Shinmapo Korean BBQ, The Gardens Mall, KL

Shinmapo, Korea's No.1 BBQ Restaurant has finally opened its doors in The Gardens Mall last week. Shinmapo has over 500 outlets worldwide, across 11 countries - this outlet in The Gardens Mall is their second outlet in Malaysia, with the first located in SS15 Courtyard.

After anticipating its opening for so long, we were super excited to be invited to their media preview last weekend. Browsing through their menu, we concluded that their prices were fair and similar to other Korean BBQ restaurants around town.

You can choose from their a la carte items, which includes pork, chicken, seafood, side dishes, and Wagyu beef. They also do a few non-BBQ items such as rice, spicy buckwheat noodles, bibimbap, sundubu jjigae, and kimchi jjigae. Other than that, diners can also choose from their Signature BBQ Set which comes with various types of meat, and side dishes. For example, the Signature Set A (for 1-2 pax) is priced at RM88 while Signature Set B (for 2-4 pax) is priced at RM118; both sets come with pork skirt, pork belly, pork collar, mix grilled platter as well as army stew, refillable side dishes, and signature kimchi egg crust. As someone who regularly visits Korean BBQs, I would say that the sets are pretty good value for money.

Menu

For the media preview, we got to try the pork belly, pork neck, pork skirt, pork collar, marinated chicken, signature kimchi egg crust, army stew, kimchi pancake, cheese pot and spicy pork belly. They actually offered us more food such as the spicy meat set and volcano fried rice, but we were too stuffed so we had to decline.

After we were seated, the staff brought over 3 types of side dishes (ban chan) as well as 2 salads and lettuce, as well as the condiments for the BBQ (gochujang, sesame oil, and soy chilli). I liked the salad with the spicy dressing and kimchi best. Hubby loved the kimchi seafood pancake (pajeon), with squid and prawns. We also enjoyed the army stew (budae jjigae), which is brought to the boil tableside - very appetizing and delicious.

Army stew

And now for the highlight of the meal - the BBQ meats. At Shinmapo, the meats are cooked on a charcoal grill at your table. The staff starts off by making the signature kimchi egg crust, whereby chopped up kimchi is dotted around the circular pan and egg mixture is poured in. Once the egg is cooked through, she cuts it into a few chunks and it's ready to enjoy!

Meanwhile, she cooks the meat, starting with the original pork belly (RM31), cheese sausage (RM15) and pineapple (RM10). Here, the original pork belly is served as a thick slab, grilled and then cut into smaller bite-sized pieces and neatly arranged at the side for us to enjoy. Loved this a lot! Pineapple is one of the best fruits to put on the grill, sweet and caramelised - yums!

Next up were the original pork skirt meat, marinated pork collar and marinated chicken. Pork skirt (galmaegisal - RM27) is one of the signature premium meats at Shinmapo - apparently there is only 200g of this cut in every full grown pig. Tender and juicy, this cut is definitely worth trying. The pork collar (moksal - RM29) which has been marinated in a sweet-salty sauce, was flavorful and tender. To our surprise, even the marinated chicken was tasty (RM28).

One of our favorite cuts here was the pork neck (RM27). The grilled meat had a tender yet lovely bite to it - so good that it went straight into my mouth as soon as it came off the grill.

We also had the enoki bacon bouquet (RM20) as well as the spicy pork belly (RM31). As opposed to the original pork belly, the spicy version comes in thin strips - as it is marinated, the marinade would burn quicker hence thinner cuts are used to cut down on the cooking time. The spicy marinade was pretty good, though I do prefer the original version better. Shinmapo also offers cheese pot (RM25), whereby you can add grated cheese into the smaller holes on the pan and dip your meats into it once the cheese has melted. OMG so sinful!

We definitely enjoyed our Korean BBQ experience here at Shinmapo, and we especially liked the pork skirt, original pork belly and pork neck. The Unc is coming back soon for his holidays, and we've already made a date to come to Shinmapo for a delicious Korean BBQ meal. Can't wait! :)

Check out the video on YouTube 

Opening times: Mon-Sun 11am to 11pm.

Location: Shinmapo Korean BBQ Restaurant, 3rd Floor, Lot T-216D, The Gardens Mall, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: +60 3 2201 3252

Website: https://www.facebook.com/shinmapomy/

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