Odem

Brunched at Odem over the weekends!

Starting strong, the glistening Brioche & premium Gamtae Seaweed Butter ($20) was so good. Warm, pillowy-soft and sticky delicious with the savoury soy glaze! The umami seaweed butter was also intense and immensely fragrant with a lingering briny-sweet flavour. Much love for the fluffy (cloud-like) inside of the bake!

Another flavour bomb, the Abalone Boribap ($46) was a surprisingly satisfying bowl with textured ingredients. Giving everything a good mix, the yummy combo of earthy Korean gosari (mountain fernbrake), pearl barley and zucchini worked well, absorbing the flavours of the decadent makkoli-abalone jus, gamtae butter and abalone liver sauce. The abalone slices were plump and tender too.

We had the Toro Kimbap ($48) loaded with Chu-toro, Akami, Perilla, Pickled Radish, Kelp-soy, Rice, Sesame and Gim. At the price point, it was stuffed with a more than decent amount of tender tuna however the other components (I think it might be the prominent taste of perilla) seemed to dull the natural sweet flavour of the fish in my opinion. And so in comparison to the dishes we ordered, it was kinda lacklustre.

A nutty and earthy plate, their Duck Guksu ($35) was fairly refreshing with the pairing of cucumber kimchi and slurpy buckwheat noodles well-coated in creamy perilla seed sauce which reminded me of the classic goma dressing. Rich-tasting when enjoyed alone, the roasty sauce can get too heavy near the end but the highlight of the dish was certainly the sliced barbecued duck. Pink in the middle and soft to the bite, with no hint of toughness or gaminess. Wonderfully smokey!