City Guide Review: Honey Bowl
Review by Deborah Wood, ETA 2014-2015 City: Hongdae (홍대) Restaurant Name: Honey Bowl Food Served: Brunch Restaurant Address: 서울특별시 마포구 합정동 410-21 View Map Directions: Hongdae Branch 1) From Hongdae Station. [~20 min] Take a left out of Exit 9. Take a right at the big street after Coffee Bean, and follow it for ~15 minutes. You will cross over one street with streetlights. A second will be in sight when you should take a right just after a CU. Honey Bowl is the 2nd building on the left. 2) From Hapjeong Station. [~10 min] Take exit 6, and continue straight along the left side of the road. After passing Chili & Sesame, take a left at the next road (독막로7길), and then the next right. Honey Bowl will be on your right. 3) From Sangsu Station. [~5 min] Take exit 1, and continue on the right side of the road. When you get to a parking lot in the middle of a perpendicular street, take a right. Cross the lot in order to take the first left. Honey Bowl is the 2nd building on your left. Cost: ~10-15,000 won I visited the Hongdae Branch, but I believe the following is true of all three branches. Although based on the first floor, the restaurant is built for an outdoor eating experience. Most of the glass “walls” appear to be windows that can be collapsed so that the restaurant becomes a kind of indoor terrace during the warmer months. As a result, the restaurant can be busy at peak brunch times in the summer, especially on weekends, but most times of day and year, you can find a table quickly and order whenever you are ready. In winter, the establishment is chilly, but several heaters are set up to keep the small space warm. Brunch options are varied (including Eggs Benedict, French toast, combination plates, and even crepes), but they also offer some miscellaneous other dishes, such as sandwiches, pastas, a pasta sandwich, wings, salads, and even beer. The Honey Bowl Special is an omelette dish, but I never tried it. For dishes that come with syrup, you can choose from several types of syrup, including fruit flavors. Most dishes with syrup tended to run a little sweet for my taste, but not any more so than at other brunch places in Korea. For more savory flavors, I prefer the combination plates. Not all staff members seem very comfortable in English, but since all items on the menu are written in English (and have Konglish names anyway), it’s still very easy to order. I believe that even someone with no knowledge of Korean would still easily order and pay for their food. For the full menu, see their website at http://blog.naver.com/jookkss.
City Guide Review: Shabu Maxim
Review by Monica Heilman, ETA 2014-2015 City: Gimhae (김해) Restaurant Name: Shabu Maxim (샤브막심) Food Served: Shabu Shabu Restaraunt Address: 경상남도 김해시 해반천로 34-9 View Map Directions: On the Busan-Gimhae light rail, get off at Yeonji Park station and exit left, crossing a bridge and heading down stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, go straight until reaching traffic lights. You’ll see Shabu Maxim up ahead, slightly to the right. (For an alternative route with a sidewalk, exit right from the station and walk in the opposite direction of the stairs. At the intersection, turn right. The restaurant will be on your left.) Cost: 13,000 KRW for lunch, 16,000 KRW for dinner Shabu Maxim in Gimhae is a very new restaurant that just opened at the start of this year (2015). There is another branch in Haeundae, Busan. As it’s still new, the facilities (including bathrooms) are in excellent condition and very clean. There’s even a small play area for babies and toddlers. My favorite thing about the restaurant, besides the food itself, is the space, which is open and well-lit, with huge windows to let in natural light. I’ve gone twice, both times in a large group with a reservation and sat at large tables on the second floor. The menu is your typical shabu shabu fare – raw beef that you cook in your own boiling broth, veggies and rice paper for making wraps, noodles as a second course, and a third course of juk/rice porridge with egg. If you haven’t had shabu shabu yet, it’s definitely a must-try and be prepared to eat A LOT. What’s unique about Shabu Maxim is that they’ve nixed the Korean tradition of sharing dishes and given each person their own individual pot of broth. This means you also receive separate servings of noodles and rice porridge – so you can’t rely on someone else even if you’re getting full. During my second visit, our group also got dessert, which was a choice between ice cream, iced coffee or iced tea. While I opted for coffee, some of my coworkers still had room for ice cream, which was a single scoop of vanilla. Unfortunately, the iced coffee was far too sweet for my taste, but stick with the shabu shabu and you’ll be more than satisfied.
City Guide Review: Noodle Tree
Review by Emmy Mildenberg, ETA 2014-2015 City: Seogwipo, Jeju-do (서귀포, 제주도) Restaurant Name: Noodle Tree (국수나무) Food Served: Noodles and Donkatsu Restaraunt Address: 제주특별자치도 서귀포시 동홍남로 54 View Map Directions: In Seogwipo the only public transportation available is by car, taxi, or public bus. If you take a public bus, get off at the bus stop biseokeori on the 780 or Dream Sky Apartment on the 6. The restaurant is a five-ten minute walk from there in downtown Donghong-dong Cost: Dishes range from 4,000~18,000 won The Noodle Tree is not your typical Korean restaurant. Located in the mostly residential neighborhood of Donghongdong, Noodle Tree is a beacon of delicious noodles amidst a sea of convenience stores and gimbap restaurants. It appears to be a rather new restaurant, as it stands out in how bright and warm the inside appears. The fare is decidedly Japanese, although it does offer a small menu of more “typical Korean” options such as mandu soup and dukkguk. The main portion of the menu contains various different noodle dishes followed by several variations on donkatsu. Every time I go to this restaurant I end up calling my friends who live in the neighborhood to see if they would like some of my soup. I am unable to finish my noodles because they give you so many and noodles aren’t good for takeout (or so my host mother claims). My suggestion would be to this restaurant with at least one other person and split a bowl of noodles. The donkatsu is the same size as many other places, but it pales in comparison to the amount of food contained in one of their bowls of noodles. If you’re in neighborhood, be sure to give Noodle Tree a try! Also, Noodle Tree is a chain, so be on the lookout for this restaurant in your neck of the woods.