And I have been to SYNC Korean twice, now. The first visit was when my junior texted to meet, but with the conditions of meeting in Serangoon and in 30 minutes. Yah, so short notice right! Haha. So with my craving for Korean cuisine, my junior suggested SYNC Korea Tapas Bar. And SYNC reminds me of NSYNC. Haha.

A second visit was made, but more for me to try more dishes before I could post a proper review. (^^lll)

So yes, prior to my junior suggesting SNYC Korean, I had seen many people posting pictures from this Korean tapas bar. But because it was tapas, I wasn’t that keen in checking them out. I prefer my Korean food to be authentic Korean (like non-fusion) and in hearty portions.

Anyway…

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4), we ordered:-

1) Topokki, $9.90 (above) – Baked rice cakes in sweet & spicy sauce, smoked sausage, 3-cheese. I love Korean rice cakes. When I watch the Koreans eat these on their programs, especially the freshly made ones, a good rice cake could be seen as stretchy and chewy. Thus, I was interested to see how these fared at SYNC Korea, especially with my favorite ingredient cheese! And the rice cakes fared well. It was chewy with a consistent texture. One would be surprise but I had worse where it’s hard on outside. Cheese was mixed into the sauce to achieve a semi-fluid, semi-solid state. Pretty good, though a little salty due to the massive use of cheese.

2) Haemul pajeon, $9.90 (above) – Pan-fried crispy seafood & scallion pancake with soy dip. It was interesting that the pancake was pan-fried on both sides such that it was crispy on both faces, yet still moist and slightly chewy on the inside. This fared the best out of the 3 appetisers I tried on my 2 visits.

3) Dak-kangjung, $9.90 (above) – Deep-fried sweet & spicy chicken bites, ricotta, chili tempura. This was not nice. The sauce was clumpy which made the batter tasted thicker than it really was. We ended up scraping as much marinate as we could to better enjoy the chicken pieces. Which was a pity cause I managed to have a piece with less marinate, and it tasted better (if) served original.

4) Ssam, $40.90 (2 shares) (above) – Tender pork ribs, lettuce wrap, bun, cucumber pickles, ssam sauce. Ordered this as our main during my second visit. Meat was fork tender such that it came off nicely from the bones as I ‘knife-ed’ along the rib bones. However, my friend commented the meat was bland. That the flavour only came from the sauce. I on the other hand thought it was okie. But even for a fusion dish, I don’t see any Korean influence. This seemed to be a fusion of Western and Chinese instead.

5) Budae jigae, $42.90 (2-3 shares) (above) – Army stew of clams, shrimps, octopus, sausages, enoki, ramen, rice cakes. This was ordered on my first visit with my junior. We arrived on a wet, cold Saturday which meant it was the perfect weather for stew! =) Served in a big and shallow pot, this was good comfort food.

6) Misugaru, $8.90 (above) – Misugaru lava cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberries & lime compote. We ordered this on my first visit for the staff recommended it as their signature dessert. And this was pretty interesting. We were told misugaru was 12 grains. And probably with knowledge, I felt I was eating something healthy although it was sweet. You know… It being grains. =p But I thought the cake was a little dry on the exterior which was also pretty evident from the appearance. But consumed with the misugaru sauce, this was pretty good!

7) Popcorn mak gul li, $9.90 (above) – Mak gul li & infused popcorn caramel milk. Tasted like soy milk, but slightly thicker and creamier. But I was a little sad to see the cup half-filled after the foam died down.

Will I come back? Maybe not. I prefer my Korean to be very Korean food. Authenticness. No fusion for me, please. However, service was commendable. I have a habit of over ordering, and it was actually nice that the manager advised us against ordering too many. Had it not been for him, we probably would have ended up with lots of left over.