Doong Ji Korean Restaurant

Really inconsistent restaurant. Kimchi jigae tastes like a watered down stock was used. One persons dish comes out but the other is way behind. If you’re desperate for Korean then this place might do in a pinch otherwise I would search and do find a location elsewhere.

Food was good just that the budae jigae had fishballs which was odd. One thing that was bad was that you have to pay for the water, and even when you want to refill the soup which isn’t the case for most korean restaurants that I visit.

1) No glass of water or cold Korean tea was not offered, even though requested.
2) I saw another customers was welcome to come in 9:28, even though the restaurant was open till 10. They were also told a kitchen is already closed.
3) a menu is very confusing for Korean food beginners and we ended up ordering something we didn’t want

I’ve been dining at this place a couple of times. The food is overall nice and prices are reasonable. They refuse to give tap water and make you buy bottled. Not a big deal for most people, but for me it’s a matter of principle, and one of the reasons I rarely ever go back. Be prepared to pay cash for bills below $ 30. Come early. Last order is at 9:30 and as couple of times we’ve been hassled to order quickly or finish our food quickly by staff.

My friends and I were looking for Korean after work by the Katong I12 mall since most of us live in the area. I found this place on hungrygowhere/yelp…most of the other places in the area were buffet bbqs and one of us is vegetarian. The place is about a 4 – 5 minute walk away from I12 and sits along side many other restaurants on East Coast Rd. The inside wasn’t big and no-​frills but looked clean with some cutesy/​philosophical bad English on the wall.
The experience was a bit tainted by our server in particular:
Two of us sat down first, since the rest of our party hadn’t arrived yet. We started ordering some appetizers and asked for some water, since we were pretty hungry. The odd thing is a mom and a kid came in after us, and they served them the Korean side dishes, but they didn’t bring us any side dishes (even after we ordered appetizers to start until the rest of our party got there) like they usually immediately do after you sit down at a Korean restaurant. Even though we asked for water, we were hoping that they would’ve automatically brought us a jug of tea water, which was clearly visible in their glass door fridge. Once we saw that the other table had some side dishes, we asked our young male waiter for some, and he just had this look of attitude like «fine, I’ll bring you your side dishes.» Throughout our meal, including the ordering process, he was not proactive at all and had a bit of attitude. It was like we were working for our service by asking for things a waiter should’ve proactively offered. The female waiters weren’t serving our table exactly, but they were a bit more proactive by moving some of our main dishes onto the next connected table, since we were running out of space (we ordered too much).
Overall, the food was middle of the road, and this is probably not going to be my default place for Korean in Katong (was hoping there’s a good Korean place in the neighborhood instead of just Tanjong Pagar). The price is pretty standard… not too pricey — we paid about $ 32/​person for 4 people. We ordered & shared the following:
vegetarian kimbap (satisfying)
potato pancakes (these were the best!)
beef bulgogi (ok)
spicy chicken bulgogi (order by friends and I didn’t try this)
japchae (pretty good)
budae jjigae (I think I’ve had better but this was a great sharing dish)
tofu soup (order by a friend and we all didn’t try this because we had too much food)
…side dishes weren’t like «yummy!» but still appreciated

Not authentic at all. The toppoki tasted bland and the bulgogi (BBQ beef) was watery. Seafood pancake was the best among all, though that was just mediocre. Overall it was very disappointing.

Solid authentic Korean Food. Worthwhile to go back.

It has been a long while since I last ate at a Korean restaurant. We got here on a weekend night and the place was absolutely packed; fortunately we made a reservation in advance so we managed to get a seat rather quickly.
The service here is pretty standard but good enough for me. First of all, we had a seafood hot pot which I felt was really delicious. The soup was sweet, not too spicy, and extremely flavorful. The ingredients inside included a nice big crab, shrimps, sotong, flour cakes and noodles. We also had the tofu pancakes, which was quite nice. But the other star of the show has got to be the ginseng chicken soup. The broth is probably one of the tastiest ones that I’ve had; you could just feel the goodness of the ginseng and the essence of the chicken flowing down your throat, and best of all, the soup is refillable!
Overall, this is an excellent place to enjoy high quality Korean food. Highly recommended!

Away from the usual clusters of korean joints in Tanjong Pagar, this restaurant is found along East Coast Road near the famed Chin Mee Chin Confectionery.
My friends and I often visit this place when we are in mood of korean food in the Katong area. The restaurant dished out homestyle korean food at a decent price with refillable the side dishes. One of my favorite is their Ginseng Chicken Soup which I never failed to order when I am there. There are many of the other must-​have there such as their bulgogi and kimchi pancake.
This restaurant has been growing in popularity and it can get very crowded. Do make reservation before you or expect a wait.