I had an appointment in Cheongdam-dong, so I booked a decent restaurant nearby. Since I absolutely have to eat Korean food -_-, it goes without saying it had to be a Korean restaurant. The place recommended to me was Namdo Mihyang, which, true to its name, is a restaurant specializing in Namdo (Jeolla) cuisine that opened last year. I didn’t look into it in detail, but it seemed to have a pretty good reputation.
The sign
The interior is really neat and clean. Considering it comes as a course, the price wasn’t a burden either. It’s not the kind of place where one particular dish is the star, but for this neighborhood, a restaurant this good is a decent find. For reference, it’s right next to Exit 12 of Cheongdam Station.
The basic table setting
It came out as a course meal. I haven’t been satisfied by many Korean restaurants in this style, so I was curious how this one would do.
Napa cabbage and ugeoji (dried outer cabbage leaves)
Namdo cuisine competes on the sheer number of side dishes. Can I even finish all of this…
Ginkgo nuts
More of a drinking snack or tsukidashi than a side dish, maybe.. I ordered a bottle of beer, just to keep it light. My tolerance has dropped a lot lately, and I’d had a lot to drink the day before too.
Sashimi
It’s not high-end, but the freshness is quite good. If you get this level in Korea, you should be satisfied.
Yuk sashimi (raw beef)
They say yuk sashimi is a South Jeolla thing, and you can only eat it like this when it’s really fresh. It needs to be even fresher than yukhoe, so apparently not many places in Seoul serve it. When I asked, they said this beef also came up from Gwangju. It’s fresh and tastes good too. Even better considering the price.
That said, it wasn’t without shortcomings for my palate, but that’s just my problem. Saying it’s not as good as the horse sashimi I had in Kumamoto wouldn’t mean anything. How many people ever go to Kumamoto even once in their lifetime.. and even if they go, very few would make a point of eating horse sashimi.
Seasoned soybean sprouts
Nice and spicy. Also tasty eaten together with the pomfret sashimi.
Getting the jeon ingredients ready
Oysters, abalone, yuk sashimi and so on were prepared. They pan-fry the jeon (battered, pan-fried slices) right beside you.
Frying the jeon
First time I’ve seen a live performance like this.. It has a bit of a show element, which is fun.
The finished product
It tasted as good as it looks. Maybe because the ingredients were fresh, the yuk sashimi jeon was the best.
Maesaengi soup
You see maesaengi (fine green seaweed) soup a lot these days. Maybe thanks to Sikgaek?
Hongeo samhap
Since it’s Namdo style, there was even hongeo samhap (fermented skate with boiled pork and kimchi)! It falls short compared to a specialist, but the concept of experiencing Namdo’s signature dishes in a single meal is nice. I think you’d come away feeling you’d properly had a Namdo meal – or been properly treated to one.
Bori gulbi
Another of Namdo’s star players, of course. Though for its reputation, the taste didn’t seem all that outstanding..
Probably dongchimi
Extra side dishes
My memory of the things that come out at the end of a course is always hazy. I should have at least taken a picture of the menu..
Gulbi, taken apart
They took it apart for me without being asked. I’m not great at picking the flesh off fish, so thank you~ Eating it, it was closer to a drinking snack than a side for rice. It was less savory than I expected, which is probably the limit of it not being a specialist place. Still, it’s fine in the sense of having tried one of Namdo’s signature dishes.
What’s the problem with a Korean course meal, how to put it.. it’s that it doesn’t feel like a course. In Japanese or French cuisine, the course progresses from light to heavy and ends with a showy dessert, but a course like this one has no real ups and downs and seems to come out in whatever order is easiest to serve. Well, at this price, going to a French or Italian place wouldn’t be much more satisfying, so I have no reason to grumble.. I think this place is best used when you have business to entertain around this area, or when you want a quiet meal.
Whatever restaurant I go to, rather than highlighting its strengths, I tend to pick out the problems and talk in a tone of “this is why it doesn’t work.. such-and-such place was tastier than this.” Honestly, this attitude not only spoils the appetite of the people eating with me, it’s not great for running a blog either. Most people visit blogs to vicariously experience great restaurants. Even if it’s bad, you say it was amazingly delicious – that’s how you get popular in the blogosphere. In fact, people who only go to good restaurants once in a while don’t have a clear sense of taste, so food tastes much better to them when they eat at a place everyone says is delicious. You could call that brand power. I don’t call bad places delicious, and I diligently post even places that fell short. So you can pretty much count on me never becoming a power blogger. My blog is a storehouse of my memories and closer to a guide for people hunting down good restaurants. I hope the content I post is of even a little practical help to someone (probably fellow industry people or friends).