The last time we were on vacation was in Seoul during the autumn of 2019. It was a particularly memorable trip because one day after we landed, we came down with a bad case of the flu, and were horribly sick for most of our vacation.
One silver lining was the random discovery of a small and homely restaurant selling samgyetang (hangul: 삼계탕, hanja: 蔘鷄湯). It was just a block away from our hotel and run by a team of ajummas and halmonis.
We noticed it on our way back from the clinic, after securing a comforting stash of medication from a patient English-speaking Korean doctor. It was our first time seeing the doctors in Seoul, and we were quite impressed with the efficiency and affordability.
Given the cold weather and the terrible condition we were in, piping hot chicken soup in a dolsot stone pot was a perfect meal for us. The portions were generous, with big chunks of boiled chicken, fresh ginseng roots, hearty amounts of stuffed glutinous rice and even a whole abalone.
We ended up eating there twice and I’m sure the nourishing food played no small part in our eventual recovery. I just checked Google Maps, and I’m glad to see that Jangan Samgyetang (hangul: 장안삼계탕, hanja: 長安參雞湯) survived the pandemic and is still in operation.
To commemorate the three year anniversary of that experience, we wanted to find a decent samgyetang in Singapore. We weren’t necessarily looking for something fantastic, but given the significant and growing Korean community here, chances were good that it would be good.
The Wife looked around online and found a relatively low key restaurant that had good reviews for their samgyetang. Surprisingly, it wasn’t in the usual K-food enclaves of Tanjong Pagar or Upper Bukit Timah, but was located in Chinatown instead. So we made a trip there to check it out.
Jang Won is a K-BBQ joint at night, but they offer a decent selection of dishes in their value-for-money lunch combo sets. You can opt for just a main dish among their 12 options, or choose to add a side dish for a more filling meal.
There are six stews/soups available, including a half-chicken portion of their samgyetang. For our other main, we chose the pork rib hangover soup. We weren’t suffering from any hangover that day, but the soup has been featured in so many Korean shows that we had to give it a try.
Their side dishes all looked quite appetising and it took us some time to figure out what to order. We settled on the seafood pancake and stir-fried kimchi & pork to go along with our two soups.
If there’s one particular thing about Korean restaurants that we love, it’s their concept of banchan (hangul: 반찬, hanja: 飯饌). I’ve read that the number of side dishes served correspond to the sophistication of the meal, with royal cuisine offering 12 banchans.
Typical Korean eateries in Singapore only serve three, but Jang Won delivered six to our table even though we only ordered set lunches. While the specific items were not especially elaborate or expensive, I thought it was a good gesture from them.
The long beans and bean sprouts were average, but the cabbage and cucumber kimchis were of above-average quality. But the ones I really enjoyed were the soy-braised potatoes and the “junky” tomato sauce sausages.
Especially the latter, which triggered fond memories of what I used to have for lunch at my primary school canteen, way back when. Definitely not the healthiest of foods, but nothing that the metabolism of an active little kid can’t handle.
Both add-on side dishes we ordered were also jinjja mashisoyo.
The seafood pancake was chock full of ingredients and somehow managed to be soft and chewy inside while maintaining a firm and crispy crust. It’s not as easy to achieve this as it seems, with many places serving jeon that’s either too soft or too hard.
The stir-fried kimchi & pork was unlike any that we’ve had before. While the fermented sourness of the kimchi was clearly present, it was nicely rounded out with a rich and earthy spiciness.
My best guess is that the chef used some magical ratio of both gochujang and doenjang to achieve this delicious outcome. We’ll definitely order this again the next time we visit Jang Won.
Our two soups arrived back-to-back and bubbling hot in traditional dolsots. At first glance, the samgyetang looked quite sparse, ingredient-wise. But after digging up the the contents from the bottom of the stone pot, the portions were quite decent, especially given that it was a half-portion.
We weren’t expecting it to be as good as the one we had in Seoul, but it was still very good. The soup was cloyingly rich, but in a good way, and the chicken was tender and not at all overcooked. It was also good to see that they didn’t skimp on the ginseng root, and we each had pieces to chew on.
I did feel that there could have been more glutinous rice though, but perhaps some of the stuffing dropped out when the chicken was halved? But it was definitely good enough that we’d order a full portion next time.
The pork rib hangover soup, however, wasn’t quite to our liking. We were expecting it to be similar in taste to a kimchi jjigae, but it totally didn’t. The broth was thinner and less flavourful than we expected, especially for something that’s meant to cure hangovers.
Perhaps we’d have a totally different opinion if we had it after a boozy night out, but it didn’t work that day. The meat from the backbones were nice and tender though, but were a slight hassle to fish out.
Overall, the meal turned out to be much better than expected, especially the banchan and add-on side dishes. The samgyetang, which was the reason why we were there in the first place, exceeded our expectations, even though it’s primarily a BBQ restaurant.
When we’re next in the mood for some Korean BBQ, Jang Won will definitely be on our shortlist. Their other ala carte dishes are prominently displayed on their exterior wall, and judging by the quality of our lunch, I’m confident that they’ll be quite good as well.
And of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a life-sized cutout of the lovely IU at the door, encouraging you to come in for a bottle of Jinro Chamisul.
