Taste Myeongdong at Orchard: New Korean food hall where you can get K-street food & more

Orchard is home to plenty of food options, but a Korean food-only food hall? That’s probably a first. 

Taste Myeongdong is the newest addition to the Taste Orchard building, located a short walk from Somerset MRT station.

The concept is simple. It’s a food court, but make it entirely Korean — from food, to drinks and even dessert. 

What sets it apart from the many Korean restaurants in its vicinity then? 

For one, its variety: Taste Myeongdong is home to seven Korean concepts, most of which we understand are new ones. Besides Gamtan Express, an offshoot of the original Gamtan restaurant at Telok Ayer, and Breaders, an established Korean egg tart brand, that is. 

Fun fact: We understand that the owners of Gamtan are also behind this unique food hall concept. 

The concepts and its signature items are:

• O’Bok Bibimbap — Bibimbap bowls 
• Red Cup — Korean-style fried chicken in convenient snack cups 
• Sindang Bul Dakbal — Spicy chicken feet (or “bul dakbal” in Korean)
• Hoho Noodles — All things noodles, including kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) 
• Gamtan Express — Rice bowls and a chicken tower 
• Myung Dong Pocha — Korean alcohol and bar bites
• Breaders — Cold Korean egg custard tarts 

For now, even though each concept has its own individual storefront, the food hall seems to operate from a single ordering and collection point. This bodes well for you if you intend to order many different items. (Though the separate storefronts were a tad puzzling.)

It isn’t a bad thing, though —- the jazzed-up storefronts were a welcome backdrop for the concept’s authentic Korean vibes. 

In line with its name, Taste Myeongdong, there were “Myeongdong” signs around the place, reminiscent of the ones you’d find on the Seoul subway system.

The seating, too, were just like the ones you’d find in Seoul, down to the shiny round tables and the black seats, complete with hidden storage underneath for your bags. 

Aside from its meticulously curated Korean aesthetic, its price points are equally charming — at a glance, its cheapest mains cost S$5.90 and would net you either a pork belly bowl, Gamtan curry rice or a cup tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes). 

Lunch sets at Taste Myeongdong start from a very reasonable S$10.50 for a Gamtan pork belly (medium) and a mini Janchi noodle bowl. 

Among all the stalls and concepts, the ones that caught our attention were the street food items, the handcut noodle concept, as well as the cold Korean egg tarts. 

In particular, Korean street food isn’t as common in Singapore, as compared to K-BBQ spots, which are dime a dozen. 

Its options for street food (or “bunsik” as it is commonly referred to in Korean) are basic, but adequate — there’s tteokbokki, fried fritters, and several gimbap varieties. 

The prices of Taste Myeongdong’s various gimbap (from S$9.90) are also relatively on par with its nearest gimbap spot — Oni Kimbap, just a few steps away. 

Taste-wise, it’s fairly authentic — it could have come out of a little mom-and-pop shop in Seoul, though it would have been nice to see more varieties, such as cheese gimbap. 

Its other elements — the tteokbokki and the fried fritters — also fair decently, though the coating on the fried fritters felt a tad too thick for some of its items. 

Given Singaporeans’ penchant for noodles (just look at how nearly every other food court or kopitiam has a ban mian stall), it’s a good sign that the knife-cut noodles from Hoho Noodles are as all reliable noodle spots should be —- comforting, hearty and affordable.

We opted for the seafood kalguksu (S$11.90) and liked how there was a balanced ratio of seafood, to noodles, to soup. The noodles were also well-cooked and went down easily. 

With the sheer amount of carbs we’d already consumed on this occasion, we couldn’t quite fit in more. But while we were there at lunchtime, many tables had opted for rice bowls — a promising sign about its quality. 

Also, if our good experience at the OG Gamtan outlet was also anything to go by, we’re sure the meat and rice items dished out by its Express version at Taste Myeongdong won’t fall too far from the proverbial tree.

What we did have space for, though, were its much-raved-about cold egg tarts from Breaders. Tarts start from S$3.60 for basic signature egg tart, and go up till S$4.90 for a pecan walnut. 

As someone who loves both warm Portuguese egg tarts and cold basque burnt cheesecakes, the Breader tarts tasted like a welcome cross between both. 

The only caveat is that the tarts have to be very cold to enjoy it at its best, so we’d recommend getting them to-go, to store them in your fridge first before digging in.

We’d also suggest getting the original, plainer ones, since the stronger-flavoured ones, such as chocolate, taste more of chocolate than of egg. 

Overall, Taste Myeongdong’s affordable offerings — a mish-mash of familiar Korean favourites you might already be used to, mixed with some less-often-seen items — are a good choice to have, given the pricey nature of food in Orchard. 

While we’ve yet to fully explore its Korean alcohol offerings and bar bites, its lower prices are plenty tempting — it’s a food hall, so there’s no GST and service charges.  We’d be sure to keep this in mind, especially when we’re next in need of an affordably priced alcohol spot in town!

This was an invited tasting. 

For the latest eats, check out our review on Belimbing, a new sister outlet of the popular The Coconut Club, or save our list of places for free-flow alcohol in Singapore.

Taste Myeongdong is on the GrabFood delivery service and offers free delivery (up to S$3 off) with GrabUnlimited. 

Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.

Book a ride to Taste Myeongdong for a taste of Korea right in Singapore.