Seed oil-free Korean BBQ,
the way grandma cooked it.
8 Korean BBQ is Singapore’s only Korean restaurant that cooks entirely without canola, sunflower, soybean or any industrial seed oil. Butter, ghee, rendered pork fat, and a little sesame oil — nothing else.
Most restaurants don’t think about the oil in the pan.
We did. We pulled every bottle of canola, sunflower and soybean oil out of our kitchen in 2017 — and rebuilt every recipe around butter, ghee and pork fat. Here’s why.
Industrial seed oils — canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed — are the cheapest cooking fats on the market. They’re what most kitchens reach for by default, because they’re neutral in flavour and about a quarter the price of butter or ghee. They also dominate the fryers, dressings and sauces of almost every restaurant in Singapore.
The nutrition debate around these oils is ongoing, and we’re not here to tell you what to believe. What we can say is this: traditional Korean home cooking doesn’t use them. A grandmother in Seoul frying pancakes uses animal fat. Toasting sesame seeds uses sesame oil. Rendering pork belly uses the pork belly itself. Those are the fats we cook with — not because of a trend, but because that’s how the food was meant to taste.
What we pulled out, and what we cook with instead.
✕Never in our kitchen
- Canola / Rapeseed oilThe restaurant default
- Soybean oilMost common in fryers
- Sunflower oilIncluding “high oleic”
- Safflower oil
- Corn oil
- Cottonseed oilOften in blends
- Grapeseed oil
- Rice bran oil
✓What we use instead
- Unsalted butterPancakes, sauces, pan-frying
- GheeBanchan, high-heat work
- Rendered pork fatFrom our own belly
- Beef tallowDeep-fry where applicable
- Sesame oilFinishing, traditional use
- Perilla oilFor specific dishes
- Extra-virgin olive oilCold dressings only
A seed oil-free kitchen isn’t harder — just honest.
Every station in our kitchen — grill, wok, fryer, pancake pan — was retooled for the fats above. Here’s what that actually looks like.
The grill does the work
Our pork belly is grilled table-side on cast iron. The belly’s own fat renders and self-bastes — no added oil enters the pan. It’s how this dish has always been cooked in Korea.
Butter in the batter
Korean jeon (savoury pancakes) are usually pan-fried in seed oil. Ours aren’t. We fold butter into the batter and crisp the edges in a ghee-brushed pan — slightly richer, properly Korean.
Sauces from scratch
Commercial gochujang, ssamjang and dipping sauces often contain soybean oil. We make ours in-house from gochugaru, fermented bean paste, garlic, and a drop of sesame oil — no industrial carriers.
Eight signature flavours — all seed oil-free.
Our signature 8 Colours Set features chestnut bellies in eight marinades. Every one is built on butter, sesame or pork fat — no exceptions.
About our seed oil-free kitchen
What counts as a seed oil?
Any oil extracted from plant seeds using industrial solvents and high-heat refining — canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed and rice bran oil. We don’t use any of them in our kitchen.
Is 8 Korean BBQ really the only seed oil-free Korean BBQ in Singapore?
As far as we’ve been able to verify, yes. Several Singapore restaurants claim “clean cooking” or “healthier oils”, but we are the only Korean BBQ restaurant that has publicly committed to cooking without any industrial seed oil — across every station, every menu item, every sauce.
What oil do you fry with, then?
Beef tallow, pork fat, or ghee, depending on the dish. Our Korean fried chicken is fried in rendered animal fat — the way it was cooked before commercial seed oils arrived in the 1970s.
Do you charge a premium for this?
Our pricing is in line with other premium Korean BBQ restaurants in Singapore — $35 to $70 per person depending on your set. Butter and ghee cost more than seed oil, but we’ve absorbed most of that rather than passing it on.
What about sesame oil — isn’t that a seed oil too?
Technically yes, but sesame oil is made by cold-pressing toasted sesame seeds — no solvents, no industrial refining, no high-heat processing. It’s used as a traditional finishing oil, not a cooking medium. We include it in our kitchen for authenticity.
Is this a weight-loss or “health” claim?
No. We don’t make medical claims. This is a culinary choice — we believe food cooked in real fats tastes better and matches traditional Korean technique. If the nutrition angle matters to you, we’re glad to be transparent about what’s in our pans.
Two outlets in Singapore.
Clarke Quay · The Central
- Address
- 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #02-79/90, Singapore 059817
- Phone
- +65 8692 1188
- Nearest
- Clarke Quay MRT (2 min walk)
- Hours
- Lunch 11:30–14:30 · Dinner 17:30–22:30
Shaw Centre
- Address
- 1 Scotts Road, #04-20/21, Singapore 228208
- Phone
- +65 9018 9212
- Nearest
- Orchard MRT (4 min walk)
- Hours
- Lunch 11:30–14:30 · Dinner 17:30–22:30
Taste the difference butter makes.
Book a table, or order our 8 signature pork belly flavours for delivery. Either way — no seed oil involved.
Reserve a Table