Kim's So Korean Food Centrum — Restaurant in Amsterdam

For our third anniversary, my girlfriend and I decided to go for some good ol' Korean food. We heard from a friend that she liked this place, so we decided to follow up on that and check it out for ourselves. And boy, did this place not disappoint!

Starting with the place itself - it's small. Some might even find it a bit cramped. However, I experienced a cozy vibe that's reminiscent of small street food joints. It's this sort of communal feeling where everyone is close together and just enjoying the food. So while the interior might not be suitable for everyone, I absolutely loved it.

Second, the food. We went for gimbap and cold noodles for starters. We definitely didn't expect such a large bowl of cold noodles, but hey, the price is very good for such a big serving. So we scarfed it down like no tomorrow and it was absolutely delicious. Cold noodles will hit the spot especially on a hot day, so I can recommend that one. The gimbap were also large, but still bite-sized, which made them easy to eat. The mix of tastes was nice, too.

After letting the food digest a bit, we ordered a pot of Korean style bulgogi, which was prepared on the spot by one of the waiters. The meat had a nice blend of spices, to a point where the taste of the meat itself still came through well. I was a bit worried by the portion size after the large bowl of cold noodles, but my worries were alleviated once I saw that the portion of bulgogi wasn't too large. So down the hatch it went. We had all of this food with a peach-flavored rice wine. I swear, I can drink that stuff like lemonade, it's that good.

We finished off with bingsu for dessert. After all the food we'd already had, the waiter was very attentive in asking us if we were sure we wanted to order two portions of bingsu due to the size of the dessert. We decided to follow their advice and just stick with one. It was not too sweet and the fruit enhanced the freshness with some flavor. All in all, the food was a great experience that already has us wanting to come back for more.

Lastly, I have to give a shout-out to the staff. The waiter who served our table gave clear instructions at the start, prepared the bulgogi very well and efficiently, and was kind enough to make sure we didn't eat too much when it seemed like we might. Staff was very attentive and kind, and clearly take their work seriously. You were all very welcoming, thank you!

Overall, I'd say this is a 10/10 experience that I want to come back to at some point. As for everyone else - if you love Korean food, you'd do yourself a disservice by skipping over this place if you're ever in Amsterdam. Your stomach will thank you for it, trust me...

As someone who often spends time in South Korea, I was really craving Korean food. So my friends and I decided to come here. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. The reviews were so high, but the food didn’t even come close to authentic Korean cuisine.

We ordered several dishes:

Tteokbokki (떡볶이) The tteok was chewy, but the flavor was really off. I don’t understand why there was garlic in it. It didn’t taste anything like authentic tteokbokki, which is one of the simplest Korean dishes to make.

Japchae (잡채) The moment I saw it had a reddish tint, I was already skeptical before even tasting it. I don’t get why there was a spicy sauce in it. The glass noodles had a nice chewy texture, but again, it didn’t taste like authentic japchae at all another simple dish that should be hard to mess up.

Mandu (만두) The chicken mandu in garlic sauce was actually pretty good. Not something I’ve had before, but I did enjoy it. It was quite greasy, though, because they added a lot of oil and fresh garlic.

Kimchi Fried Rice (김치볶음밥) I’m not sure how you can mess up kimchi fried rice, but somehow they did. The rice didn’t seem fresh it looked like it had been reheated. The flavor was also really off, which is surprising for such a basic dish.

Fried Chicken This was also very disappointing. Don’t get me wrong the chicken itself was juicy on the inside, and the portion was generous. But the sauce just didn’t work. The honey mustard sauce was a strange combination and didn’t taste right. Also, the chicken wasn’t very crispy; some parts were even soggy. The sweet and spicy sauce was okay definitely better than the honey mustard, but still not great. I’ve had much better Korean fried chicken in Amsterdam, so this didn’t hit the mark.

Cheeseballs I didn’t try them myself, but my friends said the outer dough tasted a bit old. Overall, they said it was just okay.

This was a one-time visit for me. It doesn’t seem like the restaurant is run by a Korean owner, or that the chef really understands authentic Korean food. Maybe the dishes are enjoyable for people who’ve never had real Korean cuisine, but if you’re used to the real thing, this will probably leave you...

I am happy we came here today, we were going to eat noodles but the restaurant was close for today so we found this place instead, wonderful experience because the food was super tasty and the prices were reasonable for Amsterdam, since is common to see here very expensive food which is not as tasty (bland, dry, small portions) so I really recommend if you want to have a nice night out.

We came without reservation (they ask us if we had one), and we got a table but the place got very quickly full through our meal, so probably if you are large group you should make one because you may not be as lucky.

We had an small tray as courtesy side dishes, the kimchi and rice we ordered separated, fluffy rice, kimchi super tasty (not to spicy, not to sour) and soft but crunchy, small portion but is € 1

Green mustard Chicken tasted very good, nice flavour, not greazy, I will definitely have fried chicken again. I love it. Pork belly dish also super flavoured.

We were two people, in the end was quite to much so we took a small container home as take away, I think if we will have order the smaller chicken (250gr I think) instead of the 400gr we will have finish the pork belly.

Toilet was missing the liquid to clean the sit and they run out of paper towels to dry the hands, that was the only thing that I could say negative about it but it did not bother me.

Definitely coming back 🤍🍚🇰🇷

Update, this review I posted 5 months ago and since then I have come back 3-4 times more with different friends, I still like this place a lot, nice food, fair price, I wouldn’t say the service is always a 5 star check, but overall they are very attentive, and I understand the job of a waiter can be hard so nothing significant have happen to me to change my selection, also I think I have been lucky because is a place you should really make a reservation, they are very so often busy and pack, I have never made one and go feeling lucky and have manage to be there during gaps where me and my friends don’t mind to eat in an hour and then go, but I strongly advice to you guys to make a reservation and don’t...