Lunch at Um Yong Baek @ 27 Boon Tat Street

What birthday girl wants, birthday girl gets. Um Yong Baek seemed to be the trendy place to dine at, somewhat. Rumors of long queues seemed true from the recent experience. The two outlets; Telok Ayer and Boon Tat Street are pretty close to each other.

Telok Ayer outlet

before the shop opens

One should go online on the day of visit, and get a queue number. Thanks to Tiara, we were lucky to be placed in the first batch of diners to go in once the shop opens at 11am. Perhaps that was because we visited on a weekday.

At approximately, 10:45am, Tiara received an email notification that our table at Boon Tat Street outlet is ready. We headed over on foot as we were around the Telok Ayer area. Reached by 10:55am but the shop didn't open its door till about 11.10am. 

queue at Boon Tat Street outlet

queuing instruction and opening times

The staff will ask the patron to display the email notification of the table number and will check that all parties in the group are present before being let into the restaurant.

 

tables nearer to the entrance

We were led to the inner section of the restaurant where there were more tables available. The traditional types at the outer section near the entrance gives the cosy aesthetics but it does take up more space in the shop.

As all tables seemed to be meant for 4 pax, so we shared it with another patron whom is dining solo.

open kitchen view

The tables have been setup with the side dishes, flask of water prior to the guests arrival. 

pickled green chilies and vege stem

onions/chives kimchi

kimchi

bean paste, sliced green chilies and sliced garlic

water, self-service

salted shrimps

salt

Um Yong Baek offers dwaeji gukbap 돼지국밥 (Pork & Rice Soup) for lunch and there's two types; Busan style Daejigukbap and the Milyang style Daejigukbap. For dinner, its menu offers BBQ aged pork and makguksu (buckwheat noodle).

Ok, so we ordered the pork and rice soup, one each. Best of both worlds!

(top) Busan style Daejigukbap and (bottom) Milyang style Daejigukbap

Was happy with the generous amount of meat in the standard bowl and the meat is of quality. Tried the soup for both and the Busan style broth has a more pronounced porky flavour while the Milyang style broth is richer but less pronounced porky taste. 

Busan style Daejigukbap @$21

large piece of pork slice

Usual practice is, one can add the salted shrimp, or salt, or the bean paste to enhance the flavour of the broth. Recommend not to add all at once but one and a little bit at a time, to see which one you like more. My favourite was the bean paste as it changes the profile of the soup quite a bit.

Milyang style Daejigukbap @$21

beautiful layers

Perfect for cold weather, and it was quite filling at the end of the meal. It was enjoyable to match the spoonful of rice, some soup and a piece of kimchi. One could inform the staff to refill any of the side dish. We had another round of kimchi because we enjoyed the crunchy texture, and the juicy-ness of the kimchi here.

To my lunch companion Tiara, thank you for your company and Happy Birthday!

Um Yong Baek

Address: 27 Boon Tat St, #01, Singapore 069623

Website: https://umyongbaeksgeng.creatorlink.net/

Contact: +6588435968

Business Hours: 

Closed on Sun.

Mon-Sat: 11 AM–3:30 PM, 5:30–10 PM

[Busan] Nampo Seolleongtang 남포설렁탕

Was here in the morning for breakfast. Just wanted something soupy, comforting and seolleongtang (ox bone soup) sounds about right. Moreover, haven't tried a proper one yet and this shall be my first!

shop front

There's actually another shop that sells the same thing but we opted for this one as the other shop have not started their business yet. 

interior

The staff are friendly and welcoming although they are not conversant in English but there's no issue in communication since the menu has pictures and we could confirm our order via a smattering of Korean.

One could choose to order whether you want the ox tendon, or lean meat, or mixture of meat and tendons etc. There's also a sampler set which our table accidentally ordered, in case you would like to try all the available cuts at one go. This was presented beautifully but not the regular bowl that you might be wanting.

ban chan

sampler set

Staff was kind enough to let us know whether the items that we ordered came with rice or not. The sampler set actually didn't come with rice and so we ordered one but subsequently, Ivan ordered another regular soup set (which came with rice) and the staff kindly asked us if we wanted the additional rice and they helped us to cancel the extra rice order since the later order of the set came with complimentary rice. Kudos to the staff who showed her care for the customer in this manner. 감사합니다!

yummy

meat dumplings

We placed additional order for meat dumplings (galbi mandu) and these were good!

glass noodles

As usual, the ox tail soup came with some glass noodles and I particularly liked the egg strips in it. The soup was served piping hot and tasted delicious.

The meat was tender and not funky. Just wished the bowl had more meat.

The most expensive item that we ordered was the sampler (₩18000) and the regular ox bone soup bowls were about ₩12000 to ₩13000.

Nampo Seolleongtang 남포설렁탕 

Address: 5 Gudeok-ro 34beon-gil, Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea

Contact: +82512552263

Business Hours: Daily 24 hours

[Busan] The Premium 삼환축산 남포점 Samhwan Livestock Nampo Branch

This was a random find near our hotel and we went there twice for dinner! Friendly staff, and reasonably priced BBQ.

shopfront

menu with pricing

We were seated fairly quickly in the bustling restaurant. 

grill ready

There's a minimum order as per any other BBQ restaurants where the first meat cut must be of minimally 500gms and subsequent ones can be at less. For 4 of us, there's no issue in polishing off 500gms. I noticed that they will serve the portions that are less than 500 gms first.

side dishes (self-serve)

The shop has a section where the side dishes, BBQ condiments, and leafy greens and diners could just help themselves with those.

boneless galbi

gently placed on grill

let it cook

On our first visit, the boss would come to our table and to grill the meats for us. On Day 2, they did come by to observe but left the grilling to ourselves. Maybe our grilling skills had met their expected standards? Hahaha!

The shop seemed to be managed by a couple (or siblings, not sure) and both are friendly.

I liked it when the ordered meats don't come all at once. We would finish grilling the served cut and then the next one would appear.

thin skirt

let's eat!

I think we ate about 250 gms of meat per pax on each of our visit.

beef

pork belly

change of grill

After grilling the beef cuts, the staff came over to change our grill top before the pork belly arrives.

pair the meats with copious amount of vege

let's cut it up

getting there

pork belly, bite size

Second visit

The second time was just the next day, haha! Not sure if the boss recognized us but I would like to think that she did.

beef

pork neck

On second visit, we were only in a group of 3 as one of our buddy had stomach problems. Nevertheless, we still did at least 700 gms in total.

pork

enjoy~

The meats were well presented, natural tasting and the shop provides all sorts of condiments for us to enjoy with the meats. My favourite item to take from the refrigerated area (ban chan section) was the peach or orange. It was our dessert. Keke.

Enjoyable and definitely deserves to be recommended if you have cravings for BBQ. Go for the premium cuts as the price was reasonable.

Thank you to the bosses for coming to chat with us on our first visit. She even gave me a small Kelly beer glass as farewell gift. 감사합니다!

삼환축산 남포점 Samhwan Livestock Nampo Branch

Address: 7-1 Nampo-dong 3(sam)-ga, Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea

Contact: +82512487583

Business Hours:

Daily: 12–11 pm