I found out there was a place called Chinghai in Seocho, so I went to check it out. The biggest draw here is that corkage is free, and the food turned out to be really good too.

Guojiao 1573 decanter set

I picked it up at the duty free shop, and it does look pretty impressive.

Entrance

I thought I knew this neighborhood inside out.. I even used to live nearby.. and yet I had no idea a place like this was here..

Guopin and Guojiao

Guopin is another famous sauce-aroma baijiu, and a friend brought it along. When I looked it up, it turned out to be a special edition that isn’t easy to get hold of. The sauce aroma was deep and mellow, and I enjoyed it. Guojiao is supposed to be top-tier strong-aroma baijiu, so I had high hopes; the level is definitely high, but it wasn’t quite to my taste. The pineapple aroma bursts out and the balance is good, but there is a sauce aroma sitting behind it that kept nagging at me. That sauce aroma is exactly what makes it go well with food, but I’m no longer sure which one is the true path of premium strong aroma. Maybe I need to drink Dream Blue M9 to find out..

Niulanshan baijiu

This was another one we were given, but the bottle leaked somewhere along the way, so I never got to taste it.

Side dishes

The service is good, everything is good.

Ohyang jangyuk (five-spice braised pork)

Oh.. the quality was really high. It turns out the chef comes from Daegabang, and at this level the place could slap most Chinese restaurants around.

Nanjawanseu (fried meatballs)

The frying on this one is exquisite as well.

Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork)

Deep frying seems to be this restaurant’s strong suit. Every fried dish was delicious.

Was this rajogi..

They fry so well that this one was tasty too..

Fried dumplings

These were good as well.

Jjamppong broth

They do the basic menu well too.

Was this kkanpunggi..

The dishes overlap a little, but they were all delicious.

Japchae rice

They stir-fry the japchae nicely.

Chinghai tangmyeon

It’s the noodle dish they put the restaurant’s own name on, so I was curious and ordered it, but it was just so-so.

Ganjjajang

This was tasty too.

Overall it’s a place of a very high standard, and being able to go with good liquor we brought along to such a good meal made it as satisfying as it gets. The world is wide and there are plenty of great restaurants out there.

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