Jungsik was labelled by some as the first Korean restaurant to incorporate molecular techniques into its dishes. Korean produces, French cooking and molecular gastronomy, those were already enough reasons for us to look forward to this lunch.
Booking a table at Jungsik was much easier than I originally thought. The reservation staff speaks fluent English and that was done over the phone in a matter of seconds. But finding the restaurant turned out to be the difficult part.
I am first to admit that finding a restaurant in Seoul is never easy even if you have the address holding firmly in your hand. Not unless it's located in a well established hotel.
Luckily we arrived by taxi and the GPS managed to lead us right to the restaurant which is located on the third floor of a commercial building near the Dosan Park in the trendy Sinsa-dong district.
The restaurant is a little 15-20 seater overlooking the Dosan Park. Behind a sliding door is a decent-sized private dining room.
Their 5-course lunch menu, called a "Design tasting menu" allows diners to mix and match their own lunch set based on five different categories (appetizer, rice/noodle, seafood, meat and dessert).
The amuse bouche was a disappointing start to the meal. A spoonful of Chicken soup jelly with pickle, chicken bits and radish was rather ordinary despite the molecular implication. The clams with pickles, kimchi, radish and onion was okay but uninspiring. No sign of the promised French-Korean connection there (3/10).
Things started to pick up as we started to see a bit more creativity in our starters. Small-sized oysters crusted with seaweed powder were fresh in taste. But the topping with a spicy mayonnaise sauce and pickled radish could have used more imagination (5/10). Perhaps something like a kimchi foam would have done the trick?
More successful was the poached egg, kimchi purée, parmesan cheese biscuit and porcini mushroom in a goat cheese foam (6/10). This looked like a dish coming from a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant.
Next up were the noodles and they were inspirations from the famous Korean street food. The first to be tested was a re-invented version of the traditional Korean rice cake (or rice balls in this case). The dish was served with cheese, fried potato and green pepper sauce.
Our server said think of it as pasta. It was a bit spicy but it didn't feel like a pasta at all (4/10).
I had a noodle in a flavorful foie gras broth with lemon and zucchini zest, translucent noodle and roasted duck breast. I liked this one better than the rice balls (5/10).
After an uneventful session with noodles, we fast forwarded to the main courses starting with a crispy duck.
If I did not misunderstand from our server, the duck was fried and dried for four days. It was served with its natural jus, a Korean spicy bbq sauce, rice cake and assorted vegetables. This one was just average (3/10).
Equally average was the pork belly smoked and pan fried with sweet soy sauce, red onion and spring onion (4/10).
It turned out that the dessert saved the day for us. It was an excellent display of craftmanship on the part of the pastry chef in preparing the two desserts in style.
I had the "flower pot" which was angelica root flavoured ice cream in a chocolate pot. The "soil" was chocolate powder mixed with corn flakes. That was an amazing dessert with fantasic look (8/10).
However, the "Jang Dok" proved to be even better. The Jivara latte mousse was made into the shape of a pair of kimchi containers. It was beautifully decorated with sugar straws and snowflakes sugar powder to make it more real.
The mousse tasted silky smooth and we had to really sit back to admire the artistic work (9/10).
Jungsik New York which was opened in 2011, recently earned its first Michelin star. From a culinary standpoint, I was not convinced that their sister store in Seoul was ready for one star (if Michelin guide decides to come to Seoul.) to be brutally honest but the service was definitely top-class.
Price: ₩₩₩
Address: 649-7 Sinsadong, Gangnamgu, Seoul, South Korea
Closest Metro Station: Apgujeong
Tel: +82 2-517-4654
<Click here for a more recent review on Jungsik - Sept 2015>
<Click here for a more recent review on Jungsik - July 2016>
