I PHO U is the restaurant of Chef Yim Jung-sik, who is about as famous as it gets in the Korean food world. There was a stretch where he made noise for gossip rather than for his cooking, but that’s that — this place is a bit pricey, yet everything was delicious. These days it seems places that are reliably good beat places that are good value. You only live once, so you may as well live it well..

Table

A hotel lobby? Is that what you’d call it.. anyway, being on the first floor it does feel clean and tidy. They sell desserts too.

Fried spring rolls

They make these incredibly well. The crisp texture, the generous filling — you can see the effort they’ve put in.

Beef pho

Plenty of meat, and a nice variety of cuts too. At this level it even feels like eating the 20,000-won bowl at Hadongkwan, the old gomtang place, which is a good thing.

The noodles

What matters isn’t that the price is high, it’s how much of a premium feel you get for that price, and on that front I’d say they’ve nailed the concept and turned out a delicious bowl of noodles.

Rain outside..

The place feels like a tropical rainforest, so maybe that’s part of why it tasted even better..

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