Seoul Garden Hotpot - for your korean food cravings

I am sure Seoul Garden is not foreign to many of us. I remember patronizing them since poly days as it's a good halal buffet dining option for long meals and never-ending chit chats. A Seoul Garden Hotpot outlet recently opened in Bedok Mall and I finally got to try it. They serve a myraid options of Korean food from japchae to army stew to desserts! 

They have quite a number of set meal options which makes it more worthwhile. But on that day I craved for specific dishes and decided on beef bibimbap, army stew with beef slices, japchae and yuzu chiller drink. I am not sure why I become so "beefy" nowadays. With most Korean style restaurant, free flow marinated sides and kimchi are available. This one requires you to self-service and take them from the corner. I tried the spicy and sour cabbage, which is nicely appetising. The kimchi taste okay, but also a little weird at the same time. The sides-corner is not really well kept and gave off a slightly messy feeling.
 

The japchae arrived first in a nicely designed ceramic plate. This small portion costs about $8 but it is the most delicious among the 3 dishes ordered. The noodles is tasty, QQ and not too oily. I like that it comes with a good amount of seafood. I would definitely have the bigger portion one next time (at about $13) for a fuller meal.
 

The army stew came in a hotpot, accompanied by a small bowl of pre-cooked ramen noodles (possibly only half of a packet). The soup base was too thick to start with, as compared to other army stews that are lighter tasting at the beginning. As a result, the flavour of the soup is too rich, which is not ideal. The noodles that came with it was also way too soft before we even put it inside the hotpot. Most places allow us to put the raw noodles in ourself for cooking so that we can "customise" the firmness of the noodles. But the small size of the hotpot might be the reason why it cannot really accomodate cooking food.

My main dish; the piping hot beef bibimbap. One big mistake we made again is to order bibimbap with beef. We have come to the conclusion that beef doesn't go well in bibimbap. The taste of beef is too strong and overwhelms the taste of the other ingredients. The choice of chicken would have been better! My word of advise for bibimbap; always choose stonebowl so that the rice maintains its hotness throughout.

Well, this restaurant is not a place I will patronise often. For the japchae though, I will. :P