Beauty World Korean Food Guide: Best Stalls & Menus

Most people come to Beauty World for its boisterous hawker centre, but the Korean food tucked into this Bukit Timah complex is the real reason to linger. Pink Candy, a family-run kitchen on the fourth floor of Beauty World Centre, has been serving kimbap, kimchi and steaming bowls of army stew for more than a decade (Eatbook, Singapore food guide) — here’s what’s actually worth ordering, what it really costs, and which nearby restaurants deserve the detour.

Cuisine variety: BBQ, pancake, noodle, tonkatsu · Notable dish: Korean-style tonkatsu (Myung Ga II) · Location: 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore · Known price range: S$8.50–S$34.90 per dish

Seven facts, one pattern: the sources agree the complex exists, and the listings disagree on the details — each row below traces one detail to a named source.

What Are the Best Korean Restaurants at Beauty World? A Review Guide

Search results for “beauty world korean food” usually push two names to the top — Joo Mak and Myung Ga II. The deeper answer is Pink Candy, a family-run Korean kitchen hiding on the fourth floor of Beauty World Centre. Here’s how the three options, plus a Korean-Chinese lunch stall, split the work.

Pink Candy: the fourth-floor hidden gem

• What to order: bibimbap, ginseng chicken, seafood stew and fried chicken are the dishes Women’s Weekly highlights (The Singapore Women’s Weekly, lifestyle magazine)
• One Tripadvisor reviewer called the food authentic and praised the army stew and seafood pancake (Tripadvisor, Pink Candy Korean Snack Bar Cafe)
• HungryGoWhere describes the space as hidden on the fourth floor, with an al fresco area and rooftop views (HungryGoWhere, Singapore dining directory)

Pink Candy is the easiest Korean meal at Beauty World to miss and the hardest to forget. The menu runs to home-style favourites rather than tabletop grills, and the kimchi shelf alone — cucumber, green onion, cabbage, apple and radish — is a reason to climb the stairs. Because the kitchen is family-run and the food is cooked to order, expect a slower, more personal rhythm than a hawker counter.

Joo Mak: the BBQ counter inside the food centre

• Location: inside Beauty World Food Centre (Time Out Singapore, city guide)
• Reviewers single out the BBQ pork and beef, grilled mackerel, jia jang noodle, seafood pancake and steam egg (Tripadvisor, Joo Mak Korean Restaurant)
• Big-group move: order a BBQ set and a jia jang noodle to share.

Joo Mak is the answer when the craving is grilled meat. The Tripadvisor reviews cluster around the BBQ sets and the black-bean noodle, and the restaurant’s own page says the kitchen serves “traditional Korean soul food with premium quality meat” — the full quote appears in the review section below. Time Out’s food-centre guide places it inside the hawker hall, so sit near the grill and let the smoke do the marketing.

Myung Ga II: the over-size Korean tonkatsu

• Where: Bukit Timah Plaza, a short walk from Beauty World MRT (MiddleClass, Singapore food blog)
• Known for: Korean-style tonkatsu in large portions
• Ordering note: the cutlet is the signature; skip it only if you came for soup.

Myung Ga II fills the crispy-crunch slot that the hawker stalls don’t. MiddleClass, a Singapore food blog, covers it as one of the better-value meals around Bukit Timah Plaza, and the tonkatsu is the dish that keeps the queue moving. It’s not the first thing a search for “korean food” suggests, which is exactly why it’s a useful second stop.

CJ Malatang: the Korean-Chinese lunch bowl

• Style: Korean-Chinese malatang with a build-your-own broth
• Where: inside Beauty World Food Centre, among the lunch-focused stalls
• Best for: a fast single-bowl meal

CJ Malatang is the least documented of the four, so treat its menu as a scouting note rather than a verified fact. The food-centre context comes from Time Out’s guide; the malatang formula — pick your ingredients, get a spicy broth — is the standard Korean-Chinese fast-lunch play. If it’s still operating, it’s the fastest Korean-adjacent meal in the complex.

The pattern: Beauty World’s Korean food splits into four jobs — Pink Candy does home cooking and kimchi, Joo Mak does the grill, Myung Ga II does the cutlet, and CJ Malatang does the fast bowl. The trade-off: no single counter does all four, so the smart visit plans for two stops at most.

What Korean Dishes Are on the Menu at Beauty World?

Across the four kitchens, the menu math stays simple: most single dishes land under S$15, while stews and pancakes push higher. The prices below come from published listings — and as the army stew shows, two listings can disagree by a lot.

The price map from the sources we used: Eatbook’s guide (Eatbook, Singapore food guide) prices kimbap at S$8.50, black bean noodles and bibimbap at S$12.90 each, spicy cold beef noodles at S$14.90, kimchi pancake at S$21.90 and the pork army stew at S$34.90. HungryGoWhere’s listing (HungryGoWhere, Singapore dining directory) shows the same stew at S$22.90 and apple kimchi at S$8 for 500g. A food blog from Nickblitzz (Nickblitzz, Singapore food blog) prices jjamppong, a seafood noodle soup with prawns and mussels, at S$12.90.

Eight prices, one pattern: rice and noodle dishes sit at S$12.90, and the stews are where the listings start arguing.

Korean BBQ sets

• Joo Mak’s reviewers highlight BBQ pork, beef and grilled mackerel, as noted in the reviews above
• Serving idea: sets work best for groups of three or more

Korean BBQ at Beauty World means Joo Mak. The grill sets are the share-table option, and the jia jang noodle is the usual solo-diner workaround.

Seafood pancake and steam egg

• Seafood pancake: praised by a Pink Candy reviewer on Tripadvisor, as covered above
• Steam egg: part of Joo Mak’s reviewed lineup
• Kimchi pancake: the S$21.90, share-bowl version at Pink Candy

These are the “order when there are at least two of you” dishes. The pancake is the most filling side on the table; the steam egg is the comfort-food closer.

Tonkatsu

• Myung Ga II’s signature is Korean-style tonkatsu with generous portions (MiddleClass review, linked in the table above)

Tonkatsu is the wildcard in Beauty World’s Korean lineup — a Japanese-inspired cutlet served the Korean way, and the option with the least published documentation.

Malatang

• CJ Malatang offers a customizable broth, Korean-Chinese style, inside the food centre

Malatang is the “build your own” meal of the group. It won’t give you the same review trail as Pink Candy or Joo Mak, so order it for speed, not for the scrapbook.

What this means: you can eat very well at Beauty World for under S$15, but the two menu items with the biggest price swings — army stew and pancake — also happen to be the ones worth sharing. Budget S$10 to S$15 per person and verify the board at the counter.

Where Is Beauty World Food Centre and How to Get There?

Address and MRT

• Nearest MRT: Beauty World, Downtown Line (Wikipedia, linked in the table above)
• The food centre and Beauty World Centre mall share the 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road cluster (Google Maps, linked above)

Exit the station toward Upper Bukit Timah Road and walk to the 144 block. Google Maps lists the food centre and the mall side by side, so it’s worth opening the map before you leave the station.

Parking availability

• The sources in this guide do not document current car-park capacity; Google Maps (Google Maps listing) shows live parking before you drive

That’s the honest answer. The Downtown Line is the lower-stress route, and if you do drive, use the map rather than an old blog post to find the nearest lot.

Operating hours

• Hawker centres under NEA’s management have stalls that set their own operating pace (NEA, hawker regulator)
• Visitor-guide estimates put the complex’s day around 8am to 10pm (SingaporeGo, visitor guide)

There is no single opening bell. The hawker rhythm rewards early visits; if you want a calm first look at Pink Candy’s menu, a late-morning arrival is the lower-risk choice.

The catch: Beauty World is two experiences in one block — the covered hawker hall and the mall’s sit-down counters. Pick one exit gate and you’ll miss the other; orient with the map before you leave the station.

Is Beauty World Food Centre Still Open? Latest Updates and Photos

The short answer: yes. Beauty World Food Centre remains open, and the Korean stalls on this list show recent signs of life. The longer answer is about stall-level change, which is where old blog posts go stale.

Renovation history

• Beauty World’s modern retail-and-hawker identity took shape after the Downtown Line station opened in 2015 (Wikipedia, Beauty World area)
• Singapore’s hawker centres operate under NEA’s hawker management programme, as noted above

The station opening reshaped the area into the food destination it is today. None of the sources used in this guide reports an official closure of the food centre itself.

Stall closures

• Pink Candy: a 2026 review still catalogued 43 menu items, a strong sign the kitchen is active (Uma Keme Hungry, food blog)
• Joo Mak: recent Tripadvisor reviews continue to appear, as covered in the review section above
• CJ Malatang and smaller stalls: no official directory confirms their current status

The risk isn’t the building — it’s the individual stalls. A blog post from a few years ago may describe a stall that has since moved or changed its menu. The 2026 review of Pink Candy is the best freshness signal on this list; for everything else, use recent photos and recent reviews as your filter.

Photos of the food centre

• Time Out’s editorial guide includes photo coverage of the food centre (Time Out Singapore, city guide)
• Google Maps hosts recent user photos of the current stalls, as linked in the table above

Photos are the fastest evidence that the Korean counter you’re chasing still looks like the one in the blog post. A stall with recent photos and recent reviews is a much safer bet than one with neither.

Why this matters: “open” and “unchanged” are different things. The food centre is open; the stall you read about may have moved, renamed or changed its menu — verify the name, not just the building.

What Is Beauty World Market? Korean Food and More

The short version: “Beauty World Market” is the mall-side part of the same complex at 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, attached to the hawker centre. For Korean food, the market’s anchor tenant is Pink Candy on the fourth floor.

Beauty World Market overview

• The complex’s modern shape pairs a covered hawker centre with a neighbouring mall (Wikipedia, linked above)
• Both sides share the 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road address cluster

Locals use “Beauty World Market” and “Beauty World Centre” loosely, which sends people to the wrong floor. HungryGoWhere places Pink Candy in Beauty World Centre and calls it hidden on the fourth floor — that’s the same complex, one building over from the hawker hall.

Korean food stalls in the Market

• Pink Candy operates from the fourth floor of Beauty World Centre, with al fresco seating and rooftop views (HungryGoWhere, linked in the review section above)
• The homemade kimchi lineup includes apple, cucumber, green onion, cabbage and radish varieties
• Budget guide: a meal runs upwards of S$10 per person (The Singapore Women’s Weekly, lifestyle magazine)

The market’s Korean experience is sit-down and café-like, a different pace from the hawker hall below the same block. The apple kimchi and the rooftop seats are the two reasons to choose Pink Candy over a generic food-court table.

Comparison with Food Centre

• Food Centre: fast, casual hawker counters such as Joo Mak and CJ Malatang
• Market/Centre: quieter sit-down counters such as Pink Candy on the fourth floor

The practical difference is pace. The hawker centre is grab-a-table, order-at-counter energy; the market floor above is more café-like. Both count as Beauty World Korean food, and they’re a two-minute walk apart.

The implication: when someone recommends Beauty World Market for Korean food, they almost always mean Pink Candy — a fourth-floor café, not a hawker stall. Know which one you’re being sent to and you’ll avoid the classic wrong-floor hunt.

Weighing the ups and downs of a Beauty World Korean food trip looks like this.

If you leave Beauty World having eaten only Korean BBQ, you’ve seen half the story. The real value is the contrast: Pink Candy’s kimbap and apple kimchi on a fourth-floor rooftop, Joo Mak’s grill inside the hawker centre, Myung Ga II’s tonkatsu across the street. For anyone planning a Bukit Timah food run, the decision is clear — start at Pink Candy with the S$8.50 kimbap, or go straight to Joo Mak’s BBQ if you’re in a group; the only wrong move is trusting a single old blog post about the menu.

Frequently asked questions