Tiny SG: Korean Tofu Stew, Comforting and Homely

The 4-member service staff didn’t expect SBCD Korean Tofu House to be so packed during Phase 2 CB. There were too few service staff to handle the crowd.

SBCD Korean Tofu House (at Tanjong Pagar Centre and Millenia Walk) invited me several times for a tasting but I rejected their offers so that I could write a fair and unbiased review.

They specialise in tofu stew. They hand-make their tofu fresh daily with soybeans from Paju, South Korea. The founder, Chef Nam Kyoung Soo, was part of the core culinary team of international seafood and sushi buffet giant, defunct Todai.

The banchan (side dishes) are freeflow except for the fried fish. It looks cold but it’s recently fried, hot, tasty, and fresh. The fish itself is already an excellent start of a meal.

On the menu, you can have soontofu soup (“soon” means “soft”) or hotplate meats or the best of both worlds, a combo (a soontofu soup + hotplate meat).

We ordered the L.A. Galbi combo ($39.90, BBQ short ribs on a hotplate + a choice of soontofu soup) and cockles bibimbap combo ($27.90, cockles bibimbap + a choice of soontofu soup). We, two grown men with huge appetites, were very full.

The combo set comes with a meat and a soup. In this case we had the cockles bibimbap combo ($27.90, cockles bibimbap + a choice of soontofu soup). This is the intestines soup.

Let’s talk about the 10-ingredient soup first. It comes with 4 different levels of spiciness for the broth – mild, medium, spicy and crazy hot. The server informed us that there is little difference between mild and medium so we got medium, which is not spicy.

The soup is boiled and then put aside for a few days for the flavours to blossom. It is spectacular. Really mindblowing. It’s rich and umami. In every soup, there is their homemade tofu which is so smooth and full of integrity of soybeans. Really tasty.

This is how the oyster soup looks like on their menu.

This is how our oyster soup looks like.

Besides tofu and an egg, you can add different meats to the soup. We ordered the oyster ($21.90 for a la carte), which includes oyster, mussel, and shrimp; and beef and pork intestine soup ($21.90 for a la carte) as part of our combo.

Although we ordered medium spiciness for both soups, the intestine soup is much thicker, not sure why. Between the two, the oyster soup is better: light and refreshing.

Next time I return, I want to get the assorted soup ($21.90) which has beef, clam, crab, shrimp, squid. Sounds like good value.

Galbi or beef short rib on a hotplate.

The L.A. Galbi ($35.90 for a la carte) comes on a hotplate. It is nice but I find the marinade too sweet.

Cockles bibimbap

The cockles bibimbap ($24.90 for a la carte) comes on a plate of spicy cockles—which are cooked, not raw—with much garlic. It’s quite fun to mix it with the rice and it tastes alright.

The hotplate mains are ok. But it’s really the soups that are stupendous. I like that slight graininess from soybean in the soups, it gives an umami to it. The tofu is also tasty; you can taste a palpable difference from other tofu. Next time I’ll order the unagi combo ($35.90) with the assorted (beef, clam, crab, shrimp, squid) soup.

We paid about $83 for two persons. It’s not cheap but it’s delicious.

SBCD Korean Tofu House Menu

SBCD Korean Tofu House
Tanjong Pagar Centre, 7 Wallich Street, #B1-01/02, Singapore 078884
tel: +65 6386 6441
11.30am – 10pm
2nd outlet at Millenia Walk