Are you someone who loves to watch ‘Suspicious Partner’ and ‘Fight For My Way’, know what ‘Oppa’ means, and dances to the tune of ‘Spring Day’ from BTS? Well, then there’s little doubt that you’ve been bitten by the K-bug. The best cure for that is to indulge your craze by embracing everything Korean, including its food.
Gangnam88 has been operating for around five years in Malaysia, serving authentic Korean food to its customers. What splits them apart from other Korean restaurants is their concept of selling merchandise in the restaurant – like caps – which reminds us of Bubba Gump or Hard Rock Café.
The interior of Gangnam88 Sunway Giza
Gangnam88 sells Korean merchandise
For this review, we tried one of the largest sets, the Gold Set (RM238), which is recommended for up to 6 individuals. This set comes with a large plate of Cheese Rolled Omelet, two medium-sized bowls of soup (one kimchi and one ginseng chicken), a large plate of mixed BBQ meat (3 types), a large bowl of Honey Butter Chicken, and a large pot of Cheese Squid Rabbokgi. Naturally, just like the restaurants in Korea, we were also served a multitude of side dishes, including the obligatory kimchi. Let’s dig in!
The Gold Set can easily feed up to 6 individuals!
The Omelet serves as a very pleasant starter. The cheese melts in your mouth and adds a mild saltiness to the dish, which serves to whet your appetite even more. We wonder how do they achieve such a fluffy, light texture without too much grease?
Cheese Rolled Omelet. The sauce reads 88 Gangnam in Korean.
Cheese Squid Rabbokgi. Look at all the cheesy goodness!
The Rabbokgi is best described as something similar to steamboat. Fried squid and clams are served in a kimchi-like broth, topped with grated cheese. Again, the mix of sour and saltiness will definitely improve your appetite!
Our favourite Honey Butter Chicken
The meat dishes include the Honey Butter Chicken and their proud bestseller, the mixed BBQ meat. The chicken is fried before dipped in honey and butter. Without a doubt, it was our favourite – the crunchy, buttery taste simply makes it delicious and incredibly addictive. The mixed BBQ is a mixture of sweet, sour and salty meats that go well with any of the side dishes. We were informed that the taste has been tweaked to be more flavourful to suit the Malaysian palette.
The mixed BBQ meats have been tweaked to suit the taste of Malaysians.
While sampling the different meat dishes, it’s best to take a little pause to quench your thirst, which is what the two bowls of soup is for. There’s little need to explain what kimchi soup tastes like (it’s somewhat like tomato, but a little more herb-y if you must know) so let’s move on to the ginseng chicken soup. It’s refreshing, and somewhat surprising due to the lack of ‘earthy’ taste that ginseng is known for.
Rita Soju – a very refreshing combo!
As a special treat, we were also given the Rita Soju, which is a Margarita that uses Soju instead of Tequila. There are different flavoured Soju to choose from, but the one we had was the citrus Soju, which was highly refreshing after a heavy meal.
The next time you crave for Korean food, head over to Gangnam88 for a really authentic experience. With five outlets spreaded out across Klang Valley, Malacca, Penang and Johor Bahru, you are guaranteed to feel satiated – we did!