Food Picks: Fresh saba and housemade kimchi at GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine
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(Clockwise from top left) The Combo Meal, Hotplate Saba Fish Set and Hotplate Pork Belly Set at GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine.
ST PHOTOS: HEDY KHOO
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- GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine in Tampines offers affordable, fresh Japanese and Korean dishes tailored to local tastes since opening in September 2024.
- Signature dishes include the Hotplate Saba Fish Set ($6.50), deep-fried to retain flavour, and the Hotplate Pork Belly Set ($7.20), marinated overnight for a savoury taste.
- The Combo Meal ($8.90) provides variety, while the Bibimbap ($6.20) with housemade kimchi and gochujang is recommended over the bland Kimchi Soup.
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SINGAPORE – For honest cooking at pocket-friendly prices, GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine at T-Space in Tampines North is the place to be. Since opening in September 2024, co-owners Gao Zhi Feng and Jeff Gan, both 42, have insisted on fresh, robust flavours, even though their Japanese and Korean dishes are geared towards local taste buds.
This is the second outlet for the business partners, who opened their first one at 478 Tampines Street 44 in April 2023.
The stall’s signature Hotplate Saba Fish Set ($6.50) is sizeable. Unlike other stalls that pan-fry their saba, GG’s version is deep-fried for 3½ minutes, locking in the seafood sweetness and rendering a juicy interior. Ms Gao and Mr Gan insist on using fresh saba, which has none of the unpleasant odours sometimes encountered with frozen fish.
Hotplate Saba Fish Set at GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
Each fish is marinated overnight with salt and pepper. The stall prepares its own teriyaki sauce with a medley of vegetables in the mix, but I find the sauce slightly too sweet and it gets in the way of the natural flavour of the fish. You can ask for the saba to be simply salted and served without the sauce.
Accompanying housemade pickles – prepared fresh daily from cucumber, cabbage, carrot and spiced up with a touch of chilli padi – serve as a crisp, tangy palate cleanser. Miso soup and short-grained Sakura rice round off the hearty set.
Another value meal is the Hotplate Pork Belly Set ($7.20), featuring succulent, savoury pork belly with skin. An overnight marinade of garlic, ginger, oyster sauce and sugar ensures every bite is flavourful. The stall does not use meat tenderisers, allowing the meat to retain a lovely bite. A little tapioca starch in the marinade imparts a smooth texture.
Hotplate Pork Belly Set at GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
For variety on a plate, the Combo Meal ($8.90) offers a hefty portion of rice covered in a thin omelette, with a piece of fish fillet, a breaded chicken cutlet and grilled salmon. The chicken – infused with ginger, garlic and sesame oil – boasts a satisfying crunch, thanks to a coat of glutinous rice flour and panko breadcrumbs.
Combo Meal at GG Japanese & Korean Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
While the Kimchi Soup with Rice ($6.20) is made with housemade kimchi and generously packed with enoki mushrooms, silken egg tofu, meat and glassy vermicelli, the bowl is bland and the soup unfortunately thin, as no meat broth is used.
A better option is the Bibimbap ($6.20). You have a choice of pork, chicken or beef, all at the same price. Each bowl is packed to the brim with rice and generously topped with housemade kimchi, crunchy kelp, blanched carrot and cucumber, and crowned with a perfectly cooked sunny-side-up egg and slightly spicy gochujang.
Where: Stall 1, Happy Hawkers, 01-34 T-Space, 1 Tampines North Drive 1
MRT: Tampines
Open: 8.30am to 6pm (Mondays to Saturdays), 8.30am to 3pm (Sundays)
Tel: 9322-3385
