Seoul Food | Cheese Otaku

Been a while since I did a post like this, eh

Now this is a story all about how... we went and ate an absolutely enormous meal back in June. Hongdae is a great place for food of all kinds, so it's hard to get bored considering the amount of choice they've packed into one area.

We went to Cheese Otaku (치즈오타쿠), a Japanese-themed restaurant along the "barbecue street" where the star of the show is a gigantic platter (with different sizes starting at, I think, a 2 person serving) that sits in a custom slot in the table to keep the food warm, sauces at the right consistency, and to melt cheese. CHEESE!

I guess it should be obvious from the name that you get a lot of cheese.

Depending on the portion you buy, you also get a sizeable chunk of a whole chicken. Goodness me.

There's also fried rice, fried chicken, corn, and a million other things all on this sizzling platter. I can't remember if it came with fries or if we ordered extra. But they were there and they were rapidly consumed.

Seoul Food | Sushi in Sushi

So a couple of times now, we've walked down one of the main roads in Bupyeong and I've spotted a sushi restaurant on one of the upper floors of a building, descriptively named "Sushi in Sushi". It turns out that it's an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, and for a weekday dinnertime meal, it'll cost you 14,900₩ per person. That's about £9 per person, and on a busy day you have an hour and a half to stuff your face with as much food as you like.

We just went in, asked for a table for two (and by asked, I mean they made a face that said "how many?" and we held up two fingers), and were seated in seconds. A few moments later, one of the assistants appeared with a little green card.

Too cute!

But yeah, there's a machine for coffee and water on one side, and a fridge and soda machine on the other (we didn't spot this until we were leaving, sadly.)

There's a great range of traditional and creative nigiri and maki creations, and it all tastes a darn sight better than any of the stuff I've had in restaurants (or god forbid supermarkets) at home. It's not a patch on the fresh and expensive stuff I had in Australia, but then again, look at that price.

In addition to the rows of sushi, there's also a nice salad bar (overlooked by a cute little bowl housing two tiny terrapins), and some hot food including the best potato wedges I've had since moving here, and some very spicy chicken. All of it is constantly being replenished by a pair of chefs in an open kitchen area in the middle, in small batches so it's never been sat out for too long.

To top it all off, there's a waffle station at the back, and a row of wonderfully soft and fluffy cakes, and ripe fruit for dessert.

I'm definitely going back again!