Last month I did my first review on Your Woul when I met up with SY for dinner. It was a rather nice experience so 2 nights ago I went again with Belle. Novena is a good place for meet ups coz it’s centralized and the more important point is – it’s not crowded. Belle was super early so she got seated inside first. I reached at about 615pm and the restaurant was empty. I noticed that the restaurant looked much brighter and newer so think some renovation was done.
I knew Belle (and her hubby Kelvin) since year 2000, when I was studying in Temasek Polytechnic (Legal Studies). Somehow I got myself a part-time job at Outback Steakhouse and got to know them there. Both Kelvin and Belle were full-time staff (if I remember correctly) and I worked there on weekday evenings and weekends.
It was my first ever F&B job (before that I was doing part time at the $1.99 shop at White Sands Shopping Mall at Pasir Ris – wonder if it’s still there?) and it opened a totally new world for me. It was there I learnt about giving sincere service, learnt about going that extra mile, learnt about cleanliness and hygiene in food handling, learnt about teamwork in frequently intense situations. Belle and I were among the pioneer batch at Outback Steakhouse – we were given intensive training the American way by Outback Steakhouse staff who flew all the way to Singapore from the States.
Well, it was also there that I started my ‘night life’, where Belle and Kelvin know too many of my embarrassing moments. So we started yakking away about the past and present (we have not met up since… Feb!), after ordering 4 items and 1 Makkoli at Yourwoul.
First time seeing Makkoli served in a pot with a ladle. Usually it’s in a golden kettle. 🙂
I was not paying much attention when the makkoli was served. When I saw the froth, I went “eh is this a different kind of Makkoli?” She replied “I shake the bottle.” LOL. Makkoli looks nice with all the froth! I LIKE. Still taste the same – thick and sweet!
As we were the only table, everything got served really quickly. I really like their banchan – it’s not the very common types.
I like the black beans and the brown crispy stuff on the top right. I think it’s deep fried lotus roots in batter.
I ordered kimchi pancake, hoping that this would taste better than the seafood pancake I had with Shiyun last month.
Verdict – on its own, it was quite bland, like the seafood pancake. =_= we had to dip it into the sauce to make it taste good. We had to ask for a refill of the sauce coz it wasn’t enough.
I dunno.. are pancakes supposed to be bland on its own? Did the chef forget to add salt??
I have tasted such Korean style pancakes before (chives pancake/ seafood pancake) at other restaurants in Singapore and they were tasty. Yourwoul’s renditions seem strange, is it that a certain area in Korea do up such styles? *bewildered*
We also ordered stir fried cuttle fish, in a spicy sweet sauce. Very good (but not to the extent of WOW though), the cuttle fish pieces were fresh and tender. Goes super well with makkoli hahaha.
Belle decided to try their bean paste soup. She has had this soup at other restaurants (cannot remember the names now) and after tasting this one at Yourwoul, she decided that this was the worst version. Not spicy at all, and very very mediocre in my opinion.
Our last item was Egg Roe Rice, it’s like a Bibimbap where you mix up stuff in the rice, just that the ingredients in this dish are a lot of fish roe, pickles, seaweed. Sounds yum!
So the waitress helped us stir it up nicely.
How it looked after stirring profusely. I liked it a lot, there were charred bits of rice that made it all the more fragrant. It would be perfect if they were more generous with the egg roe… 🙂
These 4 items were JUST NICE for the 2 of us. We finished up everything cleanly hahaha.
However after this second visit, I found the food quality AND service a bit lacking. I’ve given my comments on the food in the above paragraphs (which aren’t really great comments if you realize), now on to the service. There was nothing wrong with the service 2 nights ago, but there was a drastic difference between the 2 visits.
Not sure why, but the same lady who served me on both occasions appeared to be in a not-so-good mood 2 nights ago. I also could tell from her behavior that she wasn’t too happy about me asking for a refill of beansprouts and the pancake dip.
Whereas during the first visit, she was super friendly and chatty. Talked about MERS, talked about the juice drinks that we ordered etc, very smiley and obliging.
But having said all that about the difference in service, I really like the fact that the restaurant was a great place to catch up with friends. It was a quiet weekday night, so we literally had the restaurant all to ourselves (a couple of native Koreans came in at 7 plus but they sat at the other end). There was soft music playing in the background so it was such a comfortable environment to chit chat slowly, unlike many other Korean restaurants with huge TV screens and loud blaring music. We were not in a rush to give up our seats to anyone else, we could speak comfortably and laugh away, we were literally in our own little bubble.
So yes, I will still go back for dinners and catch ups. 🙂 perhaps I should try their recommended army stew (according to social media) after all… and not everything else?
We left the restaurant slightly after 8 and headed to United Square because Belle wanted to eat Llao Llao froyo. She insisted that I must try… and so I did.
U probably cannot tell, but I was stuffed from the dinner already! After this froyo (which I could not finish), I could not breathe. We managed to find a bench by the lift to slowly eat the froyo while continuing our endless chatter until 930pm.
Verdict on the froyo – the yogurt together with the black chocolate sauce made a good combination. But I won’t eat this frequently… it’s probably a thousand calories in that cup.
next up, probably meeting Shiyun again to pass her some stuff and also last dinner before she pops!
WendyLimWendy 