Pal Gae Ook • 팔계옥 — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

The first chicken only Kbbq (that’s not ttakkalbi) that I’ve seen in KL! Using chicken means Kbbq can be affordable for everyone and as long as you don’t overcook it, chicken is delicious over charcoal.

While the portions aren’t huge, because the banchan are unlimited, the pricing is IMO just right. The fact that the place is always packed means others agree too.

The chicken is slightly cooked in the kitchen before they bring it out (I suppose to cut cook times and reduce the risk of eating undercooked chicken), and they use thigh meat so the chicken is juicy after just a few minutes and flips on the grill. We tried the soy and salt and pepper versions which were less saucy and bring out the flavor of charcoal grilled chicken. Very tasty with kimchi and their other sauces.

I gave this place 4 stars because when I came home, my stomach was very wobbly (to save you the gory details), but I’m not sure if it’s because I ate too much kimchi or I undercooked the chicken or because of their hygiene issues. FYI there’s a lot of communal stuff (you serve yourself the refills of sauce and banchan), and of course there’s raw lettuce for ssam wraps. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this time though, and see how my 2nd time goes!

Anyway, I love simple concepts done well and PGO is a great example of that. I found out it’s run the same family as the excellent Shin Yangpyung down the street, so it has a solid lineage. If you can get a table it’s a fun and...

Wanted to eat at a nearby restaurant but there was a line. Surprisingly, there was no line at pal gae ook so we decided to switch venues. Queues are usually the other way around, must have been my lucky day.

Anyway, charcoal came out as soon as we sat and we placed our orders shortly after. Food arrived a short while later. Meat comes charred on the outside but raw inside, then they cook it slowly over the charcoal using the edges. Better mention to them if youre looking for a quick meal/super hungry. Cooking took some time. As the restaurant was still relatively quiet when we got there, we got the full attention of a waiter - Ah Phong or something like that. Nice guy, very helpful. Helped us replenish the kimchi so we didnt know it was self service until another waitress pointed it out the next round we asked.

Chicken was flavorful and very tender (likely due to the slow cooking). Rice balls were nice too, and the many condiments went well creating various flavours. Love their kimchi, think its aged? Tastes different than anything ive had.

Overall would recommend and would...

I’ve been searching for an authentic Korean-owned KBBQ restaurant in Malaysia that serves halal meat and I’m glad I found it here. They specialize in their charcoal chicken dakgalbi which was so tender and juicy. Best part is the friendly staff will do all the meat grilling for you and they’ll even cut the chicken parts up into bite sized pieces so you can sit down, relax and wait for your chicken to be cooked. The place is also very well ventilated so you won’t leave this place with your hair and clothes smelling like grilled meat, which I really appreciated. The portion sizes are very generous and honestly more than enough for 2 people that we ended up packing some food. This is everything we ordered: charcoal soy sauce chicken dakgalbi, spicy sauce boneless chicken neck, busan fish cake kimchi jjigae and rice balls. They also serve a variety of ban chan which are refillable, my favorite would be the radish kimchi and I loved dipping my meat into the...