Situated in a little corner of Platform M by MOF in SingPost Centre, is Cafe Mama– a Korean eatery specialising in Dosirak or Korean Lunchboxes, as well as a variety of Korean comfort food dishes like army stews and fried chicken.
This is the second outlet following the first at Clementi Mall, and its convenient location in Paya Lebar now makes Cafe Mama accessible to East-siders, especially more so with its e-ordering system and fast food counter concept.
The place is decked out in purposely mismatched steel chairs, with a bright red neon sign bearing the eatery’s name in Korean characters.
There are also framed pictures of familiar K-pop idols, such as G-Dragon and EXO hanging on the walls, that would make any K-pop fanatic feel right at home while enjoying their meal.
We started out with some iced drinks to cool us down from the heat outside – Shik Hye ($2.34), Korean Pear Tea ($2.34) and Honey Red Date Tea ($2.34).
These three drinks were all a tad bit disappointing, as both the pear and the honey red date teas were far too sweet, and the shik hye (sweet fermented rice drink) tasted like a watered down rendition of its original self, albeit the best out of the latter.
Luckily the food made up for the drinks. The Koreans do fried chicken just the way I like it, and the Six-piece Mixed Fried Chicken Platter ($14.87) didn’t disappoint.
The fried chicken pieces came doused in two type of sauces – spicy and sweet soy, along with a side of fried bites like potato waffles, deep fried Korean ddeok and crispy fries.
The chicken set also comes with a bubbling pot of nacho cheese, in which you can dip your chicken and other fixings.
Pairing the spicy piece of chicken with the cheese mix was a match made in heaven, with the creaminess of the cheese mellowing out the heat of the spicy sauce, and the savoury notes balancing the sweetness of the soy sauce coating.
My favourite dish has got to be the Beef Bulgogi Dosirak ($9.25), which came with a side of spicy beef bulgogi stir fried with kimchi, a fried egg, white rice and topped off with shredded seaweed, all served in an old -school brass lunch box.
For the price point of almost ten dollars, I’d say that this is rather expensive for a lunchbox consisting of just meat, egg and rice, even though it tastes pretty good.
We had lots of fun trying to pick up and shake the lunch box to mix up the contents inside (kinda like bibimbap). We were quite impressed with how tasty the marinade of the spicy beef was, and it came together wonderfully with the fried egg, kimchi and fluffy rice.
Albeit kinda messy, this is great for those who love to interact with their food.
Since there were four of us, I also ordered the Fish Cake Budae Jjigae ($27.95). It came topped off with a slice of cheese on two large blocks of ramen, and had plenty of other ingredients buried underneath.
It took us quite a while to figure out how to work the gas stove, but we managed to get it up and bubbling in about ten minutes.
The stew had both skewered and sliced pieces of Korean fish cake. Though there was no doubt that the fish cakes were authentically Korean in taste, I felt it would have been made better if the soup base was more savoury, to help flavour the otherwise bland and spongey-tasting fish cake.
Stirring the stew as it began to boil, I noticed that in addition to a large number of fish cakes, there were loads of other ingredients in the pot such as sausages, kimchi, sliced Korean rice cake, baked beans and tofu – just to name the majority.
It was overall a great sharing dish, but all of us agreed that the soup base itself could have packed more of a spicy punch and would taste even better with more seasoning.
Grab a couple of friends and head down to Cafe Mama if you’re in the mood for Korean food. Most of the dishes here are great for sharing, especially the various types of army stews and chicken platters.
The highlight of this eatery has got to be their cute Korean lunchboxes, an experience that both young and old would enjoy. I’ll definitely be back for round two!
Expected damage: $10 – $18 per pax
