Korean

On top of the combo chicken set, we also ordered their seafood pancake, which came in a large plate and sliced into 4 pieces. The amount of seafood was pretty generous; one can find small prawns, squid pieces and crab stick. There were also some spring onion and chili slices but the pancake was not spicy. Overall, it was fragrant and flavorful but a crispier version would have been desired. The pancake served here was rather soft (like omelette) as compared to those served at other restaurants where the exterior would offer a delightful crunch.

Located a short walk away from Maxwell Hawker Centre, Kko Kko Na Ra is a popular Korean fried chicken place that also serves a variety of alcohols, army stews and other Korean dishes.

As we wanted to try different flavors or their fried chicken, we order a combo set to share. A variety of chicken parts were given such as wings and also chunks with smaller bones (not very sure which part it was) but there was quite a lot of meat in each piece. The chicken pieces were fried to perfection that gave a delightful crunch to every bite. As the dining partner did not have a high tolerance for spice, she found the yangnyum flavored ones to be too spicy for her liking. That said, as the sauce is also slightly sweet, its spice level was actually pretty mild in my opinion. I would personally still prefer the original or soy flavored ones that aren’t that sweet though but it’s nice that the wet sauce did not cause the chicken pieces to be soggy. The insides of the chicken pieces also remained juicy but were not overly greasy. We liked that the restaurant offered free flow water and also a box of tissue for you to wipe your hands after you’re done enjoying your chicken.

Nestled along Tanjong Pagar Road, Red Holic is a short walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT. Visiting on a Saturday afternoon, the place was not overly crowded but the seats were quickly filled as we ate. The lady (presumably the boss) was really nice, offering chairs to customers for their bags.

We ordered a set of 2 pax tteokbokki, which came with a serving of instant noodles, glass noodles, a hard-boiled egg, 2 deep-fried dumplings, fish cakes, cabbage and rice cakes that came in different forms - long thin strands, thicker but shorter cuts, and some that had mozzarella or sweet potato fillings. While we initially told the lady boss we wanted level 3 spicy level, she was afraid that it’d be too spicy for us and suggested that we first opt for level 2. She gave us another serving of chili flakes in a saucer for us to add to the broth if we didn’t find level 2 spicy enough. (We didn’t use it though hahaha) She also shared that the chili sauce for the broth was imported from Korea and can’t be found here.

Having seen reviews online for this place, we were excited to add on the cheese fall (+$8.9), where molten mozzarella cheese was poured over our ingredients. The cheesiness went well with the sweet and spicy flavors of the broth.

While we did enjoy the ingredients, we somehow wish there were more items apart from the carbs. Perhaps it might be a good idea to get the pork cutlet, beef brisket or crispy chicken instead of the plain tteokbokki, but we were also afraid that the serving would be too large for the two of us. We couldn’t finish most of the tteokbokki because of how filling these dense rice cakes were. Maybe the portion size would be much better for 3 pax.

Take note that the place doesn’t provide complimentary water and mineral water is chargeable.