Arirang Korean Restaurant, Liang Seah Street

Unusual how we were led to this restaurant (1 Liang Seah Street, #01-07/08 Liang Seah Place, tel : +65 6333 0025). We were looking for a place to eat where we could pay by card because we had run out of cash. Coming in from Beach Road and hungry, this happened to be one of the first places that we came across that looked decent and with the recent Korean food craze we were in, it looked like it was a good idea.

We were quite glad that we gave it a chance despite the initial apprehension I had after seeing the crazy crowd seated indoors for their all you can eat "Korean" BBQ buffet.

We started off with a plate of japchae (sounding suspiciously like a Nonya chap chye) which was a large portion for something that came from the appetizer section. I was initially worried from the first mouthful that the sweet flavour of the vermicelli would become overwhelming like the jajangmyeon experience previously, but the taste actually grew on me. The sweetness were relatively mild and the play of textures between the chewy glass noodles and mix of vegetables were enjoyable. Will definitely put this under a re-order consideration.

The spicy seafood soup here put the one at Crystal Jade Ginseng Chicken to shame. It was a notch spicier. In the unassuming pot of orange broth beneath the vegetables and tofu, were 4 large prawns, mussels, fish and squid. In spite of being slightly overcooked, the natural sweetness of the prawns came through. This soup was a daily special of the week and the setback for it was an affordable $10. Considering that it came with rice and refills of banchan, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

What took us by surprise for the spicy beef soup was the beefiness in the broth which we had assumed would be subdued by the spiciness. Again, another interesting bunch of textures coming from the meat, sprouts, spring onions, egg and vermicelli. The fact that there wasn't really that much beef in them didn't even matter.

I think I'm willing to overlook the mediocre banchan and come back again.