Hyang Yeon Korean Restaurant Review: $12 Lunch Set With Bibimbap And Grilled Meat At Chinatown Point

Hyang Yeon Korean Restaurant has one of the best deals around, with a full lunch set costing just $12++ . The one we visited at Chinatown Point focuses on KBBQ , but had a free-flow salad bar and the same lunch set meal as the original branch at Telok Ayer .

Food at Hyang Yeon Korean Restaurant The DIY Lunch ($12++) was the main draw. The first main course is either soup or bibimbap, and the second is a hot plate of grilled meat. It’s quite a huge spread for $12, and the degree of customisation is impressive.

For the first set meal, we got the Kimchi Jjigae and Bulgogi beef, with white cabbage kimchi on the side. Moving on to the rest of the meal—the kimchi stew was rich and brimming with elements.

The ratio of soup to ingredients ranges around 4:6, and there are far more solid components to the dish. The sizzling hot plate of beef was tender and had streaks of chewy fat, with the marinade giving a natural soy sweetness.

Since we already had a whole bowl of rich and tasty kimchi stew, we picked the savoury-sweet meat to get a respite from the spice. Add the soup to the mix, and I was ready to lapse into a food coma by the time I was done. The next set of items we got were the Bibimbap and Jaeyuk Bokkeum , Grilled and marinated pork, with a side of kkaktugi, as well known as radish kimchi.

As the earthenware bowl of bibimbap was set down in front of us, we could still hear the hot stone sizzling. It was freshly cooked, and all that was left to do was mix the ingredients up and coat everything in a generous layer of gochujang sauce. I liked tossing the pieces of meat into the bibimbap so that the fatty and unctuous notes gave some richness to the rice and veggies.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend trying the bibimbap set meal, with one of the spicy meat options included. For the last set meal, we got a bowl of Deonjang Jjigae — or soybean paste soup—and Chicken BBQ meat.

It was a lot lighter and smoother than the spicy kimchi stew that we had. The general ingredients in this one were the same, with veggies, tofu, and golden mushrooms.

We decided to visit the latter since it had the free-flow salad and all the same dishes.