When it first arrived in Bangkok late last year, the global Korean restaurant chain School Food was met with quite a lot of excitement. Apparently, that’s still the case as they recently opened another branch at Siam Paragon. The cute décor—wine crates, brightcolored chairs and vintage lamps—attracts more than just fans of Korean series. If you close your eyes, the louder-than-usual electronic beats might make you think that you’re sitting in a lounge rather than a restaurant in a mall, sipping a Hitachino Nest (starting at B230).
First-timers might find it difficult to choose from their long list of Korean-European fusion dishes. But the main problem here is that most of the items are overloaded with sugar. The pork cutlet with spicy cheese toppokki (rice cake with sweet red chili sauce and mozzarella cheese, B210) is super sweet, and the dry and bland fried pork doesn’t help. We are well aware that toppokki usually has a sweet note, but this one tastes like a syrup-drenched cake.
The fresh kimchi salad (salad greens, puffed rice, sliced almonds and pickled radish with parmesan cheese, B200) will destroy all the good memories you’ve ever had of kimchi with the overpowering sweetness of its dressing.
Not that they get every savory dish that’s supposed to have some sweetness to it wrong. The squid ink mari (Korean rice roll with teriyaki squid and squid-ink rice, B190) is recommended. This sushi-like dish is chewier than the Japanese version, thanks to the grilled squid that goes so well with their mayonnaise sauce. The sinbi noodle soup (B230) balances out the sweetness in the broth with sour-and-spicy kimchi, and we also enjoy the soft-but-firm texture of the noodles.
Less impressive is their interpretation of the iconic Korean dish bibimbap (B240) to which they add butter. The result is not fragrant, but rather bland and oily. It’s a shame that their bibimbap pot isn’t even hot enough to make the rice at the bottom go crispy.
Give the place a try if you’re big on sugar, but eating here might be a nightmare for those who don’t have such a sweet tooth.
