Popular Seoul K-BBQ concept Keum Eun Don now in Singapore serving up quality grilled meats at Hillview

Beyond K-dramas, Singaporeans also love digging into K-cuisine — as you could probably already guess from the dozens of Korean restaurants in Tanjong Pagar, our island’s K-Town.

But head west and you’ll also discover another K-enclave of sorts around Upper Bukit Timah Road, perhaps owing to the presence of the Singapore Korean International School nearby.

Keum Eun Don is the newest concept to join the growing number of Korean restaurants in the area, having opened barely two weeks ago at HillV2 mall, a stone’s throw from Hillview MRT station. 

It first began in Yongsan, Seoul in April 2021, and subsequently opened a second outlet in Gangnam in 2023. 

Keum Eun Don’s maiden Yongsan store is right next to Korean entertainment company Hybe’s headquarters, so it’s not uncommon to spot groups from the label, such as boyband Enhypen, dining there.

While its Singapore outlet may not boast the same clientele, Keum Eun Don Singapore is still worth a trip, for its decadent, thick-cut proteins and unique slate of not-commonly-seen dishes. 

Then there’s also the spacious, contemporary-yet-traditional wood-finished interior coupled with overhead lamps decked in intricate Korean fabric, all of which present a stark contrast to the often-cramped and dimly lit K-BBQ spots closer to the heart of town. 

Keum Eun Don is open for lunch and dinner, but if it’s your first-ever visit, we’d recommend coming for lunch to try the jjokgalbi kimchijim (braised kimchi pork, S$22 per diner for a lunch set, minimum two to order). This is a Korean dish we’ve yet to see elsewhere in Singapore.

It’s essentially like a kimchi jjim, or braised kimchi dish, where well-fermented kimchi is layered with fatty pork cuts — often belly — and simmered with a small amount of water and kimchi brine. 

The main difference is this dish uses jjokgalbi, or pork spare ribs, cut and served individually, which might be more palatable to those who avoid fattier cuts of pork. 

The result? A lusciously thick stew, brimming with sweetness from the spare ribs, but less oily and cloying. 

The only downside is that the jjokgalbi kimchijim is available at lunch only, and for dining parties of two or more. That said, it is a generously sized portion for its price, especially since it comes with rice and side dishes, too.

If you’re dining solo, then its other lunch sets, such as the ones with char-grilled bulgogi (from S$26), which come with a protein and one stew, might appeal to you more. 

Known as “bassak bulgogi” in Korean, this dish sees marinated quality meats (pork or beef, depending on your preference) flattened, grilled over charcoal, and flame-torched for a seared finish. 

Unlike most bulgogi dishes you might be used to, bassak bulgogi is crisped-up, and comes as a patty (“bassak” means dry or crispy in Korean). 

Served with a choice of any of its three lunchtime stews — kimchi, soft tofu, or soybean paste stew — the char-grilled lunch set is easily one of Keum Eun Don’s most value-for-money options, at less than S$30 for a table full of dishes. 

If you prefer just the stews, they go for S$16 for a lunch set, with rice and side dishes. 

Beyond its value-for-money lunches, Keum Eun Don Singapore serves up Korean barbecue sets, too, with various permutations of pork, beef, or a little bit of both. 

Unlike many other Korean barbecue restaurants in Singapore, which shy away from grilled meats at midday, you can also have K-BBQ meats during lunch at Keum Eun Don, as add-ons to your set meals.

Whatever time you opt to go down, you’d do well to gun for any of its titular sets — Keum (S$189 for four diners), Eun (S$145 for up to three diners), Don ($119 for two diners) — which come with varying servings of its prime beef short ribs, pork belly, and pork collar, with a stew and drinks. The top-priced Keum set comes with pork jowl, too. 

We dug into the Eun set, which came with a serving of each of the above-mentioned meats, one stew, and one drink. Every cut was so impeccably flavourful and tender.

The winning cut, however, had to be the prime beef short ribs or woodae galbi (S$82 a la carte) — a Singapore-exclusive, as its Seoul outlets focus mainly on pork. 

With most of the grilling done in the kitchen, it means you get to finish it to your exact-desired doneness tableside. It’s the best of both worlds, we think, considering you don’t need to do the heavy lifting, but still get the joy of having the meat hot off the grill. 

Keum Eun Don’s meats are mostly well-seasoned and high quality cuts (a mix of Duroc and iberico for its pork), so they need little to no sauces, but if you want condiments, the restaurant has plenty.

Its barbecued meats are served with several sauces, which include wasabi salt, red-wine salt, salted hairtail-fish sauce (galchi-jeot), mayo-ssamjang, and a sweet-tangy chilli sauce, on top of the usual ssamjang. (Ssamjang is used in reference to dipping sauces.)

While most diners so far seem to gravitate towards the mayo-ssamjang, I found myself relishing the refreshing chilli sauce. It’s perhaps the Singaporean in me that loves a liquidy chilli sauce that you can douse your proteins in, just as you would in chicken rice.

All things considered, I’m not sure if it’s the well-designed, spacious (read: well-ventilated) surroundings, or the fact that the cooking you have to do at your table is kept to a minimum, but dining at Keum Eun Don feels like K-BBQ on easy, fuss-free mode, compared to its other counterparts. 

You get the same flavours, same joy of still grilling the meats on your own, but none of that crazy smoky smells that permeate your hair and clothes, or oil splatters. 

Of course, its quality meats, plethora of sauces, unique stews, and friendly servers (which includes a cute oppa) add to the experience, too. 

Would all of these be enough for me as an eastie to travel across Singapore for, though? It’s hard to say, considering the sheer number of good-quality options available in town, too. 

But if it’s any consolation to anyone who also struggles with the distance, we hear the folks behind Keum Eun Don may expand its outlets beyond the west of Singapore, depending on the eventual reception to its first local outlet.

In the meantime, if you want to grab a seat, you can DM the team on its Instagram for reservations, else you might risk having to wait in line, especially if you come for dinner on the weekends. 

This was a hosted tasting.

For more new spots in Singapore that are offshoots of popular Korean concepts, check out Obongzip at Tanjong Pagar, and Gwanghwamun Mijin at Telok Ayer.