For the first time in more than five years, my wife Jun and I visited our motherland in Korea in late August through early September. It was great to see my family (most of Jun’s family is in the States although we did hang out with her sister who is still in Korea) and some friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. On the other hand, we were staying in Seoul for only 10 days so we had to go through grueling schedules on a daily basis; it didn’t help that Seoul was still very much in the tail end of a very hot and humid summer, and the weather didn’t help us overcome our jetlag quickly. Still, we ate very well thanks for our friends and family who took us to some delicious restaurants. One of them was a new Korean fine dining restaurant called Eatanic Garden in the swanky Josun Palace Hotel (formerly Renaissance Hotel). A dear foodie friend of ours who only had one day left in Seoul before heading back to Taiwan where he was studying abroad took us to the restaurant. Having been so spoiled from all the terrific Korean restaurants in NYC like Atomix, Jun and I were curious to see what this restaurant, with its very hefty price tag even by the standard of a fine dining hotel restaurant, would bring to the table. I am happy to report that we were very pleased with the dining experience at Eatanic Garden.

The restaurant (its name pronounced in Korean is a playful wordplay for botanic garden) is led by chef Son Jong-won who trained his craft at the acclaimed Quince restaurant in San Francisco. During our meal, we were shown flash cards of the main ingredient (along with the chef’s personal note such as his childhood memory connected to it) for each dish, an approach that Atomix unmistakably pioneered in my view. Unlike the Atomix flash cards, though, the list of all the ingredients for the dishes were missing, and at times I had to ask the staff to repeat what they were serving us. In any event, there were some brilliant dishes that used ingredients we hadn’t encountered much at a Korean restaurant before. The use of the beloved Korean fruit chamwe melon for the naengchae (think mustard flavored cold salad) with jangajji pickles was a very pleasant touch, and the assortment of snacks (called “jujeonburi” in Korean) using Comte cheese, buckwheat and parae seaweed also made me realize that this chef is the real deal. I certainly didn’t recall eating soft soybean custard with caviar at a restaurant before, and wished more restaurants would use this combination the way Eatanic Garden did.

A crepe (called “jeonbyeong” in Korea) made of bellflower root with chicken and mushroom inside, as well as balls of fried basil alongside impeccably fried galchi  (a type of hairtail) popular in Jeju Island (with sotbap or rice prepared from hot pot underneath) were also ingenious and superbly executed. The one dish at Eatanic Garden that I couldn’t forget for a long time after our Korea trip was sinseollo, a royal hot pot with different meat, fish and vegetable ingredients. According to the flash card, the restaurant studied the traditional methods recorded in various ancient cookbooks and added modern sensibility and techniques; the assortment of Korean beef, fish called mineo and neungi mushroom was simply exceptional and made me feel like a pampered royal member of the ancient Josun palace. The series of delicious savory dishes ended with perilla presented alongside abalone, beef striploin and tteokgalbi (a popular dish of grilled short rib patties), and a refreshing noodle with watermelon. After a palate cleanser of white peach with rhubarb granita, I very much enjoyed the mango rice cake ice cream (mango even a few decades ago was still a very rare fruit to get in Korea) with biscuit shaped like a picture of a crane on top, followed by an adorable mother-of-pearl box of petit fours.

Our friend who took us to the restaurant made the reservation, so I’m not entirely sure how difficult it is to get a reservation at Eatanic Garden. The restaurant has a counter table where you get to see some of the kitchen staff grilling different dishes; in the middle of our meal, we were taken to a larger kitchen at the back. If you are coming to visit the restaurant on a date, there are also “couple” seatings with awesome views of downtown Seoul (the restaurant is on the 36th floor of the hotel). The wine list at Eatanic Garden was also quite impressive (and just like the meal, very pricey) and the young sommelier Ace Kim who guided us throughout the meal was very knowledgeable and helpful, treating us with freebie Korean alcohol beverages in some of the meals (as well as a glass of sauternes for dessert). Beware that the restaurant, which is looking to maintain its upscale image as a fine dining restaurant, has a dress code where training pants, slippers and sandals (and short pants for men) are restricted. Seoul has definitely come a long way in fine dining Korean cuisine initially pioneered by trailblazers such as Jungsik and Mingles. We had a memorable meal at Eatanic Garden, and keep the restaurant in mind for a re-visit next time we are in Seoul.  

KenScale: 8.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.75/10)

Address: 231, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea

Website: https://eatanicgarden.com/en/restaurant-en/

Reservation via CatchTable (Korea’s online reservation app)