I'm not really a fan of Korean food, but my foodie friend insisted that we visit a Korean restaurant and try out something Korean for a change. She was excited. In fact, due to her excitement, she had already listed down all the possible Korean restaurants to go to. She was, of course, looking for one with a name that starts with an "S" and it was pretty difficult. Sorabol was our first choice, but since we can't locate it, we resorted to Shin Dang Dong instead.

It wasn't a bad choice at all, actually. The place is a bit small, but it has a very happy ambiance. At last, I've seen a place that's really happy unlike all the other supposedly happy places, which do not turn out to be happy. 

The restaurant looks like a huge collage of photos. There are plenty of pictures posted side-by-side on almost every part of the store's interior walls. These photos are, interestingly, of their customers. Talk about them having a souvenir instead of their diners. Haha! And, yes, the waiters also took a photo of me and my friend, so I would not be so surprised to see our photograph posted there as well in the next couple of weeks. =)


Teokbokki (P 590.00)

      
For this meal, we only tried the Teokbokki, which came with a pitcher of Iced Tea, some Kimchi, and a bowl of their house soup. It was a really interesting dish, freshly prepared in front of us by the waiter. I did some research and I found out that this dish is a popular snack in Korea.

    

There were actually a lot of stuff in the Teokbokki. Apart from the noodles, there were also some veggies and Korean dumplings.

     

There's also some cheese in there. 

   

It's like a mix of everything.
 
Anyway, this dish is really HOT! I mean, really spicy and hot! There's an option to make it less spicy but even if this was already the "light hot" version (the least spicy one), it's still too spicy. Coupled with it being freshly-cooked and piping hot, this was a little hard to eat. Good thing there's iced tea to douse our burning tongues with or else we would have breathed fire right after our very first spoonful!

   

Nonetheless, albeit being hot, it was okay. I really loved the rice cakes and fish cakes in the soup. They're so yummy. The serving was also big. It can easily be shared by at least four people. The only down side is that it can get cloying eventually when you've eaten too much. 

  

Kimchi (Free)

   

The free Kimchi was okay, but I wouldn't say that it's the best I've tried. 

  

Free Soup

  

But the soup was not edible. It had a really weird taste. 

  

Overall, the meal we had here was very happy. The waiters were also friendly. It wasn't the best restaurant we've eaten at, but at least we had an enjoyable and filling meal here. The food was almost impossible for the two of us to consume. Next time, we're going to have to take with us some back-up. =)

FINAL SCORES

Ambiance - 3/5

Food - 4/5

Service - 4/5

Value - 5/5

TOTAL - 4/5  

Shin Dang Dong Korean Restaurant

(02) 728 0506

A. Venue Mall, Makati Avenue
Poblacion, Makati City, Metro Manila

Posted in: kimchi,korean,korean restaurant,restaurant review,shin dang dong,teokbakki