꼬꼬나라 (Kko Kko Nara)

I tried out a few new Korean restaurants these two months. Here's one I visited with my friends for a birthday gathering last month near Tanjong Pagar.

꼬꼬나라 (Kko Kko Nara)

The restaurant name was 꼬꼬나라 (Kko Kko Nara) - I assume it's a play of words? Cos Nara means country, and I think "kko kko" is the clucking sound made by chickens. Okaay. Interesting name. Let's see how the food fared.

There were six of us that night, so we ordered quite a fair share of food to share. The ban chans (side dishes) were not served until we requested for it (and we had to do so several times before it came). I count that as strike one for service.

Strike two was probably bias-ness. I count having only three side ban chans as strike two. I mean, most Korean restaurants spoil us with at least six to nine ban chans, so yeah, I could just be biased.

Pickles; Kimchi pancake

I'm not a big fan of their kimchi pancake - the texture was doughy and chewy, I prefer pancakes to be crispy and yeah, well, crispy.

The place was known for their fried chicken, so of course we ordered a mixed platter to share. The platter had three kinds of fried chicken - original, soy garlic and sweet and sour. I think I liked the sweet and sour the best, followed by the soy garlic, then the original. It was good, but not the best I've ever had in Singapore. The award to the best Korean fried chicken goes to a restaurant I've frequented quite a bit, but have yet to blog about. It's been a while since my last visit there, perhaps I'll go there soon and take more photos to blog about the place. ;)

We also had the spicy octopus and the kimchi stew. The octopus dish was delicious as it was really spicy (I love spicy food). It might be tongue-numbing for some though, so be sure to down loads of water if you order this. The soup was a bit bland for my liking.

After all the above food, we discovered that we did not try the key fried chicken dish. I'm talking about the hot and spicy fried chicken. We unanimously agreed to order that (even though we were all stuffed by then). And OMG. It was frickin' spicy. One of my girlfriend, who had a low tolerance for spicy food, took a bite or two, and started tearing crazily. So yeah. Be warned.

In summary, the food here was average. The prices were a little steep than what I'm used to, and the service was quite slow. The place seems to be quite authentic and I saw a few Korean customers in the shop when we visited. No harm trying the food here if you're looking for a new Korean restaurant. If not, there's always other better Korean restaurants out there.