Dalsigtak

A mirror that shows the interiors of the restaurant / Courtesy of Dalsigtak

By Kim Ji-soo

• Published Dec 23, 2012 1:35 PM KST
• Updated Dec 23, 2012 1:35 PM KST

By Kim Ji-soo

One of the seemingly trite but none-the-less grave dilemmas is picking a suitable Korean restaurant when foreign friends visit from overseas. Korean restaurants offer good food in a largely old-fashioned way — loud ambience, open-fire grills and even floor-seating. The sense of “fine dining” has yet to take hold, so the dilemma is always whether to go for the food, or ambience and food that is probably slight more expensive.

There are, however, restaurants advancing into hansik dining, one of which is “Dalsigtak,” located just one street behind the main road of Garosugil in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul. Its orange-colored entrance opens the door to a white-walled, wooden-chaired casual ambience. Standing out is a horse statue in the center and the bouquet of light bulbs on the ceiling that serve as lighting.

Even on a weekday around 1 p.m., past lunchtime, the restaurant had quite a number of customers digging into neat-looking Korean dishes. It’s a modern, up-to-date on the long-existing Korean cuisine of “samgyeopsal” or sliced pork, “doenjang jjigae” or soy bean paste soup and “gochujang jjigae” or red pepper paste soup. Yes, the main element here was the traditional pastes, especially the red pepper paste and the soybean paste. The mother of the owner was a recognized expert in the field, according to the restaurant. Both were prevalent in every dish.

While the manager recommended the representative dishes of “gochujang samgyeopsal guii” or grilled slice pork marinated in red pepper paste and grilled marble beef served with cabbage and greens, I instead chose “bulgogi” or Korean barbecue.

For the lunch set-menu, one had to order for two. Priced at 39,000 won for two (tax included), I chose the red-pepper paste soup and grinded-octopus rice with paste mix. The bulgogi came out in a long rectangular dish with a healthy serving of salad. It was tasty, yet slightly strong in its marination. The red-pepper paste soup was good, just what I needed on a cold, tiring day. It was sweet, spicy and hearty with bits of pork, mushrooms, Korean pumpkins and other vegetables. But it was spicy, the effects of which lasted for a while, so be aware and take only in moderation or order less hot.

Before all these arrived, a set of side dishes were promptly placed on the table. They were a fresh bowl of Korean cabbage, Korean pepper, chicory with Korean pastes, small dried anchovy and fried sweetened seafood and kimchi to balance out the main dishes.

The service was good, with the young waiters keen to serve, maybe because the guests were mostly a younger crowd. The beverage list ranged from “makgeolli” or dense Korean rice wine to local beer to wine.