Hidden upstairs on the 2nd floor in a corner shoplot in Solaris, KL, blink and you might miss it as there’s no prominent signage if you’re not looking up. I was surprised that the small Korean resto Sigol Madang was mostly full. I’ve tried to walk-in before this and couldn’t get a place. Reservations are recommended if you wanna get a small cosy booth. The menu is very limited with Gukbap being the main highlight here. The rest are sides like egg, rice ball, jeon, etc and accompaniments like chicken feet, squid, whelks. That being said, food was really good here.

Never heard of Gukbap? There’s even a set of instructions teaching you how to eat this. They give you a sheet of paper specially to rest your cutlery. Gukbap (RM32), or sliced pork soup, comes with rice, and in a claypot, boasting authentic flavours straight out like from Busan. Soup tasted clean and flavour subtle, almost bland so you need to add shrimp sauce (similar to our cincalok), salt and chilli powder, if you like spicy, for seasoning. The result was a heart-warming, soul comforting soupy rice with tender pieces of meat without any funky, porky smell. We were there on a rainy evening so it was the perfect foil to an otherwise wet event. Makes sense why they also call this hangover soup. 

The huge pot of chicken feet (RM68) was heated up over a hot stove so it was spicy (for my friends) and temperature hot, and had us licking the delicious gravy off our fingers. I felt it was quite a lot to pay for chicken feet compared to our chicken rice and chap fan places but I guess being a Korean restaurant, it reserves the right to charge? The other dishes like squid and whelk (snails) average around RM98. We also had the best seafood jeon (RM30) ever – crispy, fragrant, flavourful. Even the steamed egg (RM18) seemed extra fluffy and the radish kimchi fresh and nicely tart.

Aiming to go back again and try the bossam (boiled pork belly/RM120 for 2 to 3 pax)) which I’ve heard only good things about. I’ve also come to appreciate that sometimes you don’t really need an extensive menu, just excel in a couple of dishes and you’ve got it made.

Add: 02-2, Jalan Solaris 4, Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur. tel: 03-6211 5163