My original plan for dinner at Ikseondong was at a popular hot pot restaurant but it was fully booked out for the night and we had to find alternatives. Many of the restaurants and cafes at Ikseondong served Western or Italian cuisine but we were looking for hot dishes like soup or stews which can be Chinese, Japanese or Korean
We walked around the Hanok village for quite a while before we found the only restaurant without a queue or waiting list and had available tables. From the alleyway, we could see that the restaurant served dim sum and it was something hot and comforting for a cold and tiring evening so we quickly asked for a table
The restaurant wasn’t very big just like the other food establishments within Ikseondong since all of the buildings are conserved Hanok buildings so there was a particular layout they will have to maintain. The restaurant cleverly made use of some small spaces to create a pebble yard and an in-house greenery space. Combined with the warm lighting and wood finishing the whole space was very comfortable and relaxing. Towards the back of the restaurant, they had more general tables and chairs for those who prefer a brighter dining experience
We were served pickled green chilli, fresh cabbage with bean paste dip and black vinegar with ginger to eat with our meal
We had the xiaolongbao (soup dumpling) and the har gow (prawn dumpling) for starters and being a Cantonese, I was not really holding high hopes for the dim sum but I was pleasantly surprised by the flavours of the xiaolongbao. The soup dumpling had an acceptable amount of soup and the skin was not overly thick with nicely flavour pork filling. The prawn dumpling was ok but not too outstanding. We also had an order of spicy vinaigrette dumplings which was a total disappointment. Firstly, the sliced leeks and peanut did not really complement the dumplings and the sauce was lacking the vinaigrette flavour and only had the spicy punch
For mains, we ordered the siew mai noodles which had 4 huge siew mais in the bowl, completed with sliced leeks, green vegetables and yellow noodles. The noodles are pretty mediocre while the siew mais are quite juicy and flavourful. The soup that came with the dish was quite bland as well
I ordered spicy pork noodles but was not expecting the dish to be as above. The noodles were the same type as the siew mai noodles which was ok but not fantastic. The pork was however quite dry and tough so we did not finish this dish at all
Overall, I think the dim sum dishes were nicer than the noodle dishes and while the soup dumpling was really nice, the rest of the food was quite mediocre. I have seen reviews of their dim sum at the Itaewon branch and some of the items do look nice but since I visited quite close to the end of the day, a lot of those items were out of stock
Address: 166-8, Ikseon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 1F
Operating hours: 11.30 am to 9.30 pm
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