[Seoul] Myeongdong Korean Beef Village BBQ 明洞京城炭火烧烤

If you're at Myeongdong, these would be familiar sights. Throngs and throngs of people. Smell of BBQ and bright lights from the shopping malls. First up, getting an egg bread for snacks. It has been years since I last ate one. Would it still be as good?

gyeran bbang seller

계란빵 gyeran bbang (egg bread)

The seafood grill looks good but we didn't get any. Our target for the night was Korean BBQ, so was saving stomach space for that.

yakitori looks so tempting

cat walk

We didn't have a clue of which Korean BBQ to go, so was just randomly walking and seeing which one to go into. Previous visit, I'd done Wangbijib and that was good!

which one?

Then, we were approached by a man and he managed to persuade us to go into his restaurant. Hmmm, I think we were too easily persuaded. Hahaha.

the restaurant is down there

The restaurant was spacious and not many diners in there. Ordered a few cuts of meats and the course set came with bibimbap and mini jeon (pancakes).

our table

someone famous ate here before?

As with any Korean BBQ, we ordered makgeolli (rice wine). Loved that it is served in a pot. Charcoal fire for the BBQ, that's a good start!

makgeolli 막걸리

BBQ commences

first slice

We love meats, so there were orders of pork collar, beef slices and beef tongue. The side dishes of the black beans was quite good. Kimchi, as usual, one of the must haves when eating in Seoul. BBQ meat and makgeolli were good combination. Enjoyed the dinner. Washroom is outside of the restaurant and need to walk up the stairs.

meat

marinated

cooking well

can't wait to eat these!

Besides the meats, the set included some other cooked foods. It was rather nice to have mixed rice after the BBQ. So comforting. Liked the beef soup too.

small bibimbap

mini jeon 파전 (service)

beef soup

It was quite difficult to get the staff attention at this restaurant though. Food is decent. The experience felt similar to eating out in Boat Quay/Clarke Quay area.

明洞京城炭火烧烤

Address: 194-94 Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Business Hours: Daily

Ginett @ Hotel G Middle Road

This was our second visit to this restaurant. Read about our first visit here. Met for dinner and drinks and first noticeable thing, is that the service staff at pretty much occupied most of the time. It took quite a while for the staff to notice those who had queued at the entrance.

We made a reservation via Chope, so no issue in getting our table. The tables are set very near one another hence, intimate conversations are almost impossible.

Nevertheless, this place offers good selection of reasonably priced wine bottles, and tasty food.

tinkle tinkle wine glasses

To start, we had Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014). Grape of the Chenin Blanc variant. Good to note that the 2014 vintage was awarded 1 Star from the Guide Hachette des Vins. The Guide Hachette des Vins is France's oldest and best selling wine guide.

Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014)

The wine itself is light golden in colour, citrussy with a tad of mineral taste. To accompany this, we had the cheeseboard. Am actually expecting like, just cheeses on the cheeseboard but to my pleasant surprise, it did arrive with slices of ham, chorizo, dried fruits and pickles. Yes, I know I am suaku! Hahaha.

cheeseboard @$28++

For the cheeses, we requested for one each of the hard, medium and soft. It was like a surprise board and the staff would choose for us so that it could safely pair with the wine.

Hence, the board has Livarot, Camembert and Brillat Savarin. Super loved the Brillat, so soft and creamy. Drizzle with a bit of honey and lay it ontop of that bread. Brilliant!

closer look at the parma and gherkins

Enjoyed the selection, the easy to drink wine and the light conversations. This was just at mid-week, so it was time for a breather. With a glass wine in hand, taking small sips and light bites with charcuterie, cheeses and bread, and just catching up on the latest on-goings with each other. Lovely.

just chillin'

But of course, we were actually pretty hungry. Ordered a couple of mains to share. Black truffle is in season, so ordered a dish with that to try. Our order were mostly meat-centric. Well, there aren't many vegetables for us in the menu. Oh, actually, there was Jerusalem Artichoke Veloute. Does it count as vegetable when it is in its soup form?

let's eat some truffle

For starters, we had escargot. The snails seemed to have shrunk. First time trying it here. It had been like a few years since I last ate an escargot but they do not seem to be this tiny now. Maybe a different breed?

escargot

For main course, there was beef cheek. Lovely piece of fork-tender meat. The sauce that had seeped right into its core. Came with a bowl of lovely creamy mash.

beef cheek in red wine reduction

mashed potato

For the beef cheek, we had red wine.From Saumur as well and priced at $45++ per bottle. It was much lighter than expected though. Lovely ruby coloured, light and fresh tasting, with flavours of berries.

Domaine des Hautes Troglodytes, Saumur Champigny (2016)

For food, the best dish that night was the Roasted Bresse Chicken (from the Truffle Showcase menu). The chicken was tender, easy to cut and lovely panfried skin. Yums.

Roasted Bresse Chicken @$42++

Thank you Elle, Ivan and Hoong An for the wine times. Let's suss out the next wine spot! See you soon.

Ginett

Address: 200 Middle Road, 188980
Website: https://www.hotelgsingapore.com/dining/ginett
Contact: +65 6809 7989

[Seoul] Ewha Shopping Street and Dakgalbi

We were at the shopping street close to Ewha Women University and was looking for a lunch place. Unfortunately, many were closed due to the Chuseok's holidays. Had to make do with some chicken skewer and Isaac Toast meanwhile.

street side vendor

putting on some sauce

super long tender chicken skewer @ ₩2000

The shop at Isaac Toast had a queue and most tables were taken. So we had to eat it outside of the shop. It was nice but those were not proper lunch. We wanted to go somewhere, sit down and have proper food.

Isaac Toast sandwich

Saw this dakgalbi shop somewhere along the many many rows of clothing/shoes/accessories shops. Unfortunately, we were there rather late for lunch and too early for dinner. At that awkward time of 3pm or so. The shop lights were off and a lady was actually sweeping the floor outside. We enquired and she said they were closed.

We were like disappointed and were discussing on where to go next when she took pity on us and asked us to follow her. So we did. Turned out that the lady was opening her shop for the 5 of us. So nice! Did not manage to take the name of the shop but it has a large standee poster of rooster and the restaurant is at basement level.

restaurant interior

We ordered dakgalbi and ginseng chicken soup to share.

banchans

must take picture first

cooking in progress

gracious boss who opened up her shop earlier for us hungry travellers

spicy chicken, tteokbokki, cabbages

in goes the rice

mix it all up

flatten the rice 

eat!

We thank the sweet lady boss (who looked a bit fierce tho) who was so gracious to let us into the shop although it was not time to open yet. She also did the cooking for the dakgalbi where the process took about 10 minutes.

ginseng chicken soup

Both the dakgalbi and the ginseng chicken soup were comforting to soothe our tummies. We left feeling full. The dakgalbi had a more homely flavours as compared to Yoogane. Felt much better after food, so we went walking and photo taking around EWHA University grounds.

EWHA Women University

so cottage like

nice architecture

look at the slope