Today’s korean restaurant food review shines the spotlight on the hottest new trend in Singapore, Yoogane’s newly opened outlet at Westgate! Yoogane, originally from Busan, Korea imports every single dish and ingredient, including the rice, directly from Korea. This fun-filled Korean Chicken Joint features Chicken Galbi (Dak-Galbi) and the all-time favourite, Seafood Chicken Galbi (Hae-Mool-Dak-Galbi)

We arrived on a cosy Monday Night at the Westgate outlet. There was still a significant queue even though it was not a weekend, and the restaurant was packed with people! This definitely speaks a lot about the publics’ opinion of the famous Chicken Galbi. Without further ado, we present to you the main course of the day – the Seafood Chicken Galbi

Yoogane’s own blend of special sauces mixed together with the chicken, coupled together with fresh seafood ingredients. The dish has a very strong ‘kimchi’ effect and is moderately spicy. The friendly customer service staff will cook for you in the best manner possible. Unless if the restaurant is extremely crowded and understaffed, you can also cook it yourself by stirring the ingredients around on the pot! The dish consists of additional toppings such as glass noodles, ramyeon, topokki, cheese topokki, sweet potato topokki, potato slices, golden mushroom and capsicum.

Observe the tempting colours of the grilled seafood and chicken mixed with the special sauce. The smell started to lift our spirits and we were ready to chow down on this! Needless to say, the proclaimed “freshest” seafood definitely did not disappoint us. Be sure to eat the marinated squid and seafood fast before it gets overcooked! You can’t judge the restaurant fairly if you ate the seafood while it was under-or-over-cooked. The noodles will be added in halfway.

As for the Galbi, it literally translates to “Ribs”, which refers to the chicken ribs in the grill mixed together with special ganjang sauce. The marinated chicken was tender, soft, and spicy. (A side note here to remind readers that the entire dish has a moderate spiciness level). I personally broke a few sweats on my forehead but I would say it is very worth it. You know the feeling of wanting to eat more even though it’s really spicy? Think: Tom Yum Soup

I absolutely loved the noodles. Call me a noodle fan, but Yoogane’s  noodles had a springy and chewy texture to it. The marinate and ganjang sauce mixed together with the noodles while stirring and it feels like you can eat the noodles just by itself! Speaking of noodles, this side dish of cold noodles..

This bowl of cold noodles (similar to Japanese Soba in terms of context), is served as a side dish to go together with the Galbi pot. The mix of vinegar and mustard sauce enhances the flavour of the soup mix. The noodles are extremely bouncy and chewy and the sauce amplifies the flavour of the noodles. I will dare to admit that this is much better than your usual Soba noodles served in soba sauce. There is definitely more effort and exotic ingredients combined together for this dish.

This. Is. An. Egg Roll with Cheese. You must be wondering how good can it possibly get? It looks so plain, simple, with a drizzle of sauce on top. In fact, it is amazing. The egg is very soft, and you can feel the creamy aftertaste of the cheese inside your mouth. Be warned though as this can be actually quite filling! I personally recommend sharing it with friends and not finishing a large portion by yourself, or else you might not be able to appreciate the other dishes.

Seafood pancake was also served as a side dish. Once again, you might be wondering how good can a seafood pancake possibly get?  The exterior is crispy and the inside is very soft. There is a very generous portion of seafood inside to make sure you get your money’s worth. What I personally liked most is the black sauce that comes together with this dish. It simply isn’t complete without the sauce so please do have a try! Similar to the egg roll above, this dish can be potentially filling so be sure to share around!

Going back to the Seafood Chicken Galbi, which would still be actively grilling while you enjoyed all your side dishes, you can actually request to add Cheesy Fried Rice to combine with everything inside your mini-stove. The end result?

Simply delicious. Imagine all that melted cheese, together with Korean rice, chicken ribs, seafood, mushroom and vegetables. Especially if you’re someone who loves cheese and carbs, I will recommend that you add this combination to your pot. I thoroughly enjoyed it as though it was an authentic Korean-style baked rice with cheese. If you do not mind the hassle of buying ingredients and cleaning up after, you can also cook this in the comfort of your own home but it might not taste as fabulous.

Couple your main dish with shots of Chamisul Soju, a clear Korean rice wine which is fairly strong in it’s alcohol content. However, I do prefer their Ume Makgeolli (plum rice wine) shown below

I’m not a big fan of high alcohol content, and this Ume Makgeolli fit my taste perfectly because it only holds 7% alcohol. Moreover, it has hints of plum and there is a very sweet, milky taste to it, which makes it feel as though the alcohol inside is not strong at all to give you that ‘cringe’ feel. A recommended drink to go along together with the Seafood Chicken Galbi combination.

On an overall experience, Yoogane truly did not disappoint and it is also a bonus to hear that other food bloggers and reviewers have agreed the standards are consistent with their main branches in Busan, Korea. This technically means you don’t have to travel all the way to Korea just to try out authentic Chicken Galbi! If you’re craving for Korean food, kimchi and chicken or seafood in general, then Yoogane is the place to have in mind.

Yoogane Westgate is located at 3 Gateway Drive, Westgate, #03-08 Singapore 608532. Opening hours are Monday-Sunday, 11am-10pm.

Prices average about $48.90 for 3-4pax of Seafood Chicken Galbi. Side dishes range from $10-20 as well.