16.264 Aged Sirloin Set

Cycle 16 – Item 264

26 (Fri) September 2025

Post 5,743

Aged Sirloin Set

3.0

-Itaewon, Yongsan, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with SIS alumni

Tongue & Groove Joint is a Korean restaurant. Specializes in grilled meats (“Korean BBQ”). Listed in the Michelin Guide for 2025 (not sure what that means).

Located 117 m from Itaewon Station (Exit 3) in the back alley parallel to the south of the main drag, across from Hamilton Hotel – the alley, heading east towards Hooker Hill, appears to be the latest target for gentrification.

SIS graduate JF (Class of 1988) is in town. She was a senior when I entered SIS as a freshman. We never spoke. I have vague memories of her as one of the white kids who hung out in Itaewon, though she probably never knew of my existence. Likewise, her brother AF was in my class, and I remember the name but no memory talking with him, though we must’ve interacted at least minimally (we only had 70 students in 9th grade).

Add-ons like gyeran jjim and doenjang jjigae are usually offered at meat restaurants for a nominal fee, so this set doesn’t seem like that great of a deal.

I accepted the dinner invitation primarily to hang out again with JW (Class of 1992), with whom I’d reconnected at the SIS Alumni dinner just last week (see generally 16.257 Deep-Fried Sea Bass) – seeing JF had nothing to do with it.

The venue was chosen because JF wanted to walk around her old stomping grounds after dinner.