Park Hyatt offers affordable menus

Park Hyatt Seoul’s renovated main restaurant, Cornerstone, which reopened at the end of last month, provides remarkably affordable menus. In the photo is breaded lamb chop. Courtesy of Park Hyatt Seoul

Park Hyatt Seoul’s Cornerstone offers new affordable menu

Chef Massimiliano Ziano

By Kim Se-jeong

In general, dining at hotel restaurants in Korea is expensive, so many people avoid them.

Park Hyatt Seoul has recently taken a step to change that notion. Its renovated main restaurant, Cornerstone, which reopened at the end of last month, has remarkably affordable menus.

For example, the restaurant’s lunch course costs only 46,000 won per person and includes an appetizer and an entrée. Guests can choose a dessert instead of an appetizer, which is served with a cup of coffee or tea.

For the appetizers, customers can choose from grilled vegetables, fish carpaccio and bruschetta, and, for the entrée, customers can choose from pasta, baked Canadian lobster, roasted half chicken, breaded lamb chop, and grilled tenderloin, T-bone steak and strip loin, among others.

“Yes it is Park Hyatt, which is one of the most luxurious hotel brands, but we want to give Cornerstone its own identity (as an affordable place,” the hotel’s head chef, Massimiliano Ziano, said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. According to him, “Cornerstone is a beautiful, affordable, friendly place” where anybody can enjoy quality food.

The hotel also decided to make these changes to give the restaurant clear identity. The restaurant used to serve a variety of dishes, ranging from stead and pasta to brunch dishes, but did not specialize in any one cuisine.

“It is now an Italian restaurant,” Ziano said.

The chef played a key role in establishing the restaurant’s identity. In developing the new menu, he drew from his Italian background and two decades of cooking experience around the world.

Cornerstone’s new menu is inspired in particular by southern Italian cooking. “I am from the north, but my international experience has given me the understanding that the southern Italian cuisine, especially that on the coast, is what people like the most,” the chef said.

Ziano recommended the roasted half chicken, which is cooked under a piece of brick.

“This is what we call ‘brick cooking’ in Italy, which makes the (chicken) skin crispy and gives it a golden color,” he said.

He also recommends people to order different dishes and share them with each other. “This is a way become friends. This is an Italian way,” he said.

Asked about how the restaurant maintains the quality of the food while keeping the prices down, he said it’s possible by ensuring that the dishes are just the right portions (satisfying but not too big) and made from locally-grown ingredients.

To make the restaurant even more inviting, the hotel gave it a separate entrance from the hotel. Customers also dine at the restaurant alfresco when the weather gets warmer.

For a long time, hotels conveyed their restaurants’ prestige with the high prices. Recently, however, hotels, including Park Hyatt, have been attempting to cater to a broader range of customers at their restaurants and some have succeeded. The chef said he is positive that Cornerstone will also succeed.

Cornerstone is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The new menu is available between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. for lunch and between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. for dinner. For more information and reservations, call (02) 2016-1234.