Gamtan Korean Cuisine at Telok Ayer serves up decadent King galbi and sotbap

Korean barbecue spots are aplenty in the Tanjong Pagar, Telok Ayer and Amoy areas, but a K-BBQ spot that serves up the trending Korean pot rice (sotbap)? Probably not as common.

Gamtan Korean Cuisine opened along Telok Ayer Street, right opposite Telok Ayer MRT, in late 2024 and has been quietly,y but steadily, gaining fans for its unique use of the King galbi cut and for its hearty sotbaps.

If you’ve never heard of King galbi before, it’s a prized USDA prime rib cut (so prized that every cow apparently yields only  six of such pieces), that is loved for its excellent marbling and tenderness. 

While still a short rib-cut, it differs from the usual short ribs you get in Korean barbecue — these are known as LA galbi — in that a King galbi is sliced away from the bone, while regular LA galbi is sliced across the bone.

As a result, you get a cleaner cut, sans bone, and with more juicy meat, too! 

If we’ve whetted your appetite, then you must know that Gamtan is said to be the only restaurant serving this premium cut in Singapore, so far, and it serves just 20 pieces a day, across both lunch and dinner services.

Gamtan Korean Cuisine’s menu

Gamtan prices its King galbi at S$54 for 250g, but you must have a minimum of two diners to enjoy this. The galbi here is marinated in a housemade concoction of high-quality ingredients for no less than six hours, resulting in a savoury, sweet finish. 

If you’re already down to enjoy the King galbi, then you might as well go all-in and try its King’s Delight (S$148), a set menu for two to three diners. It comes with two portions of King’s galbi (a total of 500g), beef tartare, naengmyun, and soybean stew. 

There’s a bigger portioned set menu The King’s Feast (S$228) with the same works, except that it has an additional bone galbi (500g) to feed three to four diners. 

If you’re craving for some sotbap, its options start from S$23.80 for a mushroom sotbap, up to S$34.80 for a decadent steak sotbap.

We got to try the domi sotbap (S$32.80), which featured a firm, yet flaky fillet of fish on top of a flavourful rice (when the sauces are mixed in) with plenty of embellishments. 

Admittedly, while it is one of the few restaurants in Singapore serving this dish, but as with several other spots in Singapore, there weren’t any crispy scorched rice bits at the bottom, just a burnt base — and so, my quest to find a well-done sotbap in Singapore still goes on. 

That said, it does its speciality King galbi well and there’s little to complain about there.

With its use of a sweet marinade, it’s easy to end up burning the meat, but its staff kept a close eye on our food and what we got were smoky, well-cooked and tender morsels which we mopped up quickly. 

Other side dishes we absolutely loved included the truffle gamjajun (S$25), a crispy potato pancake with a hint of truffle, which we learnt you can also order as a half-portion, and the beef tartare (S$28), of the same grade of beef as the King galbi. 

We’d save this spot for the next time we’re feeling spendy and craving Korean barbecue. After all, if you’re going to spend on Korean barbecue in Singapore, why not eat like a king? 

This was an invited tasting.

For more new Korean spots and menus around town, check out Gu:um’s weekend steak brunch, as well as the new French-Korean bakery spot at Bukit Pasoh. 

You can also book a ride to the restaurant at Telok Ayer.