Gum Gang Won is a quaint and intimate family restaurant that purports to serve authentic Korean cuisine. Unlike its advertised image, the food presented more as a fusion, with subtle Chinese undertones. Yet, as the whole, the many dishes were largely flavorful and left my company of 4 extremely satisfied.
For Korean BBQ, we ordered the beef short ribs and beef bulgogi. Though the serving size was rather small (approx. 100g), the slices of beef short rib were fatty and flavorful...and when coupled with the specialty sauce plus wrapped in a lettuce leaf, it sure brought me back to my travels in Korea! The beef bulgogi was tasty, but unspectacular.
Next, we had jap chae, seafood pancake and long beans with pork belly! The seafood pancake was slightly lacking in its seafood filling, but the other two dishes more than made up for it!
The service is fantastic; hats off especially to the middle-aged waitress (whom I would like to believe is related to the owner in some way). Upon seeing that the spread we ordered lacked drinks, she took it upon herself to provide us with complimentary barley tea. Furthermore, despite running back and forth between tables, she ensured that our side dishes were always refilled and our beef well cooked!
My only gripe would be that servers are fairly pushy when promoting certain dishes, and that no complimentary water is provided. But such is the norm when it comes to the cutthroat industry of Korean F&B in Singapore. Would definitely recommend this place to small groups that enjoy chilling with the familiar taste of home-cooked Korean food!