Revisited: Austrian Dinner at Chef Meili in Itaewon


I don't know why but I had not been back to one of my old haunts in months. I had stopped in from time to time to get sausages at the deli, but I had not stopped in the restaurant in a while. On Sunday, one of my chef friends and I decided to explore non-Korean restaurants in the Itaewon area. My friend, Ulbee, works at a Korean restaurant so she wasn't in the mood to drink soju and have Korean food. Thank goodness because neither was I. Our first stop that evening was at Chef Meili's Austrian restaurant in Itaewon. 

Chef Meili is known for his sausages and his Vienner Schnitzel and his gluhwein. I have indulged in his restaurant many times in the past (especially during the holiday seasons). I don't know why but his food reminds of my holidays back home. 

Sure enough as soon as I stepped in, the chef, Christian Meilinger, was there to greet me. He is a big, boisterous guy and he said, "wow, it's a surprise to see you." We talked a bit and I sat with my friend. The restaurant at 7pm was a bit empty. There was only one other table sitting and I was wondering if the restaurant had lost some of the magic that made it popular.

We perused the menu and decided on Chef Meili's sausage platter with potatoes and saurkraut (14,500 won) and a platter (sorry, I can't recall the name) that had a potato pancake like dish with pork medallions in a butter, cream sauce (26,000 won). With this we got a bottle of their Austrian red wine (40,000 won).

The atmosphere was quaint and so was the wine. It had a bit of tannin and a dark cherry finish. It was chilled slightly so it was very drinkable.

Oh, we started with a soup. It was a pork broth soup that had pork meatballs flavored with sauerkraut. It had some celery and carrots floating in the broth as well. 

I thought it was fine, but Ulbee said that it was too salty. This started a conversation about if foreign food was too salty or not. 

Soup at Chef Meili
Then our first main course came out. The potato pancakes were delicious- crispy with a bit of oil and it was a hearty complement to the pork. The pork had a nice sauce, but it wasn't overly exciting. It was creamy and buttery and it went well when put on the pancake. I think it could have used a bit more pepper.
Chef Meili's in Itaewon
The star of the meal came next. You can always rely on the homemade sausages and sauerkraut at Chef Meili. They are pan-fried till they are crisp and the meat inside is flavorful and delicious. I think I could have eaten a whole plate full of the sausages. The sauerkraut was a nice complement to the savory meat. My favorite way to eat it was to stack a bit of each element: savory sausage, sour sauerkraut, a bit fried potato and onion, and a dollop of mustard. It is a perfect Sunday night dinner. 

Chef Meili’s
Telephone: 794-7024
Location: Next to Gecko’s Terrace, across from the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Days: Closed Mondays
Sausage Platter at Chef Meili

Popular posts from this blog

5 of the Best Jajangmyeon 짜장면 in the City of Seoul, Korea

Image
The Best Jajamyeon in Seoul by Daniel Gray Jajangmyeon 짜장면: Korea's favorite hand pulled noodles in an black sauce is also a favorite dish of mine. It's so famous they even have a holiday for it. It's filling and hearty like a bowl of spaghetti but with Asian flair. It's one of those dishes that you can get whenever you need a quick meal and it doesn't break the wallet. It's a pretty ubiquitous dish and every Chinese restaurant must have it. If it does it well, the place becomes famous. If it is just alright, it is just a meal and gets classed in with all of the other places in the city. I can't say I have had any seriously terrible jajangmyeons except maybe some delivery places (where the noodles are overcooked and terribly clumped together so it takes like 10 minutes to get the sauce mixed into it) but even then it is still edible. With the noodles, I love to get fried dumplings and a place is good fried dumplings or some other sides like tangsuyok
Read More, See More >>

Calories in Soju and other things I Know about Korea's Famous Swill

Image
Just in case you were wondering, one bottle of Soju contains 540 calories. That's like 4 beers. So to put it in perspective, you would need to walk about two hours to exercise it off. (Walking two hours with a soju hangover is not an easy task.) Soju originally was made from rice but whenever there were rice shortages, people were forbidden to make Soju. Alcohol producers the started to use sweet potatoes and tapioca to make an ethanol based alcohol. Overtime they doctored up the taste so it has a smooth, crisp taste that goes great with raw seafood and grilled meats. The world drinks a lot of Soju. 61.38 Million cases of soju were produced in 2012 with Korea consuming about 2.75 billion bottles of Soju a year. You would think that everyone would be falling over drunk in Korea, but this is not the case. The alcohol is only about 17-19% so a bottle won't wreck you (but two or more might.) Koreans judge how good of a drinker you are by the number of bottles o
Read More, See More >>

5 of the Best Gamjatang Restaurants in Seoul: Korean Potato and Pork Stew

Image
Seobu Gamja-guk One of the dishes that came out of necessity is gamja-tang or pork-bone potato stew. This dish has its origins from the Incheon dock area where laborers that were working in the construction wanted to have a cheap and hearty food after a long day of work. The soup consists of pork spine that is slowly cooked with potatoes and topped with sesame leaves. The result is a satisfying dish that goes great with a bowl of hot rice. This was often cooked throughout the day and then eaten at the end of the work day. This dish goes perfectly with a chilled shot of Korean soju. After the first train line was built that would connect the Incheon area with Seoul, one entrepreneur decided that he wanted to make a restaurant focused on this dish. The first restaurant of this type was built near Noryangjin station, which was near the end of the han river railway construction. The dish became a big hit and soon many copycat restaurants started popping up all over Korea. The name gam
Read More, See More >>