Monday, June 2, 2014

Harmonium (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

We only decided on this trip to Seoul less than 24 hours before our departure. Needless to say, we didn't have time to plan our itinerary carefully. As expected, most of the restaurants on our wish list have already been fully booked so we had to go with places off our chart. Harmonium, for one, came off the chart.




With a strong partnership with one Michelin star chef Roberto Petza, Harmonium prides itself as a fine dining restaurant serving an Italian cuisine with a Sardinian twist (Of course, it's not a coincidence that chef Roberto Petza is from Sardinia). Located in the Itaewon district next to the Laos Embassy, the restaurant is housed in a charming 2-storey mansion with a lush garden.



First and foremost, a lovely amuse bouche was served right before our starter in the form of a warm asparagus cake. The asparagus cake was garnished with a little bit of cheese foam, ham and tomato (5/10).


Our starter was a simple pan seared scallops with mixed greens, tomatoes, herbs and orange dressing. A very refreshing start but nothing sophisticated about this dish (4/10).



Served on a pool of shitake mushrooms and radish cream were roasted octopus with nice aroma. That was undisputedly better than the scallops (5/10).


We had a little too much barbecued meat the last few days so we decided to stay away from meat on this lunch.
Our first main course was a rigatoni with octopus, cherry tomatoes and turnip greens. The pasta was wonderfully tossed in a rich tomato sauce and if there was a little more octopus, the dish would have been a very enjoyable one (6/10).


Almost equally successful was our other main course, a creamed organic brown risotto served with chopped pear and smoked amberjack (6/10).



If you are tired of the family style pasta and pizza places in Seoul, Harmonium is definitely a nice change of pace with an authentic Italian cuisine served in a fine dining environment. But expect your wallet to be a lot lighter after the meal.




Food Rating: 5.5/10 
Price: ₩₩
Address: 657-37, Hannam-2dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Closest Metro Station: Itaewon / Hangangjin
Tel: +82 2792-3972
Website: www.harmonium.co.kr



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