What’s it all about…

This place…

…has been around for a while now, a couple of months or so and I saw all that excitement on Facebook like it would be THE place to go to if one is into anything Korean.

I did drop by once but it was packed to the brim and there were people standing outside waiting for a table plus there did not seem to be any proper queuing system, the survival of the fittest, so I went some place else. Since then, I did drive by a few times and yes, it was always packed with people. A friend said she tried three times and has not been successful and an ex-colleague went to another place close by, one that he did go to before and thought it was not all that nice and so very expensive and when I asked him why he went again, he said that this place was full so he went to that one instead.

For the uninitiated, it is in the block of shops (2.324042, 111.840378) along Jalan Teng Chin Hua,  opposite the Federal Complex…

…to the left of Sungai Merah and the so-called Lovers’ Bridge…

I would say that the place is nothing fancy…

– just like any other coffee shop with these laminated Korean pictures…

…downloaded from some websites online, obviously, as I have seen some of them somewhere before, on the walls. In fact, I do think there are quite a few coffee shops here that look a whole lot nicer.

I guess that is perfectly all right as long as the place is nice and clean…and the food is good but looking at the first pic, I do think the building needs a new coat of paint plus they should do something about the eyesore by the side of the building, right beside the shop…

Perhaps they were not responsible for that – I could see a sign that probably belonged to the Malay coffee shop that used to be there but I am sure it will just take a little effort to clear up the mess and throw everything away properly to make the surroundings more presentable…and more befitting the prices that they charge – we’ll come back to that later.

My girl, who just came back from Korea, said that she saw these stainless steel cups a lot there…

They use those for the complimentary drinking water at the eating places but no, here, they are used to hold the order chit and if you think you can get water free here, think again. You can get ice cream free though…

*Oh my!!! The English!!!*

When I went to pay our bill, the guy asked if I was with my family and I said yes. Then he told me I could go and help myself to the ice cream there – I did not ask whether that is something for people with families only or what but it was one of our local brands, King’s, not any of the Korean ones and my girl did not want any so we went without it…and anyway, I did not see an ice cream scoop anywhere!

These starters…

…were given free and I only liked the pickled golden needles…

The black beans were kind of hard but the ladies liked their kimchi, available at RM17.00 for 500 gm here. I guess everybody knows by now that I am no fan of the stuff and for that very reason, I did not really enjoy the kimchi jeon or pancake (RM12.00)…

…that we ordered. My vote would go to the haemul pajeon that we had at the other Korean places in town anytime but they do not seem to have that on their menu. There wasn’t much of anything in it other than a few bits, very few, of veg…

…from the kimchi used in the cooking, I guess, and for that, they charge RM12.00??? *roll eyes“

We wanted the bibimbab [SIC] (RM15.00)…

…which had a little bit of minced beef in it…

…and when everything had been mixed together, including the egg…

…it was quite nice, just that I do think we had nicer elsewhere and the price was only slightly more or perhaps, even cheaper, than here.

I saw a lot of people ordering these…

…but my girl did not want any as we already had rice in the bibimbab and she would like their goon-man-doo or deep fried dumplings (RM12.00)…

…instead. Now, THIS, I would give the thumbs up as they were quite nice especially with the dip that came with them.

A small bottle of mineral water was RM2.00, iced Korean green tea was RM3.00 and the Korean citron tea, also iced was RM5.00, bringing the overall total to a whooping RM49.00! I rest my case.

They did state in not very good English that the photos in their menu are for illustration purposes only…

…but I saw the girls at the next table having something like the middle one and the thin slices of meat they had in theirs were so very small, almost the size of a postage stamp. Goodness gracious me!

We got there at 11.00 a.m. around the same time as the couple to the right in the 4th photograph above and then the group of girls and the other couple with a kid came…just before the rain started to fall, VERY heavily but that did not stop the rest of the customers – they kept coming and in no time at all, it was full and that got me wondering as to what it was all about. Yes, the place is owned and run by a Korean family so probably what they dish out couldn’t be any less authentic though we could not get to see who was doing the cooking in the kitchen. Other than that, I really don’t know what the attraction is that keeps drawing the crowd to this place and it was by no means, cheap – not at all!