Bodega: Spanish Sizzle? Or Down in a Fizzle

"I had hope. My God. I live on it. Anyway, you ended up disappointing me more than, um- more than any of the other silly..."

Plainly put the Bodega was a real let down. I really had high hopes considering Bodega ran with the reputation of being one of the few Spanish places in Korea. So much potential, but executed poorly.

You enter a Spanish restaurant expecting a lot of warmth

and color. On the contrary, it was dead and dull. It looked

like the management wasn't quite sure whether to build an

up-scale restaurant or a classic bar.

A look at the menu. Nothing special going on here.

A typical dinner including a glass of wine, appetizer,

entree and desert can cost around $50.00

Not bad, but considering the cost of living here it could

be considered expensive.

Complimentary tapas thanks to our sheer foreignness perhaps.

The consensus? Good. Nothing more and nothing less. A clean

beginning to the meal. Someone did mention that it was not very

authentic.

Salmon salad. Looked great...just wish I could say the same

about the taste. Really bland.

Both the lamb and sirloin were delicious. Nicely seasoned and juicy. The only problem was that they were both terribly undercooked. Do Koreans not understand the difference between medium and rare? Inexcusable considering there were a total of 4 tables during dinner service.

An over cooked salmon steak with an overpowering olive

flavor. None of my friends enjoyed it.

Soup de jour: Onion Soup. Buttery, buttery, buttery....why

don't you just give me a stick of butter with some onions.

We ordered 1 of each desert, hehehe. In a clockwise direction:

Flan, rice pudding, Santiago cake and chocolate mousse. The

chocolate was rich and creamy. Everything else was average.

I love how in a country that works primarily with rice, it was

the worst out of the 4.

A laptop sat 5 feet from me that was hooked up to a big screen

playing Spanish music videos.

Really? -_-;

Verdict: Poopy

Besides the carne entrees (which were undercooked) the

food was nothing to be heralded about. On top of that the wait

staff were totally inattentive and clearly inexperienced. It took

one server 5 tries to lift and place a soup mug.

삼청각 (Sam-cheong-Gak): Where Dead Presidents Party

Yesterday I recieved a call from my aunt.
We will keep her anonymous, so let's call her Aunt O. It's not "O" becuase she's old either...
Anyway, after promising to catch up with her for the past 6 months, I finally decided to hike my lazy ass all the way up to 혜화 (hye-wha).

It's so freakn far.

I'm not a bad newphew really, I love the ' ole gal. But what really sold me on the proposition was that my uncle from the states would join us. In other words, my meal is getting paid for *cha ching*

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To the food!
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삼청각 is located in the 삼청동 (Samdchung-dong) area.
Go to 종각 (jong-gak) station line #1 and take a short cab ride.
삼청동 is a great place for food, seriously, a lot of different cuisine.
A great date course by the way ;)

History has it that this was THE place for politicians to get down. In fact, it's been a relatively short time since us commoners have been allowed inside. It's a beautiful place to visit during warm weather seasons. When you get inside you'll notice a warm and cozy enviornment a.k.a snooze fest. It's a quiet korean eatery that's dressed like a high class restaurant. Ideally I would take foreigners interested in korean cuisine or to impress a girl. She'll be happy to know that you'll be spending at least a benji for dinner.

Sooooo....what the food like?
You know what? It's pretty good! Course meals are a mix of korean and fusion dishes that range anywhere from $40 to $120 big ones. Per person mind you, so that would be $240 for a date. Yea...my thoughts exactly...

My favorite dish was scallops served cold with sesame seed sauce. On the left is the course I ordered. You might see some of your favorites such as bulgogi and octopus stir fry.

Overall, it was a great evening. The food came out hot and in a timely manner. The service was excellent. The location is superb. My only wish is that they could have made it more authentic. Traditionally Korean food is served on a big table with appetizers, entrees and deserts all ready to go. This is called 진수성찬 or "butt load of food on table". More than anything it's the array of various dishes in all their color and glory that is the true Korean dining experience. Cute waitresses dressed in hanbok would have also been awesome.