Lunch at Seoul Garden Hotpot @ Paya Lebar Square

60 Paya Lebar Road #01-05 / 06 Paya Lebar Square, Singapore 409051

Tel: 6341 6077

Website: http://seoulgardenhotpot.com.sg

Lunch is a food hunt at times, but others, it is simply a matter of convenience. We stumbled into Seoul Garden Hotpot @ Paya Lebar simply because it was empty at that point in time, and ended up enjoying a rather delightful lunch. There is no need to introduce home-grown brand Seoul Garden, which, with its famous BBQ buffet concept a decade back, has branched out into several different concepts, Hotpot being one of them.

The restaurant's decor was simple but efficient, and staff were politely hospitable.

We started with a lovely Wolfberry & Dates Tea - piping hot, aromatic and sweetened the palate in preparation for the food later.

Starters comprised of Sauteed Clams, Radish Slices and Spinach. I enjoyed the tiny, springy clams paired with mildly sweet radish slices alot.  I was hoping they'd serve Kimchi and tofu cubes too though, being a Korean restaurant.

We shared a Seafood Pancake (SGD$8.90) - thick in appearance but fluffy in texture, studded with plump prawns, squid and spring onions, making for a tasty first course for us.

Seafood Japchae (SGD$11.90) was served first - Korean stir-fried seafood glass noodles. The dish looked a little lackluster but tasted pretty good surprisingly. Bouncy noodles were infused with prawns' sweetness; the prawns could be fresher though.

Finally, Premium Seafood Hotpot (SGD$14.80 for medium / SGD$16.90 for large), with choice of Miso or Kimchi Jjigae soup base - I chose the latter.  The deliciously spicy soup was stuffed to the brim with enoki mushroom, clams, squid, prawns, beancurd cubes and vegetables, filling the soul with content.

Overall dining experience here was pleasantly good; for this session we had mostly seafood dishes I realized. We did return another time for a farewell lunch, enjoying some non-seafood dishes, but didn't manage to take photos.  This is a pretty neat place for lunch, really - comfortable settings away from the heat, rather efficient service and hearty food at wallet-friendly prices.