seoul searching
12/11/2006
Our Seoul faves
- Ulji-ro Co-op Residence
So despite the crazy crowds and if you don’t really mind roughing it out a little – that means not expecting hotel quality service (little toilettries, a luxury room with a view, pretty cleaned up part of town, room service, the service staff to clean your room thoroughly every day) then something like the Co-op Residence do nicely. Hey, how can we argue with free high speed internet access and really smart storage devices? It’s got a great location – five minutes away from the Dongdaemun Stadium Interchange Station, five minutes away from malls like Doota and Miliore, seven minutes away from PyongHwa Market, and just upstairs from back alley local restaurants!Starts from $80 a night, coin-operated laundromat with dryer facilities in the basement. Detergent comes free, bring your own fabric softner if you need it.
- Deoksugunggil
The small alley between Deoksugung (the Palace right in front of City Hall and the Seoul Plaza Hotel) and the Dunkin Donuts hides an amazing calm in the middle of Seoul. It’s a pleasant walk through towards the Chongdong Theatre amidst maple and gingko trees, the side wall of Deoksugung, and the people going to Church.Past the Franciscan Library you’ll find a cute little restaurant called Little Provence. It’s not too bad, fusion Korean, like cutesy Japanese-French. Spaghetti carbonara costs $8 and Kimchi Pilaf (kinda like Kimchi Fried Rice), $9.
About 300m past Little Provence on the other side of the street you’ll find Gimbapgwamandusai, a quaint old-style Korean Restaurant where everything on the menu is between $2 and $5. Try the Gimbap, the mandu and the Kimchi mandu. They also make bibimbap if you need something ricey. It’s opposite a cafe, and they make Gimbap in the window.
- Bistro d°
Famed for brunch, this little bistro is actually a showroom for the special kimchi refridgerators. Amazing. Anyway, after Heesun brought us there for dinner we had to go back.Noteworthy is the dinner Prix Fixe ($38) – pre-appetisers, appetiser, main course and dessert. For the main course you have a choice of Sirloin or Tenderloin. The sirloin is especially good, it comes encrusted with peppercorns and is done just right.
I also had the Black Cod – really good. $18. Grilled black cod on a bed of veggies with a light herb cream sauce. Really good.
And the Fishermans’ Pasta – $34, serves 2 according to the menu, but this platter of seafood pasta was enough to feed four Asians, and the helping of seafood on it – mussels, clams, fish, prawns, lobster, scallop – was really generous. I’m a sucker for marinaras, so this was my favourite.
The pickled veggies were also really good appetisers.
Oh oh, check out neat food reviews (in English) of Korean Restaurants – Mary Eats.
All prices in USD. 1USD ~ 950 KRW. 1 SGD ~ 600 KRW
