Introduction
After my last terrible Michelin meal at Koryu in Osaka, I was hoping my last meal in Seoul at Michelin 2 star Jungsik would end off on a high note. I mean, it is the #2 restaurant in Seoul on Tripadvisor out of 120,000 restaurants (number 1 is a taco place…go figure.) Let’s cut to the chase – this meal was FASTASTIC! Service was on point! I can’t recommend highly enough. I’m tempted to try their NYC branch now.
Reservations
I had the Park Hyatt make reservations for me about 2-3 weeks in advance. They had no issues making the reservation. When we went, I noticed 2-4 empty tables out of say 15; so getting reservations shouldn’t be particularly TOO HARD.
Getting to the restaurant
From the Park Hyatt, we used the green line and made 1 transfer to the brown line. After 3 stops, the restaurant was about 2 blocks away, so wasn’t too hard.
Conclusion
My wife and I each got a wine pairing. Every time I get a wine pairing at these places, I look at pictures later and think, “Wow, I had that for dessert?” Anyway, I thought only 1-2 of the pairings missed the mark (but not by much; one pairing was for a sweet riesling that I thought would have gone better with a dry riesling.) And as you can see, each plating was “Instagram worthy.”
Service was also superb. My wife had to use the washroom mid-meal, which was on the floor above, and a waiter timed it where he was there to pull out her seat for her when she returned. I also noticed that every time a new wine pairing was poured, the food would come out seconds later (and the food waiter wasn’t waiting behind the sommelier either.)
My wife particularly loved the smoked mushroom that came with the abalone. The octopus was a bit soft; not the rubbery texture that I was used to. I asked if it was because it was fried, but the waiter said it was sous vide for 4 hours and hence the softness. Can’t say I was particularly fond of a soft octopus, but it was interesting. The “hot corn” was actually a butter flavored ice cream with actual ears of corn on top. Delicious!
Pictures
Some traditional Korean recipes for octopus often have you cook it for long periods to get the meat soft and tender.
Interesting tidbit about that octopus preparation. I had a soft octopus before (also expecting something more rubbery/crisp tasting) in Lisbon. I wonder if something like that was the reason why the octopus wasn’t the texture I was expecting. That corn dish sounds really good!