Korean food galore at global chain hotels

By Yun Suh-young

As cooking and consuming healthy food is the new big trend, Korean food cooked with fresh seasonal ingredients is cropping up on meal tables.

Hopping on the trend, global chain hotels are introducing promotion events with Korean food at the fore, presenting a diverse range of local delicacies. Here are some of the dishes being offered at hotels that you might not want to miss before they're gone with the spring.

Courtyard Marriott Seoul Times Square - Momo Cafe "Korean food feast"

The Momo Cafe at the Marriott's business hotel chain Courtyard Marriott Seoul Times Square offers a “Korean Food Feast” from April through May.

A cooking competition was held among the younger chefs there, and of those, fresh and creative dishes were selected to be added to the promotional spring menu to satisfy the palates of young business travelers.

The enoki mushroom salad topped in sesame powder dressing, sedum strawberry salad with ricotta cheese, tofu salad with edamame and chives are introduced at the salad bar with a variety of dressings made with novel ingredients such as pine nuts and apricot seed. As main, fusion Korean dishes such as grilled short rib patties and grilled beef ribs served with abalone asparagus risotto, kimchi penne pasta, seaweed fulvescens linguini are offered.

Available through May 31.

Price: Lunch 32,000 won, dinner 49,000 won (including VAT)

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 2638-3081.

Park Hyatt Seoul - The Lounge

The Lounge situated on the 24th floor of Park Hyatt Seoul is already famous for its healthy Korean dishes which are cooked without MSG and only with selected eco-friendly ingredients. The hotel says about 70 percent of the customers at The Lounge order from the Korean menu.

For all dishes, fresh mushroom, carrots, lettuce, and ginseng are offered with sauces made with ingredients such as pine nut and tofu, or soybean paste.

A la carte menus include dolsot bibimbap (rice with vegetables served on hot pot), yukgaejang (hot spicy meat stew), kalguksu (noodle soup), japchae (stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables), and haemul pajeon (seafood and green onion pancake). Course and sets are also available.

Price: A la carte menu starts from 28,000 won, course from 80,000 won

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 2016-1205~6.

Conrad - Zest "Spring greens promotion"

Zest, the buffet restaurant at Conrad Seoul, introduces spring greens specialty menu until the end of April.

Spring dishes cooked with vitamin and mineral-abundant wild chives, shepherd's purse, fatsia, and liguleria fischeri, a type of groundsel, are offered with homemade tofu dishes. Starting from the end of April or early May, an added variation of tofu menus will be available.

Price: Weekday lunch 70,000 won, dinner 80,000 won; Weekend lunch 85,000 won, dinner 90,000 won (including VAT)

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 6137-7100.

Sheraton Grande Walkerhill - The Buffet

The buffet restaurant of Sheraton Grande Walkerhill recently revamped its menu and was reborn with a strengthened Korean dish corner.

A variety of kimchi options, seasonal vegetables, pickled fish and vegetables are available with dishes such as mushroom and chilled jellyfish salad, seasoned ginseng and angelica root, royal-style japchae (stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables), ripened kimchi and beef brisket, bellflower punch, grilled dried pollack with red pepper paste and plum, and rice cooked with a variety of grains.

Price: Weekday lunch 85,000 won, dinner 95,000 won; Weekend lunch and dinners 98,000 won (including VAT).

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 455-5000.

Grand Ambassador Seoul - The King's

The buffet at Grand Ambassador Seoul offers a Korean food corner piled with salad made of stonecrop, mugwort, ripe persimmon, and seasoned vegetable dishes cooked with shepherd's purse, wild chives, and herbs.

A DIY (do it yourself) corner is also available for guests to make their own bibimbap (rice with mixed vegetables). The "ssambap" corner offers various vegetables such as pumpkin leaves and sesame leaves to wrap rice with and a variety of ssamjang sauces made with snails and abalone.

The chef's specialty, soy sauce marinated crab, is offered at dinner.

Price: Weekday lunch 69,000 won, dinner 77,000 won; Weekend lunch 77,000 won, dinner 80,000 won

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 2270-3121.

Grand Hilton Seoul

The buffet restaurant at the Grand Hilton Seoul recently renewed its buffet menu. Riding on the global Korean food trend, it strengthened its Korean food corner with fresh seasonal ingredients. It offers seasoned cabbage, soy sauce marinated crab, seasoned spring greens, chilled vegetable salad with Chinese yam and deodeok (mountain herb), chilled fresh ginseng salad, and bell flower root salad.

Price: Lunch 65,000 won, dinner 70,000 won

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 2287-8271.

Marriott Executive Apartment- Park Cafe

The Park Cafe at the Marriott Executive Apartment offers healthy breakfast menus for morning business meetings. Recently it added a "Healthy Korean Set" menu which is available from a group of 10 to 36 people. It offers a choice of sagol gomtang (beef bone soup) or wild pine mushroom and abalone soup, and five side dishes with fruits.

Price: 45,000 won per person including rental fee for the meeting room for 4 hours (including VAT).

For inquiries and reservation, call (02) 2090-8000.