Those who know me know that I’m seriously picky about Western food, so in Korea I try to stick to Korean food. A friend who knows this about me all too well invited me along, saying he’d found a decent Western place in Hongdae. It’s a restaurant called 2chef, and honestly, given that it’s Hongdae, I didn’t expect much, but the food turned out surprisingly well and caught me off guard. The place is run by two chefs and one sommelier, and until recently it was apparently a wine bar called Red Glass. It’s not far from Exit 4 of Hongik Univ. Station, so it wasn’t hard to find. I used to go to a comic book shop around there all the time, so I thought I knew the area well, but who knew a great spot like this had opened..
First, a toast with the Seghesio Zinfandel we brought along
The concept here is apparently free corkage. A wine bar with decent food and no corkage fee is honestly something I’ve never heard of. It seemed so odd that I asked, and they said business is still doing fine…
Bread
A decent, unremarkable focaccia. I think they said they bake the bread in-house too. These days a lot of restaurants, like Outback, put more effort into the bread than the food -_-, and compared to places like that it’s a little lacking. But I didn’t go to a restaurant to eat bread, so it didn’t bother me much.
A tangy aperitif
Since we’d brought wine, we didn’t really need an aperitif, but it’s nice that they serve one to do things properly.
Starter
The lighting here is terrible too, so the photos didn’t come out well. From the left: whelk, salmon, and baby octopus (jukkumi). When I asked whether the cooking was French or Italian or what style of Western food it was, they said it was the chef’s own original style. Apparently he goes to the market that morning and uses whatever fresh ingredients catch his eye. The baby octopus and salmon came with an orange sauce, fresh and zingy, which works well as a starter. The seasonal ingredients were fresh and the ideas behind the dishes were good.
Fish risotto
The kitchen is an open kitchen too, and you could taste that live, just-cooked quality.
Grilled pork shoulder
Pork shoulder (moksal) was something I ate all the time back when I was young -_- and hanging around Hongdae. It’s not an expensive cut, but the way it’s cooked is good. The chewy bite that’s so particular to moksal really comes through. I guess this is what Korean-style Western cooking looks like. I hope more dishes like this appear so that a Korean-style yoshoku gets established, the way it has in Japan.
Roast duck
They asked whether I wanted the steak or the duck, so I ordered the duck. It’s not that I dislike steak, but ever since my restaurant tour of Kobe, Kyoto and Tokyo last year, I’ve gotten tired of dishes like steak and foie gras, which are high-end but come out pretty much the same at every restaurant. Of course, if steak or foie gras is the signature dish I’ll definitely order it, but otherwise I try something more unusual.
The roast duck I ended up with was nicely juicy on the inside and roasted to a crisp on the outside. Duck is fatty, so it goes well with a sweet sauce, and true to expectations ^_^ it came paired with a sweet sauce. The roasting was flawless too. If you don’t like sweet flavors you might find the sauce strong, but it was no problem for me. A small detail, but you could tell care had gone into the garnish as well.
After we finished, the duck was so good that I figured there had to be some special secret, so I asked, and sure enough there was. It isn’t Korean duck; they use duck imported from France. They said Korean duck makes Western-style roasting difficult.
Dessert
A modest little dessert plate comes out, for cleansing the palate or nibbling with the wine, and after that sense of fullness and accomplishment, the loose, personal conversation that follows goes back and forth across the table. The sommelier, who also handles the service, knows wine well and joined our table’s conversation quite naturally. In the middle of our fun chat a familiar song (Elsa’s “Mon cadeau”) came on, and when I asked, I was surprised to hear that they pick the music themselves. They didn’t forget to look after regulars either, and later brought out another plate of strawberries because they were so fresh.
A well-made crème brûlée
The chef apparently made it himself. Quite the talent.. It wasn’t on the level of the crème brûlée I had in Kobe last time, the kind that makes your chest tighten and nearly brings tears to your eyes, but there was nothing careless about it.
Strawberries
Sorry, the white balance is a mess.. There was a sauce too, but it doesn’t show in the photo. Having eaten this far, I asked how much the course was that night, and they said 36,000 won. With free corkage on top of that, it seemed a bit too cheap. I suppose shopping for ingredients the same morning saves them a lot on costs, though.
I like this place in every respect, the service, the food and the location, but I did notice a few issues. Since it started out as a wine bar, the interior is closer to a wine bar than a restaurant. So it might work for a date where you’re trying to make a move, but it may not suit a formal occasion. The flavors also differ from the usual restaurant trends, so some people might not get along with them. In a way, it felt somewhat like Japanese-style French. I’d need to taste a wider range of dishes to judge it properly, but for me this is more than satisfying. If I lived nearby, I might well drop by often with friends and a bottle of wine for some à la carte.