Hansul is a strange place. It starts with the music – YouTube videos from PostmodernJukebox play on the large projection screen. On the opposite end, ridiculously good-looking Korean chefs prepare the food, making you wonder if this is real life or the set of a Korean drama.
So it makes sense that the owner of the restaurant is Haden Hee, Mediacorp actor and fellow handsome man, who also runs Kimchi and Guksu Restaurant. No stranger to the Korean dining scene in Singapore, Hee developed Hansul with a focus on Korean liqueurs: it claims to stock the most extensive library of soju, makgeolli, heongju and Korean cocktails on the island. But when everything looks so good – down to the gold mosaic-tiled toilet walls – one wonders if Hansul is all looks and no substance.
We test our theory on bestsellers like the honey butter chicken bumbuk ($24) and signature croquettes ($8). Both look appetising, sure, but the chicken bumbuk is more batter than meat and the cheese overwhelms any taste of the honey butter seasoning. The croquette, on the other hand, is filled with crab stick instead of the real stuff – and this is despite the menu labelling the morsel as ‘creamy croquette stuffed with crabmeat, butter and onion’. Inexcusable.
