By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Burgers are labeled as junk food, widely known to be harmful to health. But not all burgers have poor nutritional values.
Cook'n Heim is attempting to change such a bad image by serving homemade burgers under the slogan of slow and natural foods.
Located on the main street of Samcheong-dong, central Seoul, the restaurant has a modern facade but is remodeled from an old hanok (Korean traditional house).
Its remodeled hanok looks cute and comfortable, but the restaurant's interior doesn't live up to the expectation of its reputation for high-end homemade burgers.
The hall where we sat was decorated with the flower-patterned wallpapers and fancy chandeliers, but it doesn't match some paintings and artwork that hang on the walls at Gallery Fifteen that the restaurant runs.
The restaurant's flagship menu is an assorted variety of burgers along with steak and pasta. They had high price tags, but incorporated the finest ingredients, which are good for health.
Among others, the burgers are the best dishes in the restaurant. They are quite sizable ― requiring a knife and a fork ― but fell short of this writer's expectation because the patties were grilled and most of the ingredients were cooked with less oil.
The menu has two kinds of styles of cooking for the burger ― New York and Italian.
We ordered New York Hamburger Steak (19,000 won), Patate Burger (14,000 won), Premium Burger (9,500 won) and New York Burger (6,500 won).
The New York Hamburger Steak is served with a basic onion and mushroom sauce. This has has nothing special, compared to the price, but the patty is good.
The menu has an art burger section, which has ``luxurious'' lists of burgers such as Patate Burger we ordered. This burger is topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions with special Italian-style cooked potato called ``Patate.'' The burger isn't served with fried potatoes because the restaurant pursues healthy and slow foods.
Patate is excellent in tasting buttery, creamy and softer than just mashed potatoes. The patties are not that greasy as the chef makes them all using high quality ground meat seasoned with herb and no artificial seasoning.
Premium Burger (9,500 won) is Italian-style, topped with ``foccaccia bread.'' Italian burgers use these foccaccia bread freshly baked with olive oil by the chef every day. It is an original burger with grilled, ``not fried'' bacon and Gouda cheese.
But if you feel it's too much to pay that much for a burger, you can choose a traditional but high-quality homemade New York Burger (6,500 won).
There's also a mini garden in the middle of the courtyard along with the outdoor tables.
The restaurant is located across from the Prime Minister's Office. Opening hours are from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information, call (02) 733-1109.