the basement of the Kim Dae Mun Korean FoodWe first visited

Often, there would be a crowd in front of the stall with some waiting to place their orders while others, to collect their food. What impressed us at that time was the lady manning the cashier. Not only would she take orders, she could remember exactly what each customer had ordered such that she could call forth the correct customer when his/her food was ready. Her memory is simply superb!

After the hotel changed its name to Concorde Hotel, KDM relocated twice before settling down at its current location in July this year. The queue is still there but with the much bigger shop space, there is now less worry of not being able to find a seat during the peak hours.

KDM menu is simple with 17 offerings of the typical Korean fare including tteokbokki (Korean rice cake), potato pancake and bibimbap (mixed rice). Each set meal comes with a bowl of white rice and a banchan (side dish) of your choice (pickled cucumber, seasoned anchovies or kimchi). If you like something sweet, you can opt to change the plain rice to red bean rice.

Recently we have been dining at KDM quite frequently. Just this month alone (yes, it's only 2 weeks into November!), we have been to KDM twice to get our Korean fixes. Here's what we had on these two times:

Hubby likes fish so he ordered the fried saba fish set meal. The fish is crispy on the outside, the meat fresh and tender. Fortunately the deep frying did not cause the flesh to dry up. His only gripe is the size of the dish. It is rather small with only half a fish served. Actually what is popular at KDM is the steamed saba fish. Maybe we will give it a try the next time.

One of my favourites, the bibimbap makes you feel healthy eating it. There are generous portions of vegetables and meat. Topping off the bowl is a sunny side up whose runny yolk, together with the accompanying Korean chili sauce, makes the bibimbap taste awesome. For me, I would toss in the anchovies banchan as well for a more flavourful meal.

A note of caution if you like to take pictures of your food prior to eating. The hot stone will burn the rice at the bottom should you not mix it in time. On the other hand, eating the bimbimbap with this scorched rice (nurungji) could be seen as another way of enjoying the dish too. After all, we Chinese have something similar called guoba (锅巴).

Another one of his favourites is the spicy beef soup. It makes for a satisfying meal with its many greens, tofu, sweet potato noodles and meat/seafood. If you like a new experience, try substituting the noodles with ramyeon. You may feel the ramyeon is only semi cooked when served but this actually prevents the noodles from becoming all soggy when you are only halfway through the meal. KDM is that thoughtful! Note that the soup serving is large so we would suggest ordering it without the rice unless you are famished.

Do note that KDM closes quite early at 8.30 pm and they do not serve dessert. For a complete Korean experience, we propose having some bingsu. You may wish to check out the one and only Caffebene in Singapore, which we did.

Address: 100 Orchard Road, Concorde Hotel Shopping Arcade #01-03D Singapore 238840

Access: 6-minute walk from Dhoby Ghaut Station on the North-South Line/ North-East Line

Website: Kim Dae Mun facebook page

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