Monday, December 5, 2011

Hug Garlic

I needed a place to sit down and grade tests while I ate dinner tonight, so I decided to check out a new restaurant that just got built over the summer.

It's billed as an Italian restaurant, and on the sign it advertises pizza, pasta, and steak in English.

Once I got inside I realized it was quite the upscale place (at least compared to usual for me). All the waiters had vests or tuxedo-imitating shirts and tiny black bow-ties. The place was dark and beautiful and boasted wine bottles from all over the world. Practically invisible grates hung from the ceiling with latticed lights to look like stars. It was a classy place.

I ordered the soup of the day (which turned out to be some sort of pureed mushroom thing--and yes, I did eat all of it) and the caesar salad (which turned out to be massive but quite good, and filled with all kinds of plant leaves and stems that were, to me, wholly unidentifiable). But before those even came, the waiter brought some kind of soft nut bread, still warm from the oven and fresher than I'd known that bread could be.

To dip my bread in he supplied a dish with oil and what I think he called “balsamic,” and since we're in Korea, naturally it was super cute. I only regret smudging it with my first piece of bread before I thought to take a picture:



Afterwards I used the restroom and found, near the sink, a “gargle dispenser”! You know the place is fancy then!



I availed myself and found out it was some kind of mouthwash, and the flavor and the feel of it reminded me of being at the dentist.

All in all, it was a good experience, and not that much more expensive than a meal at Subway (although that's very overpriced). Hopefully they didn't mind serving the foreigner in jeans and baggy flannel, heh.