While it may seem like I haven’t had Korean cuisine in a while, I actually had. Just that whenever I had my bouts of craving, I satisfied it by grilling meat or cooking kimchi fried rice, ramen and even spicy rice cake (tteokbokki) at home. Although I really am trying my best to eat less processed noodles. But when I craved for more complicated dishes, that’s when I had to eat out. And the latest Korean restaurant on my radar was Hyang Yeon Korean.

And because the menu offered at Hyang Yeon was really extensive, I went back thrice to try sufficient dishes before I penned my objective review. And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), we ordered:-

1) Side dishes, Complimentary (above)

2) Kimchi pancake, $16 (medium) (above)

3) Tteokbokki, $18 (+$3.50, noodles) (above) – Spicy ricecake. My girlfriend loves her noodles, so it was a must when she saw the add-on option. However, I didn’t like the noodles cause it bloated really fast and it robbed my spicy rice cakes of the sauce. I like my rice cakes with lots of sauce, you see. But it was nice that fishcakes and hard boiled egg were added to the dish for variety of ingredients.

4) Seafood soft tofu stew, $16 (above)

5) Stir-fried cheese spicy chicken, $33 (above) – In terms of spiciness, one could choose between normal, spicy and crazy. I naturally coaxed everyone to choose normal since I can’t take spicy food too well. But even with the lowest spiciness level, this was spicy! I had the meat with lots of cheese to tone done the spiciness. Haha. But sadly, I didn’t really enjoy this because the cheese didn’t stay molten for long.

6) Korean herb bossam, $40 (above) – Pork belly braised in Hyang Yeon’s special sauce and Korean herbs, served with special kimchi.

7) Andong jjim dak, $45 (above) – Braised chicken in spicy soy sauce.

8) Jjampong, $20 (above) – Spicy seafood noodles. Didn’t like the (brand of) noodles used.

9) Jjajangmyeon, $18 (above) – Black bean noodles. And the same (brand of) noodles in the spicy seafood noodle (item 8) was used for this. Didn’t like it. Had better ones.

  

10) Jjampong stew, $45 (above) – Korean style spicy soup with seafood and whole octopus. This came in a big pot on an induction stove. And shortly after this was served, the staff returned to cut the octopus into smaller pieces. These, together with the (cooked) prawns were transferred into a separate bowl to prevent overcooking.

The reason why I didn’t go for my fourth re-visit to Hyang Yeon wasn’t just because I felt I tried sufficient dishes from their extensive menu to give an objective review. But rather, the third visit confirmed my stand that the cooking at Hyang Yeon didn’t really fit my taste.

To clarify… The food was acceptable. But rather, it’s down to the details. Example, their noodles dish was an absolutely no for me because I didn’t like the brand of noodles used and also because most of the broth contained beef. As for my favourite dish steamed pork belly (item 6), I prefer the white over the black version. Having tried 9 dishes, my only favourite was the braised chicken in soy sauce (item 7).

But you know… Taste is subjective. What works for me, might not for someone else. Similarly, what I don’t like might be someone’s favourite.

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