Animal Head Shaped Steamed Bread While I visited the Busan International Film Festival, I also stopped in at the "Largest Department Store in the World." This store was the Shinsaegae and, according to the Guiness Book of World Records" it is a huge new department store that is across the street from the new film festival theatre. What I learned was that...well, people in Busan have very different tastes than in Seoul. Everything looks nice, but the flavors are a bit sweeter and a bit softer. Everything looked fine, but I can't say it was very tasty. The Sinsaegae in Seoul tends to have pretty good food. I would say very good for a department store. The food looked good and it looked western but it wasn't. For example: Ram Shaped Steamed Bread These steamed buns stuffed with meat or red bean looked very cute. I mean they were shaped like rams, rabbits, porcupines and pigs. They were even beautifully colored. The problem was that they weren't soft and p...

It is not often that I really dislike an establishment, but now, I feel like I must say something about about the cafe that I'm sitting in now. It's nothing special, just another cafe but they advertise that they roast beans to order and that they speak English, but it seems like all of that is false. It's a cafe, I have been to in the past and enjoyed hanging at but it seems a lot has changed- especially the attitude. I was polite and asked the older woman behind the counter- I assume she is the owner if this was the same cafe as about 1 year ago and she said, huh? Then I repeated it in Korean and she didn't answer. Her assistant answered it had been here for 6 years. I was like ok. Then I asked what food was good here and she said, everything is good. I was like ok. I looked over the dessert case at the cakes and such and asked if they made them in house and she didn't answer anything. Her assistant said, no. Since they were so helpful in helping me make a dec...

I hope you are all doing well today. I know that Valentine's Day was a couple days ago, so I was wondering how was your Valentine's Day Dinner? It's one of the busiest nights of the year for restaurants and I would like to know which ones were good and which ones didn't quite meet expectations. I received a couple messages stating that some of the places I listed in my Valentine's Day Round-up weren't... exemplary. One such message I got mentioned a well-known Italian Restaurant in Itaewon that is...in the basement. The message said: "Dan, I love you, but take (the name of the restaurant here) off your V-Day recommendation list, really disappointed ㅜㅜ. Just really mediocre pizza and bad tasting, small amount of overpriced pasta. just expected more from a 100,000 won meal for two."  Anyone else have similar experiences? I must admit, I didn't go out that day. I was feeling a bit under the weather so I ate Ginseng and Chicken Soup, drank ora...

Pet Peeve: going to a restaurant thinking you're going to get one thing, but it can't be found on the menu. This is exactly the case at Fish N' Grill. You would think from the name that it would be something like Surf N' Turf or they might have grilled fish or grilled meat and sushi. I would think it would have SOMETHING Grilled and SOMETHING FISH! Well this is what our appetizer was: WTF: Patbingsu at Fish And Grill And Chicken Wing Tteokbokki topped with Cheese and WTF: Waffles topped with Strawberry Syrup I would normally say, restaurant owners: WTF, but in Korea it seems to work. It seems to work very well. Bloated menus with thousands of items and little novelty things like PATBINGU and WAFFLES WITH STRAWBERRY SYRUP seems to work. Especially in a college town (This Fish and Grill was in Gyeongju's Seonggun-dong), but all I have to say is WTF. Next time, I will insist on picking the restaurant, because here it was quite bleh. We didn't go for t...

/Oh, yeah. this is a restaurant review site. I should recommend places for you to go eat. /Last night I went to Yum Thai for the second time this week and it was just as delicious as ever. Excellent Som Tam and the Duck Curry was epic. Right now they have a Chang Beer Special: Buy 2 and get one free. /Danny b went to Dong-in-Dong for intense Braised Spicy Garlic Beef . He said it was just as good as ever. /Edward Kwon's the Spice in Hangangjin is definitely worth it. I recommend the Prestige Dinner Course. Review is coming soon. /I went to Cafe JeJe over the weekend. It's in Haebangchon up the street from Kobawoo Supermarket. Excellent espresso there. The barista has mad skills and the atmosphere is quite nice. 02-749-1002. /Rudy Maxa was here last week and he went to Suji's restaurant twice for the pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. I had a chance to meet Rudy and I will be in a forthcoming episode on Seoul. /I visited Mary Jane over in Hapjeong . I found ou...

Sad Brunch: Runny Omelet, rubbery sausage and salad I don't even remember what this dish was called. So bad. They need bring their A-game, because this is just sad. It looks like it's right out of a elementary school cafeteria or out of an in-flight meal on a transpacific flight. Sad Sad Sad

Just curious. I've trashed some restaurants in my time and I feel like they deserved it. When I have a bad experience at a restaurant, I will tell the owners after- I feel that it's a chance for them to improve. Sometimes they take my advice, sometimes they don't. Also, when people have bad experiences at restaurants I contact the owners and let them know, so your voice will be heard. We as diners should let restaurants know of bad experiences so they can improve. If we explain it objectively, they should listen and not be offended.  Furthermore, the restaurant owners might not even be aware of issues because the staff wouldn't want to get in trouble over service or a complaint about food. Here are some restaurants that I don't recommend: Club Mow Sunshine Kebab All American Diner Smokey's Saloon Buddha's Belly My Chelsea Here are restaurants I recommended before, but don't anymore: Corner Bistro (The burger has gotten too sloppy and way ...

Nasty, Nasty Coffee: First Colony (It must have really come from the first colony). Sure, it's organic, but they should have added some chemicals to make it taste better. Unless you want a stomach ulcer. This coffee tastes like leftover summer barbecue mixed with a healthy dose of Seoul's acid rain with a hint of...cinnamon. Spend a little more for the good stuff. And if you see this bag at any cafe (because most of the mom and pop joints get their stuff from cosco) run!

So, a friend of a friend recommended this place in Apgujeong and it's in the very stylish Dosan Park area. In this area you'll also find Wooriga (recommended), Gorilla in the Kitchen (it's alright), and it will soon be home to Jung Shik Dang's new restaurant (I can't wait). So, I had very high expectations for this place (uh, oh, foreshadowing...I'm going to write a review on this place later.) The restaurant has very high ceilings and there is an open kitchen. It's very inviting and luxurious. The meal starts out with apple slices coated with a grain and topped with jujube. The dish was crunchy and...forgettable. It didn't seem like they put too much effort into it. The settings and the restaurant is great. The scroll to the left has the menu which is served coursed-style. The bottle has makgeolli. Here is a dodeok salad. This was very good and it had a creamy, herbacious flavor. Next came the salad with raspberry wine dressing (bokbunja). T...