Cuisine: Korean
Address: 133, #02-35 New Bridge Rd, ChinaTown Point, Singapore 059413
Nearest MRT: Chinatown (Northeast / Downtown line)

Location on the second level of Chinatown Point, Hyang Yeon BBQ is really accessible from Chinatown MRT station. They have 3 different outlets, and the only one at Chinatown Point has the 100 minutes Korean BBQ buffet. The other two outlets at Peck Seah Street and Telok Ayer are offering ala carte items.

For $42++, the BBQ buffet is reasonably priced. It includes free flow of meat such as chicken, pork and beef. Each person can also order one free appetiser and for the whole table, a free stew of our choice.

If you visit Hyang Yeon on weekdays, there is a 10% discount off the buffet price. Since BBQ and drinks go well together, they also offer some attractive packages for their beer or soju bundles. The buffet includes one free drink per person, such as a canned drink (non-alcoholic), but if one person wants to order water, then everyone at the table would have the refillable water for the course of the meal.

The branch at Chinatown Point is quite spacious, and there can be huge tables of up to 10 pax to dine together. There is also a BBQ ventilation system at each table to remove the fumes and smoke while cooking. The food is also authentic and feels similar to the one we had in Korea.

First of all, there was a wide array of side dishes which are given free at any typical Korean restaurant. It includes onions, garlic and chilli, potato slices, kimchi, fish cake, anchovies, and dipping sauce for the meat.

For the appetisers, we ordered tteokbokki, jjapchae, seafood pancake and steamed egg to share. The jjapchae was nice with the chewy glass noodles, but slightly on the oily side. The tteokbokki (rice cakes in spicy sauce) were springy and the sauce was a good combination of sweet and spicy.

The steamed egg was fluffy and the egg on the sides of the pot had a slightly charred taste.

These were the kimchi pancake and seafood pancake. Instead of serving it in a round piece, it was cut into smaller pieces to make it easier to eat. The pancake was crispy on the sides and there was lots of spring onion, mixed with small prawns and squid in the seafood pancake.

For the both times that I had visited this Korean restaurant, my friends wanted to order the Army stew, which is a typical stew in Korea. It comes with ramen, cheese topping, kimchi, hotdog, luncheon meat, baked beans, mushrooms etc. Additional ramen for the dish would cost $4, but we did not add as there was more than enough carbohydrates on the table.

The beef sirloin is one of the premium meats, that each person is limited to one order. Other premium items on the list include scallops (2 pieces), galbi ribs, beef short ribs, marinated beef short ribs, spicy fried chicken, baby octopus, kurobuta pork collar etc. For a big group, it may not be advisable to order the scallops as there’s only two pieces, but the cheese topping on the scallops made it very cheesy and delicious. The other types of meat are good for sharing.

The restaurant uses two types of grill, one for the dry meat, such as thin sliced beef and kurobuta pork belly. After you are done with these two types of meat, the staff will change the grill for you, so that you can use a different grill for the marinated meat. The ensures that the meat does not get charred easily. The selection of marinated meat includes spicy pork belly, marinated pork collar, garlic, soy or spicy chicken. After having so many different kinds of meat, we were really full. We enjoyed the marinated meat more because of the richer taste. I was not a fan of the pork belly which has a lot of fats, I would have to painstakingly remove the fats and eat only the meat portion.

Overall, the BBQ buffet is value for money and we thought that the staff would adhere strictly to the 100 minutes timing and chase us away, but on both occasions, they did not. On Fridays and Saturdays, there are two sittings – 6pm and 8.15pm. This is to ensure that the first group would finish and they have time to clean up the table for the second sitting. Even though we exceeded the 100 minutes, but the staff were kind because there were not many people queuing outside and did not hurry us to finish up our meal. In the end, we were there from 6-8pm and ate to our heart’s content. The restaurant also charges $10 per 100g of food wastage, but I think this is not strictly enforced. Of course we should only order within our limits and not over-order, such that a full plate of meat has to be thrown away. For food safety and hygiene, they probably would not take back an unfinished plate of uncooked meat.