Gwanghwamun belongs to CJ Foodville : along with A Twosome Place, Coldstone, or The Place (all withing shooting distance), Cafe Sobahn is a part of a group which definitely seems to favor touristic hubs (ie new subsidiaries at Anguk Station)**.
The Officia Building itself is not a landmark, but it lies at the most strategic crossroads, and its first floor provides some year round green elements to enjoy from the other side of the window while you eat. Inside, you can also watch grains grow into ingredients for your next bibimbap in a cubic greenhouse.
I already praised the Cafe Sobahn concept, which could be summed up as a "slow fast food" restaurant with a "well being" touch, modernizing traditional Korean dishes (ie shrimp and tofu porridges for breakfast, sea cucumber or tofu bibimbap for lunch, somme innovative side orders depending on the day). More for health concious gourmets than for gluttons, but non-vegetarians can find meat (ie bulgogi).
Cafe Sobahn serves breakfast from 8 to 11, bibimbap and certain dishes after 11, plus set menu and more "a la carte" after 17. You pick up a tray and pay in advance, but hot dishes are served at your table and discarded for you. A solution for urbanites who want to escape, once in a while, the usual feeding frenzy of your friendly neighborhood Korean restaurant.
SM 2009
134-2 Shinmunro 1-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul, ROK
Cafe Sobahn (restaurant - Gwanghwamun branch*)
Tel : +82.2.730.7423
* There's another one near Seoul University
** ... and could do even more for Korean cuisine (see "Korean Cuisine Aiming At World's Top Five. China is watching")
see other restaurants in Seoul and Korea.
That was obviously an advertising. So here's my shot (and my sigh) : as far as mapa an not mapo tofu is concerned, I was a fan of the Ottogi formula... but the brand unfortunately terminated that product line a few years ago.
ReplyDelete