Curiosity makes the cat hungry. With the number of matcha lava cake photos circulating around, I would think that the Internet would have had an overdose on green tea. Something else is also brewing at Westgate: their latest dining establishment, Sync Korean Fusion Bistro. Korean food and I find it hard to agree with one another. How would Korean Fusion food score in this case?
Clean lines, chic, casual and contemporary: Sync Korean Fusion Bistro's interior take on a monochrome, muted colour scheme with wooden tables splayed in right angles to one another. The good news is that there's no service charge involved in your final bill, you will still get the usual service-fare including service staff going to your table to order, and serving it to you. The bad news is that the dishes are priced quite expensively, so I wouldn't doubt that they subsumed that elusive service charge into the prices already. Their saving grace might be the free wifi for those whose mobile data is hitting the roof or on prepaid cards.
A bistro opened by Samsung: with a corner for children: Sync Korean Fusion Bistro is opened by Samsung, the Korean multinational company responsible for what we are mostly acquainted with - smartphones and tablets. Possibly the only multi-coloured corner in the entire bistro, this is a children's corner for them to entertain themselves on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.
Kicking off the meal with a Salad consisting of a melee of sweet corn, mushroom, beansprouts, pickles, kimchi. While the sourness and sweetness hit the right notes, the portion - approximately the size of two regular protractors - was much too little to justify for its price of $7.90.
The savoury Korean pancakes that were going one-for-one for DBS/POSB card users. Originally priced at $12 each, they come in two flavours - Seafood (white), and Kimchi (orange). The seafood okonomiyaki was heavy with flour and flavouring, and that's about it. The kimchi okonomiyaki scores slightly better in terms of taste, but credit goes greatly to the bonito flakes. Fusion with Japanese? I was confused. In any case, even with the card promotion, it doesn't feel like it's value-for-money.
The Ja Jang Myeon ($12.90) can still be considered decent, with a succinct fusion of Italian spaghetti noodles and Chinese/Korean ja jang myeon fragrant black bean sauce. For some reason the noodles break really easily and were not al dente.
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| Blur photo because I put too much faith in my new S4 to do the work for me. |
My order of the Smoked Duck Ramyun ($13.90) was quite edible, with ramen-textured noodles soaked in a semi-spicy kimchi viscous sauce. The sauce was thick, but suspiciously made so by a(n) (over)dosage of corn starch rather than egg yolk or tonkotsu goodness like I wished. I guess my recent ramen escapades are spoiling me too much. There were so many points on this dish that felt pretty half-hearted (spiciness level, smokiness of the duck, sauce)... I can't recommend this.
Budae Jjigae, the army stew which I didn't try but had reportedly less sticky broth.
I probably only came for the Matcha Lava Cake ($7.90) which doesn't really disappoint except that the matcha doesn't flow as much as raved?! It was still warm and overall, quite satisfying. But... I noticed it was sitting at the counter for sometime before it was served. I get it that there is no service charge at this place, but lava cakes are time-sensitive. I can only say so much, without asking for a refund for the substandard experience at Sync Korean Fusion Bistro.
Well, ending off: I held high hopes for this Korean Fusion Bistro because:
(1) Korean food has hardly impressed me 90% of the time, and maybe a little fusion with Korean will make it slightly better. But fusion itself can't do magic with lackluster effort.
(2) So many raving reviews. I get it that a lot that I've read come from the experience of the media invites, but I thought that at least some of them still can be trusted. Or perhaps the bistro were more on their toes during media invites and performed better. I prefer to give the bloggers the benefit of the doubt.
(3) It was a Hot100 on Burpple. It is a user-generated top 100 list, but really?
I'm not picky with my food as you can probably tell, hardly any negative reviews are written. But I would say that this is not a place that I will recommend you to go because your money (and calories) is better spent elsewhere - perhaps just try for the Matcha Lava Cake and ensure that it's served with prompt service.
Sync Korean Fusion Bistro
Westgate
3 Gateway Drive #03-01
Singapore 608532
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