Hansang Korean Charcoal Barbecue (Holland Village)

This is where the old Sushi Tei used to be, and the charcoal barbeque part was what attracted us to pick that place. We arrived on a Friday evening to see the place packed almost to its brim, which we hoped was a good sign.

The seatings are split into 2 level: ground floor and 2nd floor. The first floor is where they have a bar seating too, and upstairs are where all the barbeque happens, plus private rooms available.

We were seated on the 2nd level - the tables are thankfully not placed elbow to elbow. BUT oh my, the smoke is crazy. You can see and smell the barbeque anywhere you sit as the place is not equipped with even 1 of those thingy that sucks up the smoke instead of letting them drift all over (are they called smoke inhalers?).

Bimbimbob ($18) - (dont know why its spelled this way) we decided to each order a main instead of the bbq after all. This is what I always order at a Korean place and was keen to see if there was any difference in how an authentic korean restaurant does it. Not too much difference I must admit although the stonepot was piping hot and created the burnt bits of rice I've always had a fetish for. It was served with the sauce on the side and soup which was cabbage I think.

Side dishes (complimentary) - The sides dishes were nice but not wow. We had ikan bilis, boiled veg tossed with sesame oil, lotus root chips, radishes, kimchi etc. Any of them is refillable and there'll be new ones if any of the above runs out.

Raspberry wine ($28) - We tried something similar at Bibigo (Raffles City) once but this is not as nice, a bit too acidic for me.

While the good was average, the service is seriously amusing. It was almost non existent if you end up sitting at one of the corner tables like us - and it almost felt like they were trained to not see waving hands. Requests for more of the side dishes had to be repeated several times to different staff, and our order of dumplings were forgotten. We waited very long for the wine and decided to ask what is happening to it - then it came soon after that.

But when the bill came, they had charged us for the dumplings which never came, and 2 bottles of the wine. We brought this up to one staff who seemed to be hesitant, then the bill was brought to another staff, we saw them discussing it, and the staff who took over the bill looked at us suspiciously before turning to the cashier to take off the items we never had.

I'll not come back. While food is nothing to complain about, having to deal with the experience is not okay for me.

(sorry for the blurred pics - must be all that smoke)