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I’ve visited a few Korean hawker stalls and eateries in the past few months, some of which are even Korean-owned. However, Sangwoo Street is the only stall I’ve visited which is both Korean-owned and Muslim-owned.
Sangwoo Street can be found within the Kedai Kopi coffeeshop in Yishun. This vibrant, green-coloured stall offers a multitude of Korean favourites, like bibimbap, kimbap, tteokbokki and even dakgalbi!
Prices for mains at Sangwoo Street range between S$5 to S$12.50, making their food relatively affordable, especially when compared to most other Korean eateries.
What I tried at Sangwoo Street
The Fried Chicken Bibimbap (S$8.80) was a dish that caught my eye, and certainly wow-ed me with its huge portions. This hefty bowl consisted of rice, cut fried chicken pieces, a chopped Korean omelette, shredded cucumber and carrots, seaweed and gochujang sauce.
Mixing up the ingredients allowed for the scarlet gochujang sauce to coat all the rice evenly. It was sweet and salty with a slight spicy kick to it, providing the dish with lots of flavour. However, I found that the sauce tasted pretty one-dimensional, like your average store-bought gochujang.
The fried chicken was unfortunately not crispy and slightly bland on its own, but added a good amount of protein to the dish. The omelette wasn’t super remarkable either, though I did like its addition to the bowl, as it gave the dish more variety.
Though the Fried Chicken Bibimbap wasn’t mind-blowing, it was still hearty and satisfying with large portions and a comforting taste.
I was excited to dig into the Cheese Dakgalbi (S$9.80) as it was a dish that I do not typically see on the menu of casual Korean stalls. The dish contained spicy stir-fried chicken topped with cheese and served with a bow of rice. I got to select from 4 spice levels: Non-Spicy, Normal, Spicy and Extra Spicy— the spice-lover in me opted for Spicy to experience a slightly more exciting yet tolerable challenge.
The Cheese Dakgalbi did not disappoint in terms of cheesiness. The creamy, milky notes of the cheese balanced out the stronger flavours of the sauce well, and paired wonderfully with the tender chicken chunks. I did not regret picking the Spicy level— the sauce packed a significant punch, but was not overly fiery or torturous to consume. However, if you can’t take spice well, I’d recommend opting for the Non-Spicy or Normal spice levels just in case.
The bowl of rice on the side soaked up the sauce well, making this dish a super tasty dish for cheese lovers to enjoy.
I absolutely love Jjajangmyeon (S$5.50), so I decided to give it a try. Sangwoo Street served their version of this classic dish with ramyeon noodles, a few shreds of cucumber and a hard-boiled egg— the usage of ramyeon surprised me, as I was used to having jjajangmyeon with thick yellow noodles.
The dark sauce coating the noodles was very sweet, almost reminding me of teriyaki sauce. It barely had any savoury flavour, and tasted like it had come straight from a bottle, due to its overwhelming sugariness and lack of dimension. I’ll admit, I still enjoyed these noodles as they were pretty tasty, but this was in no way close to authentic Jjajangmyeon.
I’d recommend ordering this only if you’re in the market for some quick, saucy and sweet comfort food.
Finally, I ended my meal with the Beef Bulgogi Bibimbap (S$9.50)— I watched as the roll was hand-wrapped to order, and was delighted at how it was so generously stuffed with ingredients!
I enjoyed every aspect of this bibimbap— the portions were liberal, with there being a nice ratio of bulgogi beef, shredded veggies, pickles and cheese to rice, and the roll had been wrapped well such it was able to retain its shape. The fresh veggies and tender, sweet bulgogi went together beautifully, too. Its S$9.50 price tag was pretty worth it, if you ask me.
Final thoughts
I would describe the dishes at Sangwoo Street as being comfort food, due to how hearty and homely they taste. There were hits and misses, but for the most part, I enjoyed every dish that I tried, and left feeling incredibly satisfied. For a Korean stall, the prices were also fairly reasonable, especially given the generous portion sizes.
I’d most certainly return to Kedai Kopi to give Sangwoo Street another go!
Expected damage: S$5 – S$12.50 per pax
