Bornga Korean BBQ Restaurant 본가 (Malaysia, Johor Bahru)

Bornga is a leading Korean Barbecue (BBQ) restaurant chain with outlets in Korea, USA, Malaysia and Singapore. The restaurant chain is started by Korean Celebrity Chef Jong Won Paik.
We visited this restaurant on a weekday. I have not tried Bornga in Singapore. But since we were in City Square (Johor Bahru), we decided to give this a try!
The interior of the restaurant. Above each table, there was an extendable exhaust pipe mounted on the ceiling that could be pulled down to the table if BBQ meat was ordered. 

The dining table, before it was cluttered with a whole lot of Ban Chan .
A few minutes after ordering, one of the staff placed hot charcoal into the BBQ stove and pulled the exhaust pipe down. As as you may have guessed, we ordered BBQ meat! We could feel the intense heat from the hot charcoal. 

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Ban Chan / Side Dish (반찬)

A selection of the Ban Chan / Side Dish (반찬). More were added subsequently! And they were refillable too! There was also a tray full of fresh and crunchy assorted raw vegetables which will be used for wrapping the BBQ meat.

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Woo Samgyup RM38

The first dish was Bornga's signature Woo Samgyup RM38 which consisted of beautifully marbled thinly sliced beef brisket in Bornga's special sauce and golden pumpkin.

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Woo Samgyup RM38

At Bornga, you do not need to do the cooking. The staff would do all the cooking for you. All you have to do is to eat! The staff first pulled the exhaust pipe down and cook the meat in front of us. He first spread the Woo Samgyup on the stove and let it cook. As it was thinly sliced, the meat was cooked very quickly. We were glad that the staff cooked the meat for us as we did not want to overcook the meat.

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Woo Samgyup RM38

Once the Woo Samgyup are cooked. You can dip the beef into the special house sauce provided and roll up the meat with rice and various vegetables. The Woo Samgyup was delicious. The essence, flavour and juice of the meat was still retained, making it a rewarding gourmet experience whether you had it alone or wrapped in vegetables.

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Mansinchang Samgyupsal RM28

The second dish was the Mansinchang Samgyupsal RM28; tenderised pork belly seasoned with parsley flakes, salt and pepper.

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Mansinchang Samgyupsal RM28

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Mansinchang Samgyupsal RM28

Again, the staff cooked the meat for us over the charcoal stove. All we had to do was to watch! =)

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Mansinchang Samgyupsal RM28

Once the Mansinchang Samgyupsal was cooked, the staff would put them into a plate for us. The procedure is the same again. You can either eat the meat on its own or dip it in sauce and wrap it with vegetables. Personally, I thought that this was just an average dish.

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Chadol Duenjang Jjigae RM24

We also ordered a Chadol Duenjang Jjigae RM24, a traditional Korean soybean paste stew with beef and vegetable. Personally, the picture of this on the menu did not entice me. But as the partner was quite keen to have this, we ordered it.

The soybean paste stew was cooked in front of us at our table and boiled till the it was reduced.

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Chadol Duenjang Jjigae RM24 - vegetable bowl

One the meat was cooked, the Duenjang Jjigae was mixed into a vegetable bowl, and mixed with rice and vegetable (like how you would do it with bibimbap).

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Chadol Duenjang Jjigae RM24

The end result! Tada! The Chadol Duenjang Jjigae was superb! Each grain of rice was well coated with the intense fragrant and flavour from the stewed soybean paste. Each mouthful was just so incredibly flavorful and brilliantly in terms of texture (soft or crunchy depending on what you ate). Fastastic! The more you dig into this bowl of rice, the more you will love it. This was our favourite dish in this meal! A Must Try!

Do note, there’s a minimum order of two meats for BBQ.

It was certainly a good decision to visit Bornga at City Square! The food and the service was good. And for such a price, it was certainly value for money!