Hotel brunch becomes fashionable

By Bae Ji-sook

Staff reporter

Brunch used to be a very simple and casual in between meal for lounging around on the weekends or on holidays here. All you needed to do was put on a track suit and a pair of slippers with a bit of cash in your wallet.

Nowadays, brunch has morphed into the most fashionable form of dining. Women get dressed up with full make up on and gather with their friends at hip and fancy "brunch restaurants" in southern Seoul. They chitchat about their everyday lives and mingle all day long.

The rather flamboyant trend was encouraged by the American sitcom "Sex and the City," where four high-profile socialites met every Saturday and shared their schedules, gossip and problems in Manhattan, the heart of New York.

Top class hotels in Seoul are now vying to catch up on the trend with their finest selection of dishes to satisfy the picky palettes of the next Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha (the main characters of the drama).

Hip and trendy

The Ritz-Carlton Seoul has recently introduced the "Brunch and the City" menu, an obvious allusion to the sitcom, at The Garden restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays.

Carefully selected specialty dishes ranging from scallops to tenderloin, berries and cakes are offered in a buffet style for people with eclectic tastes. On Sundays, the hotel chefs cook BBQ, which is widely anticipated by younger people and surely to be popular with families with children.

From conventional dishes such as pizzas and pastas to tenderloin steaks and lamb chops, about 60 quality dishes are offered, accompanied by wine, fresh fruit juice, champagne and other refreshments.

The richness of foie gras is controlled by the red radish's sourness; the red pepper's sweetness is enhanced with a minced mushroom filling and sliced pineapple underneath; the very basic mozzarella cheese with sliced tomato is neat and clean; the tenderloin steak makes a fine combination with cheesy tomato sauce and asparagus; finally, waffles with blueberries just makes guests smile all the way through the meal. This surely recreates a "Sex and the City-ish" atmosphere with a Seoul twist.

"The entire menu is made up of relatively low-calorie, soft and light foods. We know our main guests will be young women who are conscious of what they are eating and what it will do to their bodies," the hotel's executive sous chef Kim Soon-ki said.

"I'd rather call it a well-being menu except for a few items - I hope people will hold themselves back when they deal with such rich ingredients!" he added. He is planning to adopt some Mediterranean influences later this year.

The Brunch and the City is priced at 40,000 won, exclusive of tax, on Saturdays and 60,000 won, exclusive of tax, on Sundays.

Classic

JW Marriott has long been the home of lazy brunch offerings, even before Koreans called it brunch ― they used to call it "ah-jeom," a compound of "achim" (breakfast) and "jeomshim" (lunch).

The Champagne Brunch Buffet every Sunday and on holidays includes salad, pizza, pasta, steak, grilled fish and dessert along with a glass of sparkling champagne.

Special appetizers including fresh sushi, shrimp cocktail, Italian anti pasti and hot dishes such as pasta, scrambled eggs prepared directly by the chef in an open kitchen with lamb steaks, beef rib eye and grilled fish.

The hotel, benefiting from its great location, connected to three metro lines and the express bus terminal, targets the more mature generation or families.

The buffet is priced at 59,000 won for adults and 31,000 won for children, excluding tax and service charges.

The Grand Hyatt Seoul has a Sunday Brunch buffet popular with business people seeking a weekend escapade on Mt. Nam. For an additional 13,000 won on top of the 55,000 won, exclusive of taxes, for the meal guests can drink an unlimited amount of sparkling wine along with the delicious cereal, grill, pasta and desert station dishes.