Find your favourite cut of Hanwoo beef at 665F steakhouse

SINGAPORE – Restaurants have been putting Korean beef and pork on their menus since the authorities started allowing imports from South Korea’s Jeju Island in late 2025.

Most people get their fill of Hanwoo (beef) and Handon (pork) on trips to South Korea. But to be able to have it here any time is a treat. A good value set can be had at 665F, a steakhouse at Andaz Singapore.

I am drawn to it as it offers Boudulgyeol Hanwoo, from cattle raised on volcanic pastures in Jeju. On a trip to the island in 2024, I had a magnificent lunch at a restaurant serving that beef, a neighbourhood place with zero tourists. And then I sighed as I perused the meat in the adjacent butcher shop – there was no way I could bring any of it back.

The Boudulgyeol Hanwoo Experience at 665F was meant to run until the end of February, but has become a permanent offering on the menu. That, the hotel says, is because of demand. You can see why.

For $198 a person (minimum two to dine), you get four courses. First up is Hanwoo Tartare made with chopped up tenderloin. The nashi pear, shallots, sesame oil and toasted pine nuts do not get in the way of the beef, which has a unique sweetness. I would ignore the egg yolk – it gets in the way of the delicate flavour of the meat.

The main course presents four cuts of Hanwoo – ribeye cap, chuck flap, eye of ribeye and tenderloin – simply grilled. And here is where you can taste each cut and figure out which ones you like best. From my meals in South Korea, I have come to the conclusion that chuck flap is the best cut, offering deep flavour and a satisfying springy texture. That is borne out by my meal at 665F.

If I could, I would replace the tenderloin with one of my two other favourite cuts: rib finger and oyster blade.

Mercifully, the restaurant does not trot out a raft of banchan, so the diner can focus on the meat. On the side are lettuce leaves and, rather strangely, Japanese rather than Korean perilla leaves. Diners can choose to dab wasabi or ssamjang on the meat, and add pickled slices of onion or green chillies to the lettuce wraps.

Trust me when I say that the beef does not need any accompaniment. To be able to savour the spring, chew or tenderness of each cut, the rich or mild flavour, that is reward enough.

To round off the meal, there is Hanwoo Beef Pot Rice, served in a claypot. By now, I am drifting into a food coma, but it is delicious – even the rice is infused with beefiness. I want to lug the whole pot back.

At some point, we have to come back down to earth and dessert is cool, refreshing persimmon granita. The brain freeze shocks me out of my food coma.

If all this is not enough, the restaurant is adding two more dessert elements: gotgamssam, roasted walnuts wrapped in dried persimmon; and sujeonggwa, persimmon punch with cinnamon and ginger.

Good to have, but I am there for the beef.

Where: 665F, Level 38 Andaz Singapore, 5 Fraser Street
MRT: Bugis
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, 6 to 10.30pm daily
Info: Call 6408-1255 or go to str.sg/4fmLW