Cycle 4 – Item 130

15 (Wed) May 2013

Gujeolpan

3.0

at Yongsusan

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with the Family, Nanny 8

As a token of gratitude for holding IZ’s dol janchi at the restaurant, the manager had given us a gift certificate worth 30,000 won to use on our next visit.  I don’t know if that’s their regular practice, perhaps a marketing ploy to keep ’em coming back for the long-term upsell – on weekends, birthday parties are booked solid through 2014 – but it was the first time for me to receive money in exchange for money from a restaurant.  The food at Yongsusan is so expensive that 30,000 won doesn’t go very far, but I appreciated the gesture.  We went back this evening, gift certificate in hand.

We started with jeongsik, which came with seolleong tang + steamed rice + radish kimchi + cabbage kimchi + mung bean jelly salad + roast pork belly.

The broth for the soup was amazingly deep and rich in beef flavor, among the best that I’ve ever tasted.  The pork belly was also excellent, seasoned to savory perfection, roasted to silky perfection, so tasty that we had to order two more portions à la carte for DJ.  At 20,000 won per order, the sets seemed quite pricey at first, but well worth the money in light of the quality.

The centerpiece dish was gujeolpan, which was huge hit + slight miss.

HIT: The 8 components for the stuffing included egg yolk + beef + radish + pine mushroom + perilla leaf + carrot + egg white + burdock root.  Each was delicately seasoned and deftly shredded – the precision knife work to get everything so thin was beyond anything in my experience.  The unique mouthfeel was like chewing on, say, satin fibers (not that I’ve ever tried chewing on satin fibers).

MISS: The pancakes – the 9th component (“gu = nine”) – came in two different styles, one infused with pumpkin and the other with ground black sesame seeds, both unconventional, though neither really seemed to come through in flavor.  Though visually appealing, I found that the pancakes had a slightly yet significantly doughy/floury aftertaste.

HIT/MISS: The mustard dressing was nice and tangy, though a bit too spicy (especially for kids).

Very very good overall but a bit shy of great.  25,000 won.

With tonight’s performance, Yongsusan has up the charts as one of our favorite family restaurants.  The food was excellent.  While I’ve never been very impressed with presentation per se – i.e., when the chef seems more interested in how the food looks than how it tastes – I’m all for it when the food itself is worthy of creative/elegant/intriguing styling, as here.  The service was impeccable as befitting a top-tier establishment yet casual and friendly like at a neighborhood barbecue joint.  In fact, the manager was so taken with DJ’s lip-smacking gusto for the pork belly that he didn’t charge us for the extra orders.  All that grub, just for 35,000 won.  Next time won’t be so cheap, but we’ll be back, as often as we can afford.  Long-term upsell indeed.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)