Price: $$$
Cravingness: ★★★☆☆
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant aka Maepogalmaegi or simply in Korean 마포갈매기 is one of the most popular Korean BBQ chain restaurant in Korea. With over 430 branches in Korea, Shin Mapo is literally around every corner. Hailing from its world wide successful establishment of over 50 restaurants in the world inc. China and Thailand, Shin Mapo finally stepped foot on the gourmet city Hong Kong.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant perched on the 2/F of Po Hon Building on Percival Street, one of the busiest junction at Causeway Bay. I am actually very happy to have Shin Mapo here in Causeway Bay as I always thought Causeway lacks of authentic Korean food. From the street, you can easily spot the sigh of the the restaurant.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant has a commerical outlook but you can see they tries to create a rustic look with brown bricks lining up the walls and grey industrial style floor. The brown bricks looks too clean and neat which I found it make a bad contrary to the overall setup.
Exhaust pipes were especially shipped from Korea. However I found this model does not take off as much smoke as other Korean Restaurant such as Seorae or BBQ 7080, as I found myself very smokey after the dinner.
A botton is built on every table, making communication very easy.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant's menu is extensive with lots of BBQ items as well as cooked items. Dinner Sets are priced around $368 for 1 or $668 for 2. A la carte items are priced reasonably here as well.
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Complimentary water is given at Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant, but I usually find other BBQ Resturant serves tea instead, which probably better for BBQ to kill the heat.
Condiments and Banchan are given soon after we sat down.
Kimchi was delicious which we had a few backorders. The raddish pickles were lovely too, especially good to go with spicy food.
Salad was pretty bland in flavour, more sauce should be added.
As what I had in Korea, I prefer to have the grill egg before the BBQ started. In Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant, they serve a complimentary round of grill egg with kimchi. If you want more, you can request with a small supplement.
Waiting for my eggs to bubble =)
It took around 10 minutes for the egg to get cooked, which was MUCH faster than my horrible egg grilling experience in Seorae. The kimchi spiced up the egg mixture and made the egg very flavourful in taste. Remember not to cook it for too long, so you can have a runny smooth spoon!
I tried the Blue Lemonade and Hongchoade, each priced at HKD28, are soda drinks made with Korean ingredients. Both tasted on the sweet end, with Blue Lemonade on the refreshing lemony end and the Hongchoade on the vinegary side.
On the top plate, you can find quite a lot of vegetables but one each for sausage and shrimp which is rather stingy for a 3 persons set. I am particularly fond of the Johnsonville sausage, which has cheese filling inside.
Second plate consists of Pork Belly and Pork Neck. The pork neck was very inconsistent in texture where some pieces were awesomely juicy and tender with fat oil swirling on the tongue. some however was overly chewy and hard like stone. The pork belly was tender but overall tasted rather ordinary to me.
Third plate comes the highest valued part of the pork, the Skirt Meat which is a specially cut between the pig's diaphragm and liver. The skirt meat at Shin Mapo are sourced locally, not directly from Korea which I got a bit disappointed. We suspected the skirt meat would be chewy as it is near to the diaphragm, and as suspected, the meat was utterly chewy (in a good way) with good flavour.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant perched on the 2/F of Po Hon Building on Percival Street, one of the busiest junction at Causeway Bay. I am actually very happy to have Shin Mapo here in Causeway Bay as I always thought Causeway lacks of authentic Korean food. From the street, you can easily spot the sigh of the the restaurant.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant has a commerical outlook but you can see they tries to create a rustic look with brown bricks lining up the walls and grey industrial style floor. The brown bricks looks too clean and neat which I found it make a bad contrary to the overall setup.
Exhaust pipes were especially shipped from Korea. However I found this model does not take off as much smoke as other Korean Restaurant such as Seorae or BBQ 7080, as I found myself very smokey after the dinner.
A botton is built on every table, making communication very easy.
Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant's menu is extensive with lots of BBQ items as well as cooked items. Dinner Sets are priced around $368 for 1 or $668 for 2. A la carte items are priced reasonably here as well.
.
Complimentary water is given at Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant, but I usually find other BBQ Resturant serves tea instead, which probably better for BBQ to kill the heat.
Condiments and Banchan are given soon after we sat down.
Kimchi was delicious which we had a few backorders. The raddish pickles were lovely too, especially good to go with spicy food.
Salad was pretty bland in flavour, more sauce should be added.
As what I had in Korea, I prefer to have the grill egg before the BBQ started. In Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant, they serve a complimentary round of grill egg with kimchi. If you want more, you can request with a small supplement.
Waiting for my eggs to bubble =)
It took around 10 minutes for the egg to get cooked, which was MUCH faster than my horrible egg grilling experience in Seorae. The kimchi spiced up the egg mixture and made the egg very flavourful in taste. Remember not to cook it for too long, so you can have a runny smooth spoon!
I tried the Blue Lemonade and Hongchoade, each priced at HKD28, are soda drinks made with Korean ingredients. Both tasted on the sweet end, with Blue Lemonade on the refreshing lemony end and the Hongchoade on the vinegary side.
Beef/ Pork BBQ Set - HKD678 for 3-4 people
We tried a Beef/ Pork BBQ Set presented on a 3 layered stand reminiscent of an afternoon tea cake stand. Interesting enough, we found the portion can easily filled 2 people but definitely not for 3 people.On the top plate, you can find quite a lot of vegetables but one each for sausage and shrimp which is rather stingy for a 3 persons set. I am particularly fond of the Johnsonville sausage, which has cheese filling inside.
Second plate consists of Pork Belly and Pork Neck. The pork neck was very inconsistent in texture where some pieces were awesomely juicy and tender with fat oil swirling on the tongue. some however was overly chewy and hard like stone. The pork belly was tender but overall tasted rather ordinary to me.
Third plate comes the highest valued part of the pork, the Skirt Meat which is a specially cut between the pig's diaphragm and liver. The skirt meat at Shin Mapo are sourced locally, not directly from Korea which I got a bit disappointed. We suspected the skirt meat would be chewy as it is near to the diaphragm, and as suspected, the meat was utterly chewy (in a good way) with good flavour.
Pork Rinds - HKD88/150g
We also called for some pork rinds (or pork skin) as I fell in love with them after my first try out at BBQ 7080. The pork rinds at Shin Mapo was very different from BBQ 7080 as they are marinated spicy. This pork rinds shine in a different way and I like it very much.
Chilled Buckwheat Noodles - HKD75
As said in many of my other reviews, Korean must have a bowl of Mul Naengmyeon (Korean Ice noodle) with lots of vinegar and mustard after a BBQ meal. The buckwheat noodles here are made too soft which delivered a bad texture. I still found School Food's tasted the best.
Hanbing Injeolmi Red Bean Snow Ice - HKD88 for 2
Judging from the drooling look, I guess you could have guessed the shaved ice is the most anticipated items of the night! The shaved iced was fluffy and mellow which instantly melted in your mouth which then delivered a creamy, milky flavour on your tongue! The grounded nut powder, mochi and red bean paste were great pairs to the shaved ice. As we dig deeper, we found more mochi at the bottom of the bowl! What a pleasant surprise =)!
Dining at Shin Mapo BBQ Restaurant, one can expect the chain BBQ restaurant quality in Korea, safe but not exceptional. I do reckon however that Shin Mapo BBQ restaurant definitely performs better than 'local' Korean BBQ restaurants in terms of authenticity, passion and the quality of BBQ items. Keep it a try before the queue forms up.
Rating
Food - ★★★☆☆
Service - ★★★★☆
Ambience - ★★★☆☆
Overall - ★★★☆☆
Shin Mapo BBQ (新麻浦 BBQ)
Rating
Food - ★★★☆☆
Service - ★★★★☆
Ambience - ★★★☆☆
Overall - ★★★☆☆
Shin Mapo BBQ (新麻浦 BBQ)
Address (E) 2/F, Po Hon Building, 24-30 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Address (C) 香港銅鑼灣波斯富街24-30號寶漢大廈2樓
☏ 2561 6268
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun: 11am - 1pm
Reservation Available? Yes
Walk In Possible? Yes
Date of Dining: 7 Aug 2014
Bill Per Person (Dinner inc. Beverages) - HKD480
Address (C) 香港銅鑼灣波斯富街24-30號寶漢大廈2樓
☏ 2561 6268
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun: 11am - 1pm
Reservation Available? Yes
Walk In Possible? Yes
Date of Dining: 7 Aug 2014
Bill Per Person (Dinner inc. Beverages) - HKD480
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