Jeju Ilpum

The first meal is always unplanned whenever I land in another country for a holiday. Most of the time, this is due to delays in the flight or clearing of customs or baggage. Personally, I just get too tired from the flight, I have either no strength or brain juice to travel somewhere for a specific meal. On my recent trip, I managed to make it to Myeongdong in the evening and chanced upon this quaint restaurant

With a bright white signboard, the restaurant stood out from the rest of the restaurants which are mostly barbeque or generic Korean restaurants selling almost anything. The restaurant looks homely and very clean so we decided to settle our dinner here

The interiors matched the exterior with a clean, simple spacious design which is very different from the usual Korean restaurants. The lighting was bright but not too harsh and gave the atmosphere of a modern minimalist design which immediately gave a very comforting feeling to the customers

The menu was very interesting with some stews, noodles, steamed pork as well as many side dishes

The side dishes came served on a nice platter; seasoned tofu, dried laver, seasoned seaweed, seasoned cucumber as well as seasoned long beans which were very much lightly seasoned as compared to other kimchi served in other restaurants

We had the pork kimchi stew which was served with black bean rice which is very light and comforting for the stomach. The soup was surprisingly more savoury than the sour versions we get from Singapore. The stew was packed with kimchi, meat and tofu as well as enoki mushrooms which fully soaked up the delicious stew flavours

We also ordered the Jeju noodles with pork broth and pork slices which looked bland and plain but surprisingly very delicious. The soup was milky and light with an umami taste from the pork broth. The shredded spring onions added just enough garlicky flavour to the otherwise light soup. The pork was clean-tasting and very tender which was perfect with the udon-styled noodles

The next item we ordered was the stir-fried pork bulgogi in sweet and savoury soy sauce. The cut of meat used for the dish was pork belly with a thin edge of fatty meat which melted in your mouth. The meat was extremely tender with the sweet and savoury flavour bursting in your mouth with each bite. This dish was perfect with rice but also not too salty to be eaten on its own

Last but not least, we also ordered a plate of mandu dumplings which was served in cute bamboo baskets. Each order had 5 huge dumplings which were shaped like ingots. The outlook is quite different from the Chinese dumplings. We chose the double-stuffed king-size pork and vegetable dumplings which were really huge. I had dumplings in Korea before but these were really king-sized. The skin was soft and not overly chewy or floury which is what makes a good dumpling. The meat was juicy and tender with each bite and extremely flavourful. The fillings were finely chopped up and mixed with vegetables so every bite was well-balanced in terms of texture and flavours

Overall, this is a rather unassuming restaurant hidden in the alleys of Myeongdong. While many tourists crowd the Michelin-starred dumpling shop, I find Jeju Ilpum a rather refreshing change from the other Korean restaurants. They offer great service with hearty and comforting meals and the bonus is the 2 handsome sons who help to serve the customers and speak perfect English

Address: South Korea, Seoul, Jung-gu, Myeongdong 10-gil, 16-1 1층

Operating hours: 10.30 am to 2 am