Ras called the restaurant (02-529-8248) to find out when it opened and to make a reservation.  Since it was 1pm at the time, the call was forwarded to Chef Kim’s cell phone, who took the reservation himself.  At first, we weren’t sure if a reservation was even needed at 5:30pm, when the restaurant opened its doors.  Upon arriving (late) at 5:40pm, Chef Kim smiled towards Raswan and said, “You must be Ras.  Welcome.”  We were led to the back area of the restaurant and saw that all seven tables there were reserved.  We were then relieved to have made the call after all.  The two larger tables in the front of the restaurant were the only ones not reserved.

When we entered the restaurant, we were only the second party in the restaurant.  Menus were given in both English and Korean.  Ras and I already had an idea of what to order, having read ZenKimchi’s blog post.  As a starter, we opted to skip the BulGalbi and Grilled Mushroom Organic Salad and get some other mushroom appetizer with bread.  Upon hearing of our order, Chef Kim came out of the kitchen, kneeled down to our table, and offered to give us advice on what to order.  He said the mushroom/bread starter was just a regular dish, nothing special.  Instead, he advised us to get the BulGalbi and Mushroom salad.  Hey, who are we to argue with the chef?  We agreed, he smiled, and went back to the kitchen to prepare the salad.

While we waited, this came out: broccoli with garlic oil and sprinkles of deep fried garlic pieces.  Delicious!  Ras and Kevin ended up fighting for the last pieces of the deep fried garlic.

Our salad then came out.

Wow.  We were not disappointed by this.  Utterly delicious.  The meat was tender, the mushrooms were perfectly grilled, and the dressing was robust and flavorful.  Out of the four dishes ordered last night, we all agreed that this was our favorite.

The next dish was Million Won Samgyeopsal Jjim with aged kimchi.  It’s very much like a tender, but thick piece of “bosaam.”  Since I love bosaam, I loved this dish.  The guys did too.

Then came Sweet and Sour Beef (Tangsooyuk).  While this was delicious, the batter crispy and light, and the saucy not gooey, it’s still Sweet and Sour Beef.  There’s a Chinese restaurant near my university that also has a similar tasting “tangsooyuk”, although it’s with pork and not Australian beef.  I wasn’t disappointed, but it wasn’t anything too special.  We all agreed we wouldn’t order this one again.

The last dish was Fried Whole Mullet.

As Ras commented, this is not a fishy fish.  The cilantro, ginger, and onions were a great combination to the fish.  The waitress came out and de-boned the fish and squeezed the lemon on it for us.

Dessert: Apple Snowman

It might not look so good because it was melting fast, but it was delicious.  The first two layers are apples, and then vanilla ice cream on top.

The service at the restuarant was great.  The staff took great care to bring out our dishes right after we finished the previous one.  There were no long waiting periods.  Instead we were constantly eating and drinking, as it should be.

The head waiter was top notch and it was obvious he had good training before working at this restaurant.

Last, but not least, this restaurant is not cheap.  A couple dishes start at 10,000 won, but most are in the 20,000-30,000 price range.  For the three of us, we had four main dishes, a dessert, and three bottles of wine over the course of three hours, for 220,000 won.  While this is 73,000 won per person, we all thought it was absolutely worth the price.  The food was fantastic and we can’t wait to go back with a larger group of friends next time.

Star Chef:   Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Dogok-dong 417-2

Map here.  Line 3 – Maebong Station

02-529-8248  (Opens at 5:30pm, reservations recommeded)