Sagye Korean Pot Rice and BBQ — Restaurant in Singapore

Food arrived pretty quickly because they took our orders when it was close to our turn.

At the entrance, QR code scanning to receive a queue number is mandatory since they don't take reservations. Fortunately, I arrived early in the dinner rush and waited about 20 minutes for a table for two after 6:40 pm on a Wednesday. Here's what we had:

SIDES 🥗 The complimentary sides were a bit scanty, but there was a good variety of 4 dishes. Sharing seaweed soup is given for the pot rice too!

🥚 Steam Egg ($10): This was actually one of my favourite items here. The steam eggs were huge and fluffy, every mouthful was savoury and warm with aerated eggs. Topped with flying fish roe and some aromatic condiments, this hot stone warm side dish is a must-order for sharing! I rate it 4.5/5🌟

🌽 Sweet Corn Cheese ($12): This simple dish uses canned corn, cheese, mayo, and sugar but it was highly addictive and definitely a kid’s palate favourite. Portion size is rather small, but the cheese crust on the iron plate really was quite the treat. I rate it 3/5 🌟

POT RICE You can choose between White Japanese Rice or Five Grain rice, with the option to add $3 for gingko nuts and sweet potatoes.

🐙 Webfoot Octopus with Aster Leaves Pot Rice ($27.80 ++): Stir-fried Webfoot octopuses are bite-sized and coated heavily with Korean chilli paste that is thick and well-marinated. Aster leaves provide a herby scent along with the spring onions as well. Mixing it with the mixed grain rice, it was a combination of moist, flavourful rice. I rate it 4/5 🌟

🐔 Spicy Chicken with Cheese ($23.90++): Lightly stir-fried spicy chicken lacked char and was very moist from the marinade topped with melty mozzarella cheese from the heat. The cheese pull was very satisfying and every mouthful mixed with the rice was cheesy and savoury. Mildly spicy in my opinion. I rate it 3.8/5 🌟

The main attraction was the pot rice, which looked really good and tasted decent. However, it was a bit too salty because the soy sauce mixture instructed to pour in the pot was umami-based soy sauce with chilli and chives mixture which made the rice very wet and too savoury since the main dish itself already had heavily seasoned ingredients. So it turned mushy, which might not be appreciated by everyone. 😢

The unique selling point was when you could pour hot barley tea upon request into the pot to scrape the rice crust out. However, the hot barley tea was lukewarm, which lost its appeal to me... The result was rather bland and perhaps would lean closer to a palate cleanser to wash the heavy dish down. It was like salty water in my bowl... and the barley tea was not hot which made it far from being porridge-like.

Verdict: 🫤 I think I'm open to eating this again, just not if my waiting time was more than 30 minutes, and I would skip adding the hot barley tea to my rice pot. And I don't think it's worth all the hype for queue that are over an hour... it's really just a steel pot bibimbap if...

TDLR: The food was good, but the service was bad.

Saturday lunch at 1pm, party of 2 dining, queue was not too long with only 2 other groups ahead of us. We got banchan on the table and a complimentary soup with our meals. The waitress missed one drink during ordering, but it was quickly corrected by another waiter.

Mid-way through our meal, one waitress snatched away one of the banchan (broccoli side dish) suddenly without informing us. Then a few minutes later, slammed down another plate of the same banchan without a word. We were confused but didn't say anything.

After that, the first waitress asked us if we had any feedback on the service or any problem with the food. We said we had no issues with the food and did not ask for any exchange of dishes. She asked if there was any reason why we didn't take that particular broccoli banchan. We didn't have any particular reason not to, and I did actually have some, but we were concentrating on having the soup, then the meal came, so we didn't pay much attention to the banchan after that. She seemed upset(?), but I think it's quite natural that not all banchan will be equally popular.

This store's specialty is supposed to be pot rice, after which you are supposed to ask for tea to make nurungi with the leftover burnt rice at the bottom of the pot. There's even special instructions on the table telling you how to do it. But when we asked for the tea to make nurungi, no one served us. We waited a while, but since we were getting full anyway, we just left it. At this point, the restaurant was already half empty, so I don't think the staff were very busy.

When we went to pay, the waitress charged us first without asking to check the bill. When she did ask us to check the bill, the second drink (the one she missed during ordering) was left out. She and the drink serving waiter bickered in front of us at the cashier, before charging us a second time just...

Personally think it’s overrated and not worth the wait after finally get to try it the first time.

Came there on Sunday at 11.15am (2pax), got a q number with 2 groups ahead of us. Thought our turn will be pretty soon, but cant be more mistaken. Waited half an hour or so, got an sms notification that our table was ready. Approached the front staff who then asked us to order first. After that, the wait continued for another 15 mins before the table was finally ready. Ban chan and soup were readily served on the table. Our orders (2 set of pot rice) came 5 to 10 mins after.

Food overall was ok, felt it’s quite a comfort food with quality ingredients. But truth be told, it was not as spectacular as how it is hyped in social media. Service, however, is orientated to make quick turnover. One of the server guy came by offering to pour tea into the pot, to which we declined as we were still having the meat and rice. A couple of minutes later he came back and poured the tea without asking. Thanks to him i got to try how premium grilled beef soaked in tea taste like😒. Not long after that another staff came to check if all of our orders were out and placed the bill on the table. 5 mins after that the front staff came by asking us to make payment while pointing at the crowd outside hinting us to quickly make way for new customers. Tho they hv 1 hr dine in policy for the pot rice, we only got less than 40 mins from the moment we were seated to the bill payment.

U came to such a highly rated place that comes with premium price, waited for almost an hour for the table. U expect the food and service will be able to justify that. Unfortunately, this place is not. Came once and...