D’RIM brings Korean BBQ to Orchard Road

NEW RESTAURANT D’RIM #02-14 Mandarin Gallery 333A Orchard Road Singapore 238897 Tel: 9660 9964 Open daily for lunch and dinner Mon to Fri: 12 pm to 3 pm, and 6 pm to 10 pm; Sat and Sun: 11 am to 10 pm  

D’RIM has everything you’d want from a Korean restaurant. It has a huge antique door, time-travelled from either a Joseon-era nobleman’s house or a stylish dungeon. There are earthenware pots scattered around for good effect. It has in its menu all the edible cliches you love – like BBQ, for which you get your very own grill and someone to cook the meat for you. There’s also naengmyeon two ways – original noodles in cold broth or bibimbap-style. Japchae. Jeon.

There are real Koreans in the kitchen, with annoyingly glassy complexions to prove it. And there’s a lady manager literally plucked out of a K-drama who dispenses “ne” and “annyeong” so disarmingly you want to cry in delight.

What D’RIM doesn’t have – is a door.

No, not that antique door. That’s decorative. Rather, it lacks something that tells you where the restaurant starts and the rest of Mandarin Gallery’s second floor continues. Get off the escalator, and you will see it, but initially you’re not sure if it’s a restaurant or a Korean cultural exhibition for which you need to pay an admission fee.

Even when you’ve established its correct intentions, eating here has all the charm of a glorified cafeteria. It’s too open, there’s too much involuntary eye contact with nearby diners and if they stick you in a corner like they did us, you will have Kenny G’s saxophone blasting at you from a nearby speaker. They will lower the volume slightly if you ask, but not enough in case it deprives other customers of the joy of instrumental classics.

If you’re not too distracted, you might notice little design touches that show careful attention to detail. Hanging lanterns, wooden beams and textured walls recall hanoks of yore. A lethal-looking stone contraption housed in a glass enclosure looks like it could flatten faces when it is not rolling out homemade buckwheat noodles. There’s also a much nicer, quieter dining section on the other side in which we would have preferred to have been seated, near the cosy private rooms.

Not cheap enough to be casual, but not fancy enough to be high end, D’RIM settles for middle ground, where your bill depends on whether you add on the BBQ option – and you should, because the individual grills are impressively compact and stylish, fired by gas from below, but covered with real burning charcoal on top for a satisfying char. 

You could go with the beef (S$125) or pork (S$90) set for three cuts of meat, vegetables, tofu stew and dessert. It’s good value if that’s all you’re having, but also restrictive because at least two people have to order the same set, and this leaves little stomach room for anything else.

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For variety, do a mix-and-match of BBQ and other dishes, but specify the order in which you want your food to come. Service here is a mix of over-efficiency and underused common sense. You want to eat the noodles and appetisers at your own pace, but you can’t, because your otherwise sweet server needs to quickly grill your meat so she can move on to other things. 

Nonetheless, while we work our way through the better part of the menu, the BBQ portion leaves a more indelible mark. Instead of wagyu, D’RIM uses US beef. It’s good stuff, particularly the chuck flap (S$56 per 100 gm) and diamond-cut boneless short rib (S$57 per 100 gm). They’re pricey cuts, but the meat is juicy and well-marbled, with good bite and beefiness. The pork is no mere runner-up either.They rightly serve just pork belly or collar (S$32 per 100 gm), so there’s no room for dryness, just bouncy succulence throughout. There are no condiments to speak of, nor are they needed, just sprinkles of three types of salt.

D’RIM’s signature noodles (S$26) deserve their name, a slinky coiled nest of house-made, 100-per-cent buckwheat noodles (which means they’re not as springy as we like), slicked in a sweetish dressing of perilla oil, sesame seeds and soy sauce. Pickled perilla leaves, seaweed and beef cartilage slices give you more reason to chew and contemplate the mix of textures and sweet-savouriness. Good kimchi gives enough spice and acidity for balance.

It has more character and assertiveness than the naengmyeon (S$26) the ubiquitous cold noodle in a less-than-icy broth. The noodles lack the much-needed, rubber-band-y chewiness, but look the part in a mild, cool dashi, pear slices and sheets of omelette instead of boiled egg, with mustard and kimchi on the side. It wouldn’t pass the test if we were in Myeongdong, but we’re not, so this will do.

The same goes for beef yukhoe (S$32), a lovely presentation of tartare, pickles and runny egg yolk delicately mixed at your table – perfectly decent, but just lacking that Seoul connection.

We suspect D’RIM is still going through some opening jitters as it tries to find the sweet spot between Korean authenticity and local taste buds. It’s got the added bonus of being in Orchard Road, and a sincere, if not polished, vibe. If it were a Korean drama, we’d hang around for the next episode.

Rating: 6.5