EGGDROP Incheon Airport (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

I am usually not a fan of 4D3N trips (or 3D2N trip for that matters) cuz it always feels like it has ended even before it even started. But I thought this trip to Seoul (also of the 4D3N variety) gave me a sense of achievement for a change. First and foremost, I needed this getaway badly, after a brutal run of meetings and events that took place at work; and secondly, I managed to fill my itinerary up with three very impressive meals and some nice café hopping. Needless to say, I am a little rejuvenated with some good food and Me Time and I am ready to get back behind that desk of mine once a while and do what I do best. 

After taking off for Incheon Airport at around 6am-ish, we hit a bit of traffic on the way but managed to check in ahead of schedule. This allowed us some extra time for breakfast and I am dropping by EGGDROP, a Korean sandwich brand which has taken the market by storm in recent years. 



250 stores in just three years is no small feat but let's see if they are as good as advertised.

They are preparing these sandwiches with great care.

Avo Bacon Street Toast (₩7,400) – This came with a fried egg, bacon, cheese, tomato and a few strips of avocado. Not bad but really nothing to write home about. The tomato-based sauce was particularly underwhelming. Sorry, but I just don't see the hype around it.

Now with my stomach filled, I am ready to return home.

Food Rating: 4.6/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 2840 Unseo-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Tel: +82 0507 1390-8705

Opening Hours: 6:00am - 10:00pm daily 

Cheongsudang 청수당 清水堂 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

Cheongsudang (청수당 清水堂) stands out as a captivating Hanok-style café nestled in the charming neighborhood of Ikseon-dong (익선동).



Surrounded by lush greenery, the bakery café has become immensely popular among locals and tourists thanks to its delectable selection of Mont Blanc, soufflé castella and fromage cake.

At 7pm, I decided to find myself a seat here while everyone was still enjoying their dinner.

Mont Blanc (₩14,000) – One of the signature desserts around here.

Unfortunately, there was only fresh cream underneath the thin layer of chestnut vermicelli and nothing more. I actually didn't finish this.

Cheongsudang is just a stone's throw from the famous Nakwon Cafe, an iconic railway-themed café where patrons must traverse the train tracks in order to enter the café.

Food Rating: 5.1/10

Price: ₩₩₩₩

Address: 144 Ikseon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Jongno 3(sam)-ga

Tel: +82 0507 1318-8215

Website: www.glowseoul.co.kr

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 9:00pm daily

Uyeonhwa Ikseon 우연화 익선한식 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★★☆

When popular Japanese restaurant Hikiniku To Come (挽肉と米) (literally means “minced meat and rice”) opened its first Hong Kong branch in IFC mall back in May, I was among those attempting as walk-in customers without luck. Six months later, I still haven't gotten the chance to check out their charcoal-grilled hamburger steaks but hopefully, I would get a similarly exciting experience at Uyeonhwa Ikseon (우연화 익선한식), a Korean restaurant in Seoul serving charcoal-grilled patties made with Korean beef.

Like many restaurants and cafes in Ikseon-dong, Uyeonhwa is housed inside a hanok-style building.

As the restaurant only offers two kinds of dinner sets (₩25,000), it was easy to do it through the ticketing machine. Simply enter the table number and choose the appetizer and main dish respectively. The menu also offers translations in English and Chinese making it very easy for tourists like us.

We were seated at the bar table which provided front row seats to the open kitchen where the chef patiently placed the beef patties into the grill one after another.

The ventilation system effectively cleared the smoke from the charcoal grill, allowing us to sit back, relax and watch our patties cook through the transparent glass partitions.

While the chef was putting the finishing touch on our patties, it was time to get our sauce ready (only four kinds of sauce to choose from, wasabi, dried garlic, Korean chili paste and tomato).

As a purist, all I needed was an egg yolk and some sweet soy to go with my beef patty.

Each set came with a garden salad or this cod roes dish which has been sprinkled with fresh chives and sesame.

Also included with the set was this bucket of steamed rice.

The first of my two beef patties was there, emanating a robust aroma from the charcoal grill.

Can't wait to enjoy this with my rice!

Well, the patty was less charred than I originally expected. It was incredibly soft, juicy and tender.

Not sure if it was intentional but my second patty was noticeably less cooked in the middle than the first one but equally delicious especially the sweet soy and yolk.

I wasn't sure how it stacked up against the prized hamburger steak at Hikiniku To Come but for me, this meal provided me a truly mouthwatering experience. Highly recommended for any hamburger steak fan! 

Food Rating: 6.4/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 23 Donui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Jongno 3(sam)-ga

Tel: +82 0507 1490-7984

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 9:00pm daily

Bebe Donut Ikseon-dong 베베도넛 익선 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★☆☆☆☆

Originated from Yongsan (龍山區), Bebe Donut (베베도넛) looks the perfect vintage American-style donut shops which are hard to come by in Asia these days.

Since we still have another hour to burn before dinner time, we decide to come in for a quick look.

Interestingly, they don't offer the "normal" doughnuts here which are typically ring-shaped or in the form of filled dough balls. Instead, they have these castella doughnuts in different flavors. 

Time to grab one and check it out at their throw-back dine-in area. 

Corn cream castella (₩5,500) – This looks more like a hot dog covered in corn powder!

Let's see what they have got in store for us.....

Underneath the sweet corn powder was a piece of French cruller that was really soft and musty. And no, it didn't have the slightly crisp outer layer one would expect from an ideal doughnut. Not surprisingly, half of this ended up in the garbage bin.

Food Rating: 2.9/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 135 Ikseon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Jongno 3(sam)-ga

Tel: +82 0507 1400-9442

Website: www.instagram.com/bebedonutshop

 

Yebindang 예빈당 藝彬堂 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

We are almost ready to take off for Ikseon-dong (益善洞) but there is one last thing we'd like to do in Seongsu-dong, a visit to a highly coveted traditional Korean dessert café called Yebindang (예빈당 藝彬堂).

They are best known for their duteoptteok (traditional Korean steamed rice Cake with mung beans and nuts).

The spacious dessert shop also has a tea salon for those interested in having a drink along with their sweet rice cakes.

These make perfect gifts for our friends in Hong Kong!

Apart from their rice cakes, they also offer a small selection of Yam joo-ak, a deep-fried doughnut shaped dough including this one which I thought was flavored with cinnamon.

Now that we have got our souvenirs, it's time to embark on our next journey. Ikseon-dong, here we come!

Price: ₩₩₩₩

Address: 315-7 Seongsu-dong 2(i)-ga, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Seongsu

Tel: +82 02 3443-5542

Website: www.instagram.com/yebindang_cafe/ 

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 9:30pm daily

Café Onion Seongsu (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★★☆

After a relaxing lunch at Alla Prima, I ventured back to Seongsu-dong to check out the flagship stores of various Korean glasses brand and there were a number of them in the area. But before I started with my shopping, I had some unfinished business from last night – a trip to Café Onion Seongsu.

Café Onion Seongsu has been one of the hottest bakery cafes in Seoul for a while now but the hype never seems to go away.

In fact, more and more people are getting on the bandwagon to get a feel of what it is like to be chilling out at a former factory. 

Built in the 1970s, this space was previously a supermarket, a restaurant, a repair shop and most recently, a metal factory.

I guess, most people (like myself) are drawn to the industrial-style décor featuring old and rustic elements.

Forget about climbing those stairs again (like last time), I am happy to hang around the garden here.  

A trip to Café Onion is never complete without a sip of their signature drinks. Try this iconic royal milk tea (₩8,000), one of the rustic cafe's most popular drink. 

What I love most about their milk tea is the distinctive flavors coming from the mix of ceylon tea. Very very addictive.

I don't think I have tasted anything like it before.

I just got a ping from Jelloman and she's coming down from Myeongdong. Time to meet up with her and spend the afternoon here, before leaving for Ikseon-dong for our supper.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 8 Achasan-ro 9-gil, Seongsu-dong 2(i)-ga, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Seongsu

Tel: +82 70-7816-2710

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 10:00pm (Mon - Fri), 10:00am - 10:00pm (Sat - Sun) 

Alla Prima (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★★☆

Alla Prima was a late addition to my itinerary after realizing that I had no real chance of getting a table at Soigné this weekend. The 2-Michelin-starred Italian restaurant by owner-chef Kim Jin-hyuk has always been on my radar but after hearing some bad experience there from my buddy V, it was put on the back burners for the last little while. 

Chef Kim was trained in Japan before opening Alla Prima in 2015. All it took was a year and a half for the chef to garner his first Michelin star in 2017 and the second star came in 2019, four years after the restaurant was first opened. 

I was told that sitting at the restaurant’s L-shaped counter is a must for any first-timers at Alla Prima.

The uphill walk from the subway station was a little more challenging than I first anticipated so something to cool myself down a bit before treating myself to the exquisite Italian fare.

Spanish mackerel, dragon fruit, hazelnut, myoga – Underneath the two slices of Spanish mackerel from Japan was a refreshing salad made with dragon fruit, hazelnut, purple onion and spinach. The salad dressing came with some nice fruity notes (dragon fruit?) and there was some extra heat provided by myoga, a Korean root vegetable reminiscent of ginger in flavor.

Emmental cheese, vegetables, herbs – Next up, another salad.

This was made with over 40 different vegan ingredients ranging from roots and leaves to the flowers. The dish was finished off with a nice pour of Emmental cheese emulsion.

Just before I got started with my salad, I was handed a long list of ingredients used in the dish.

Glutinous rice, barley, egg, caviar – Following the two salads was one of Chef Kim's staples in his tasting menu featuring a quenelle of glutinous rice blended with barley and meat from chicken wings. It was accompanied by a quenelle of caviar sitting on a sauce made with slow-cooked egg yolk to infuse some robust flavors to the rice. Interesting dish.

Pike eel, burdock, chopi – A hearty Korean dish with local pike eel and crispy burdock noodles. The key was the broth made with the fish head, bones and dried vegetables. Very rich and deep flavors. 

Looked like Chef Kim was taking charge on the next dish. 

Rump steak, eggplant – Admittedly not my favorite cut but I thought the rump steak was beautifully executed, having initially slow-cooked, then charcoal grilled and finally finished up in the oven. The flesh was lean and wobbly but incredibly flavorful. There were two sauces on the side, the first a typical red wine reduction with dill and Korean rice wine. The second of the two sauces was an acidic one made with olives and capers. It was a pretty easy choice for me (the red wine sauce of course!). 

Pine mushroom, bottarga, sudachi, spaghetti – The pasta dish today was spaghetti tossed with pine mushrooms, which I had yesterday at Eatanic Garden as well.

The al dente pasta was finished with a nice sprinkle of bottarga and there was a bit of sudachi there for some nice zesty flavors. 

Mascarpone, espresso, marsala – A deconstructed tiramisu as my pre-dessert which was very light in textures and flavors.  

Indian long pepper, banana, pineapple – The 'real' dessert was pineapple mousse and cubes, banana ice-cream and Indian long pepper all under a few sheets of crispy tuile. It felt like having a deconstructed ice-cream cone all together.  

After dessert, there were tea and a couple of mignardises to close out the meal.

Service was impeccable from start to finish, thanks largely to the solo effort by my server Tyler who spoke really fluent English. It was an experience incomparable to last night's at Mingles, where several servers merely dropped off our dishes while rushing through the introductions. Despite not being able to visit Soigné, one of my favorite restaurants in Seoul, this was more than just a replacement. While there wasn't much in the "wow" department this afternoon, each dish was expertly prepared and cooked to perfection. Ultimately, that's what truly matters. An experience with impeccably executed food and service.

Food Rating: 7.5/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 13 Hakdong-ro 17-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Hakong

Tel: +82 02 511-2555

Website: www.allaprima.co.kr

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Wed - Mon)