I have been a big fan of Korean food ever since my days studying overseas. That was the only thing closest to the spiciness you get at home and Korean food just has the right level of spiciness to wash away all the home-sickness.
So, when KS gang of friends decided to have the next gathering at a Korean restaurant, I was jumping with joy.
In the past (and current plus future), I had always visited one Korean restaurant chain - Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant. That has never disappointed me and has always been my recommendation (in particular, the headquarters @ Sri Hartamas is the best!)
So, how did we end up eating at Little Korea @ Sunway Mentari? Well, the majority wanted to try something different (life shouldn't be that boring, we have to be adventurous).
As we have a huge group, we were given a private room. The place is clean & the ambiance is very nice and comfortable. The only problem (maybe because we're inside a small room), it gets a bit stuffy after a while.
To make ordering a simple process, we just ordered a 8-10 pax BBQ set that has a kimchi hotpot, BBQ meat platter, jap chae, fried squid, fried octopus, kimchi pancake and seafood pancake. Also added, dolsot bibimbap, bulgogi and a lot more of soups (can't remember all, but there's one with seafood, another just tofu and one with meat).
On top of that, we have 8 types of refillable side dishes.
Initially, I still manage to keep track of when they served us (& hence, took pictures), but after a while, too many things came & we had no idea how to differentiate whether it is part of the side dishes or the mains or something else.
The very first dish is the kimchi hotpot. Sad to say, but this is the one of the two dishes worth coming back for. The kimchi taste is very strong & therefore, the soup is very nice to drink (but quite spicy). However, kimchi has quite an exquisite taste that not everyone's taste-buds can accept. So, this may not be the dish for you if kimchi is a no-no for you.
The next is the jap chae - fried glass noodle with seafood. This is quite nice, but not the best. I find it a bit dry as the noodles start to stick together very fast. So, it can be quite annoying when you want to take the noodle.
After this dish, everything became pretty much blur. To be honest, I don't even know what I'm putting into my mouth. That's what happens when you order too much & the staff did not even bother to introduce the dish when it was placed on the table.
Oh, maybe the bulgogi is worth mentioning (although barely had much of it as the guys swept through the whole pot until the very last drop). The sweetness of the sauce is just nice and the meat is not overcooked until tough. A perfect dish to go with rice.
Now, what is a Korean experience if there is no BBQ right in front of our eyes? Somehow, our BBQ meat platter was already cooked (& cut into pieces) when they serve it. So, without experiencing the BBQ process, it didn't feel very complete & not as fun anymore. We were all pretty disappointed.
Plus, the funny thing was, because all the meat tasted the same & no indication whatsoever when served, all of us had such a hard time deciding whether the meat is chicken, pork or beef. So, we were all playing guess-the-meat game.
We even ordered another plate of pork ribs marinated with house special sauce, hoping it will bring a different taste. But, the so-called house special marinate was not very outstanding after all.
The pancake are also not bad, especially the kimchi pancake. However, it is a bit lacking on the texture - a bit too thin to feel the pancake.
Desserts are the usual: watermelon & Korean sweet rice drink.
SUMMARY
Service: Fast response. Good thing about here is that they have a button for you to call them. They come to you within minutes. BUT, if you do not call them, they don't come. This means - tea is not refilled automatically and they don't check whether you need to refill the side dishes. Another con is that the staff do not speak English very well, so it was very hard to communicate to them what we want & what they have.
Food: Overall edible. A few hits & misses, but not such a bad experience. Somehow, dishes that involves kimchi tasted better, maybe that's their specialty? Would come back for the kimchi hotpot & bulgogi. In terms of side dishes, so-so as they didn't have my favourite ikan bilis.
Place to hang out with friends: Very good.
Note to point: Although this is a bit off-tangent, but their toilets are surprisingly very very clean & dry. So, this means that their overall cleanliness should be quite high.
Little Korea
28, Jalan PJS 8/18
Dataran Mentari Sunway
46159 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 603-56300848
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