This place is outstanding.

Nestled into a quiet area of Sinsa-dong, Gangnam. It’s back to an adorable park. Simple and understated design and deco. It was wonderful.

While it is an upscale dining experience and is perfect for a special meal. It is also perfect for a food lovers dining experience.

There are two types of tasting menus. 

• Design Tasting Menu: Where you choose your own appetizer, rice/noodle, fish or meat main and your dessert. |Lunch price 44,000 won|
• Chef’s Tasting Menu: The chef chooses everything but your main. The main is a choice between a steak or lobster. |Lunch price 66,000 won|

We choose the Design Tasting Menu so we could pick our own. I highly recommend this one. Click below to take this food adventure with my friend, Phil and I.

The menu. We had many choices. I made almost all of them at Phil’s request.

Nice + simple deco. Slate place mats, black table linens. Subtle wall art. Glass walls facing the woods.

Phil’s mimosa. I suspected he would really enjoy this.

Amuse-bouche: On the spoon is a pickled quail egg with gochuchang and puffed rice. In the dish is a “nacho” with mussel, avocado dip on a fried tortilla shell. Both of which tasted divine. The certainly got me excited for the rest of the meal.

Crystal’s Appetizer: Mushroom Quatorze with truffle aioli and Parmesan cheese. If there are mushrooms on a menu, you can make a good bet that I will choose it. The mushrooms were moist and earthy. The aioli and Parmesan cheese made it taste like a full meal. The presentation was simple and beautiful to look at.

Phil’s appetizer: Tuna Salad with seaweed powder and kimchi. This included raw and sauteed tuna, quail eggs and aioli. The most impressive tuna salad you could ever hope to eat. The textures worked perfectly together and I love how it was deconstructed.

Taking copious notes 🙂

Crystal’s Rice/Noodle: Beansprout Paella with beansprouts, anchovies, barley and a quail egg. This certainly had the smokey taste of a paella but it didn’t have the texture. I expected it to be a bit drier or crispy but this was quite moist, almost slimy. Possibly my least favorite choice.

Phil’s Rice/Noodle: Sea Urchin Rice with seaweed puree and fried millets. This was the dish I could only eat one bite of. I do not like sea urchin and its blobbly, icky texture. But, this was wholly Phil’s choice. If you enjoy sea urchin, don’t listen to my opinion. I can’t judge the taste well.

Adorable steak knife.

Crystal’s Main: Lamb with gochujang sauce, perilla leaf, kale, zucchini, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and fried rice cakes. This was possibly one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever eaten. The entire dish tasted like being on a farm in paradise. The meat was cooked rare, it was soft and tender but crispy on the outside. The veggies were cooked into a mix of wilted and crispy. The sauce was a nice, spicy kick and I am SO going to learn how to fry rice cakes this way. I needed a new word to describe this main so I used a thesaurus, this word seemed perfect:

Phil’s dessert: Cherry Blossoms, strawberry ice cream with cream cheese cake. Holy good lord. Strawberry ice cream, strawberry mousse, cheese cake and strawberry compote come together in a design for the season…it’s unbelievable. I can forgive the fact that this is not made of cherries, but strawberries, because it is so unique and attractive. How wonderful does that chocolate branch look? My hat to you, chef.

After lunch treat: Citrus tea with rice cake cookies.

Phil and his peppermint tea.

Of all the high end restaurants I’ve visited in Seoul, this one might be the best choice. Simple design, delicious food that is both unique without going overboard, the perfect amount of food because I didn’t leave feeling disgusting. It’s quite small and you must make reservations. Please visit when you need a touch of class and a bit of show offiness for your lunch.

Dinner + Lunch prices are on the website with a full menu.

Jungsik