Address: 3 Temasek Blvd, #B1-107, Singapore 038984

Cuisine: Korean

Nearest MRT: Esplanade/ Promenade (Circle line) or City Hall (NS/ ES line)

Dookki has two outlets in Singapore, one at Suntec City and the other at Clementi Mall. It means ‘two meals’ in Korean, probably a place where you bring your special someone to your family to dine at. This successful restaurant chain originated in South Korea and has expanded to many countries in Southeast Asia.

At $18.80++ for adults and $10.80++ for children, the Dookki buffet is priced affordably. It is more than just eating tteokbokki because the buffet has a wide selection of food, including Korean ramen, seasoned meat, vegetables, eggs, seafood etc. Diners have a time limit of one and a half hour for each meal, of which the timing starts once you get your table and the soup base has been prepared. The timing is sufficient for everyone to finish the food and also to ensure that diners do not stay too long in the restaurant.

Tteokbokki, literally translated as “rice cake” is a beloved Korean dish which comes in many variations and has a rich history. With an unlimited supply of ingredients from the self serve bar, you can enjoy endless amounts of tteokbokki prepared in various way. At Dookki, diners have fun creating their own unique recipes with friends and family.

At the self serve bar, you can help yourself to various shapes and sizes of tteokbokki, including star-shaped or heart-shaped ones, lettuce, carrots, hot dog franks, tomatoes, mushrooms etc.

Another interesting concept at Dookki is the fish cake skewers at another self serve station. The staff would cook the fish sticks on one side and after they are done, transfer the sticks to another tray where diners can help themselves. They evoke fond memories of my time in Korea eating freshly prepared fish cake skewers from roadside stalls in the cold winter.

Due to the cheapskate nature of some people, the restaurant had to put up notices in the store advise people not to bring home the Korean ramyeon no matter how yummy it is. Being ramyeon lovers, our table alone consumed 6 packets of these at the hotpot session. The one thing that makes Korean ramyeon so tasty compared to instant noodles is its springiness.

Besides cooking your own food, there are also some ready dishes such as fried chicken wings, sweet potato balls and other fritters.

The hotpot in the middle of the table is just nice to be shared among 4 diners. As with the meticulous nature of Koreans, they provided a bowl for raw food, a bowl for food waste, a plate for the cooked food and individual eating bowls.

To top off the delicious tteokbokki stew, we added an ala carte double cheese ring ($9.80++) around the hotpot. The melted cheese could be used as a dip for the food. However, we were disappointed in the cheese ring because the cheese became hard quickly and it took a long time for the staff to prepare. In the end, we were scraping bits and pieces of the cheese instead of being able to dip our food in it.

After the first meal of tteokbokki hotpot. the second meal is kimchi fried rice. The staff would cook the fried rice for the diners. They emptied the soup base, made use of the sauces, added rice, cheese, seaweed, corn and sesame oil, before whipping up a sumptuous kimchi fried rice for us to enjoy.

To end off the wonderful meal, there was a self serve bingsu station. We had fun making our own bingsu which was quite easy as we only needed to place our bowl at the bottom of the machine and press a button. Thinly shaved ice came out and we could top it off with chocolate sauce. The bingsu flavour changes from day to day. The bingsu did not taste as nice as that at Oma Spoon, probably because little carnation milk was used to flavour the ice.

Overall, Dookki is not a fine dining experience, nor the service is as impeccable as Haidilao, but to satisfy your Korean food craving in an informal dining setting. It is a suitable place to dine out with family and even let the kids have fun cooking their own food or making the bingsu.