MODU at The Exchange TRX, KL
When we think of popular Korean dishes in Malaysia, Korean fried chicken is likely to come to mind. But there’s another Korean chicken dish that’s going viral in recent days: samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, served at the newly opened MODU at KL’s The Exchange TRX.
It’s the first restaurant in the city to specialise in samgyetang and the art of boyang-sik, or Korean wellness cuisine. The establishment offers six variations of the dish, including black sesame and collagen, with each featuring a whole chicken in a chicken broth meticulously simmered for more than 12 hours.
A traditional Hanok-style interior
MODU is difficult to miss, even though it’s tucked away in a quieter corner of the mall, at the Dining Terrace. If not for the snaking lines that the restaurant has been attracting, the open kitchen at the front of the house commands attention for sure. Here, broth-filled pots billow with steam and chefs meticulously prepare dishes for service.
The restaurant’s ambience is just as eye-catching. Soft, ambient lighting floods the entire restaurant, pairing perfectly with the natural wood partition screens and tasteful earthenware that come together to create the atmosphere of a traditional Hanok house in Korea.
Take your pick of seats from the curved bar that surrounds the open kitchen, with a close view of the chefs at work. Next to the curved bar, there are the regular tables as well as elevated ones tucked away in cosy nooks that comfortably accommodate diners in groups of two to four.
Samgyetang in six variations
As for the food at MODU, the restaurant prides itself on its range of samgyetang, made using a house-made signature chicken broth. The broth takes 12 hours to boil over low heat and features twice as much chicken for a fuller, heartier flavour. According to the chefs here, they go through over 300 chickens a day for both lunch and dinner service.
Each serving of samgyetang comes with a whole chicken nestled in the piping-hot bowl of flavour-packed soup. The restaurant also provides a decadent spread of glutinous rice, salad, and radish kimchi, which are refillable upon request, to go with the soup.
Additionally, two condiments – salt and white pepper, and a gochujang-based sauce – are included to further flavour the generous pieces of chicken that fill each earthenware bowl.
You can order the Samgyetang à la carte, or get their 2-Gather set (RM175) that serves two people.
The latter is a good option to go with if you’re interested in trying out different Samgyetang varieties. The set includes a teapot and an appetiser for two, as well as two servings of samgyetang from six varieties, a choice from five shareable dishes, and two tofu-based gelatos from eight flavours.
Here’s what we tried:
Hanbang Samgyetang
The Hanbang Samgyetang is MODU’s signature samgyetang, featuring a whole chicken resting inside a steaming bowl of clear broth.
In most chicken soups, you’ll most likely find globules of shimmering rendered chicken fat floating atop. However, the soup in this samgyetang was clear of particles and visible oil droplets on the surface. The absence of oil particles gave the broth a cleaner mouthfeel without losing its full-bodied flavour.
Additionally, the chicken was tender to the touch, as the meat fell apart easily with just a slight nudge from a pair of chopsticks. The chicken was generously stuffed with more glutinous rice, and also red dates, leeks, chives, and pine nuts.
Overall, the clear soup had a distinct ginseng flavour that was robust without being overbearing, and the chicken meat was soft and delicate.
Herbal Spicy Samgyetang
Unlike the Hanbang Samgyetang, the only spicy variation of samgyetang on the menu, the Herbal Spicy Samgyetang, had glossy chilli oil floating atop the clean broth. While the intense red colour of the broth may seem intimidating, it actually isn’t too spicy.
The earthy ginseng taste took a backseat, allowing the chilli to add another layer of flavour and depth to the already flavour-packed soup, and the chicken flavours to truly stand out.
The chicken was liberally stuffed with similar ingredients to the Hanbang–glutinous rice and red dates were added in addition to garlic, chestnuts, bean sprouts, and gingko nuts.
Beauty Collagen Samgyetang
Instead of just applying your skincare, eat it too with the Beauty Collagen Samgyetang. This nourishing soup looks and tastes almost identical to the Hanbang. The soup tasted similar in many aspects–robust ginseng notes and savoury chicken flavour throughout each spoonful.
The Beauty Collagen Samgyetang had a mild garlic flavour, providing more complexity and depth to the ginseng-forward flavour of the soup. The chicken was filled with glutinous rice, as with the previous iterations, with the addition of garlic and beauty herbs that supposedly revitalise one’s complexion.
Black Sesame Samgyetang
True to its colour, the Black Sesame Samgyetang stands as the dark horse of all the Samgyetangs we tried. The black sesame gave the soup an earthy and nutty taste while also thickening the soup into a unique gravy-like consistency.
The soup boasted a greyish colour with a thick, grainy texture that might take some getting used to upon first taste. Despite the soup’s intense colour and consistency, its taste was actually mild and did not feel heavy, resulting in the ultimate wellness combo that will rejuvenate you.
Shareable dishes: Tofu SamHap & Minari Pancakes
More often than not, Korean side dishes are just as scrumptious as the main dishes. The same goes at MODU, with shareable dishes that paired perfectly with the bowls of steaming ginseng chicken soup.
The Tofu SamHap features an assortment of small food items for you to assemble: fried tofu, seaweed, pickled cabbage, fish roe, and a soy-sauce-based dipping sauce. The staff recommended that we soak the fried tofu in the dipping sauce before wrapping it in seaweed.
Upon first bite, the combination of all the individual ingredients created an incredibly savoury dish that had a slight crunch from the crispy seaweed.
Meanwhile, the Minari Pancakes feature a vegetable that is a staple in South Korea, the water dropwort. The pancakes were crispy with a slight vegetal taste, and their flavours were enhanced when paired with the dipping sauce.
The verdict
MODU’s Samgyetang does live up to its self-proclaimed moniker, ‘Hermes of Samgyetang’. The rich ginseng chicken broth tastes exceptionally high-quality, precisely because the soup base is so simple that any flaw in flavour would be immediately noticeable.
The comfortable dining experience, coupled with the generous portions of the set, is worth the money you’re paying for when you’re dining at MODU. Some of us could not finish our samgyetang and had to opt to take a portion of our meals away – that made for some premium leftovers for sure.
Address: L2T.04.0 & L2T.05.0, 2nd Floor, Dining Terrace, The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur
Opening hours: 11am-3pm & 5pm-11pm, Daily
Contact: 011-7575 8000 | MODU Instagram
Cover image adapted from: TheSmartLocal Malaysia
Photography by Jia-Ju.