Hobento Porta Felice — Restaurant in Palermo

We lived in Asia for 12 years and Korean food is our absolute favourite. We’ve been travelling in Europe for 6 months now and been craving Korean food but really struggled to find anywhere. We struggled to find much information online about the menu to see if they did our much loved Samgyupsal and Kimchijiggae and were thrilled when they got back to us and said they did. We booked a table straight away for the next evening (note it’s only open a few days a week).

The restaurant is very small so it’s a must to book, plenty of people were being turned away. We were very nervous when we realised the chef was Italian. We’ve probably been to over 50 different Korean restaurants and never been to one that wasn’t owned by Koreans or had a none Korean chef.

We needn’t have worried as the food was absolutely delicious. Yes the waiting times are long, but it was so worth it and we were advised in advance it would take about 40 minutes. The food is very authentic and better than a lot of Korean restaurants we’ve been to. You can definitely tell that the chef has lived and trained over there!

The only that would have improved it for us (personal taste) would be to have some garlic along with some salt and sesame oil for the samgyupsal but even without it the food was delicious!

It’s a bit on the pricy side (€80 for 2 x Samgyupsal, 1 x kimchijiggae, 2 asahi and a bottle of Soju) but you literally can’t get this food anywhere else so of course you will pay a premium and it was well worth it.

It’s a shame we found this place at the end of our months stay in Palermo as we would definitely have come back.

If you are craving Korean food then you won’t be...

[한국어는 아래에 있음] I am Korean. I really want to understand that this restaurant is not handled by the Korean people, but these guys crossed the line. They charged coperto (they call it ‘service fee’) as 4€. We were two people. We have been traveling Sicily island over 2 weeks, including Ragusa, Catania, Taormina, Siracusa, Letojanni. I have never found any restaurant charging this much coperto. Think about this fact that this restaurant is not located in the main place (I mean the crowded street). Did they provide any complimentary food, which is the essential thing in Korean restaurant? No. I do not understand why on earth I have to pay the service charge 2€ per person. I ordered ‘soft tofu soup’ which is 순두부찌개. And what I got was an embarrassingly mysterious soup with some added soybean paste (see the food on the other side in the pic). The tofu was not the soft tofu and the soup was terribly tasteless. Most of all, I could barely find any meats in it. Without plenty of meats, this thing doesn’t deserve to be called as Korean soup. Or maybe they don’t know what is ‘soft tofu soup’…. I would suggest to go elsewhere and pick some Arancini instead. I don’t understand why the price is this kind of expensive. One only thing I want to say as a good thing of this restaurant is the nice plating. The foods look pretty beautiful and nice, but that’s all. Is the plating the reason of expensiveness? Then I would say it’s not worth with it. Rice was not enough. We had to order another rice with 2€. The working staffs were not taking care of guests. I saw some people are approaching the kitchen after waiting a long time. There were not many guests in the restaurant! They don’t serve cups when we order drinks. This is a bit embarrassing point as well. I also saw some people were asking to get cups.

진심으로 선을 넘은거 같다고 느꼈습니다. 이게 식당이 친절하기는 했는데 계산하고 기분이 상당이 나쁜 식당은 처음이예요. 한국인이 운영하는 식당이 아니라는 점을 감안해도 이건 아니다 라고 느껴지네요. 시칠리아 2주 여행하면서 Ragusa, Catania, Taormina, Siracusa, Letojanni 까지 다 돌아다녔는데 자릿세를 4유로나 받는 곳은 처음 봤어요. 2명이서 갔으니 인당 2유로를 가져간 건데, 기본 반찬도 안 주면서 무슨 놈의 자릿세를 이렇게 떼 가는지 이해가 안 돼요. 아니 무슨 번화가 쪽에 식당이 있으면 이해라도 조금 하겠는데… 순두부찌개 시켰더니 맹물에 된장 조금 풀어놓은 된장국이 나오네요. 두부도 순두부가 아니던데, 분명히 ‘순두부찌개’ 나왔다고 말하면서 서빙했어요. 그냥 된장국 먹지 뭐 하면서 먹었는데 결국 다 못 먹고 남겼어요. 너무 맹한 맛이라서. 맛 없는 밥 먹은 것도 기분 나쁜데 찌개 하나에 가격까지 15유로 씩이나 받더군요. 밥을 한 공기 반정도만 채워서 주던데 당황스럽더군요. 밥에 파슬리를 송송 뿌려서 나온건 귀여웠어요 그런데 그런 예쁜 데코 고민할 시간에 음식 퀄리티나 올려야 될 것 같네요. 주문하기 상당히 까다로워요. 점원이랑 눈을 마주쳐야 주문을 할텐데 점원이 도무지 주변을 돌아보질 않아요. 음료를 시켰는데 컵을 안 주는 것도 당황스러웠네요 아무튼 진심으로 여기 갈 바엔 그냥 길 가다가 Arancini나...

A review of the Ho Bento is a bit difficult because of the circumstances. All in all, however, I have to say that for a non-Korean amateur chef who does this as a hobby, the bulgogi was surprisingly good.

The Jabchae is of the newer style, which is a bit bland for me; I prefer the traditional style - however, that tends to be a caloric A-bomb, so I understand. The Kimchi was quite good as well; not nearly spicy enough, but i know how difficult it is to obtain the right powder outside of Korea that gives authentic Kimchi its unique taste (even I have to rely on lower grade ingredients, and I have tons of relatives in Korea), and for that, it was very good.

So, all things considered, I would give the Ho Bento a 4.5 rating, but since this can't be done and since I admire the love and passion the chef has, I will...