There’s something defiantly old school about Blue Garden’s black-and-white tiled floor, whitewashed walls and wooden screens of green forest-like murals, but the display tanks of live seafood – including sole and oysters from Jeju Island – snap you right back to present day seafood-obsessed Singapore. There’s nothing upscale about the setting, but the well-thought out Korean menu – including barbecue seafood and meats, fried chicken, and kimchi pancakes – are priced towards the higher end of the dining set.
That said, the portions are generous. The hoedeopbap, a fresh toss of salad leaves crowned with flat fish sashimi, was served in a gargantuan bowl with rice and a fiery gochujang (hot pepper paste) sauce. Similarly, bibimbap, the classic hot stone pot, brimmed with rice beef, mushrooms and vegetables, was tossed with the same piquant sauce.
The barbecue sliced beef belly and pork belly also got our two thumbs up, as much for the melt-in-the-mouth slivers of meat as for the stacks of tongue-searing side dishes of kimchi and glass noodles tossed with chillies. But the crowning glory was a platter of perfectly fried chicken wings on sticks that were drizzled with a light and sweet soya sauce – they were so succulently juicy we’d be back at the drop of a hat. Eve C
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