A Flower Blossom on the Rice — Restaurant in Seoul

Tourists Beware: This Bib Gourmand spot might not be what you expect!

Our experience: The entrance was warm and no-nonsense: we were greeted with a smile and guided straight to our table. The vibe? Spot on. A beautiful dining room, gorgeous tableware, and a soft, calm soundtrack in the background. Even the menu felt like it had been crafted with real care: like someone had truly poured their heart and soul into it.

We went for the pork menu. The starters included a variety of salads, Korean pancakes, and traditional kimchi. Each and every one of the dishes was delicious. The salad with a seasonal dressing — in our case based on sweet corn — really stood out. Fresh, flavorful, well-balanced. A promising start.

You’d think that bodes well for what’s to come. But honestly? I’m still confused. The main course dishes threw us a total curveball. One dish felt stranger than the next. The miso soup smelled sour and complex and tasted… intensely funky. The rice with goatsbeard tasted like absolutely nothing. Same with the vegetable stew in white sauce. The seaweed kimchi? Let’s just say it’s probably to intense for the average European palate (very fishy/umami rich). And the pork tenderloin, the star of the show, was cooked beautifully but really missed a touch of salt.

We kept looking at each other mid-bite like, what is happening? And then came dessert. Where you’d expect a sweet finale, we got salty seaweed and mushrooms crackers with orange carrot juice. Honestly? Not bad. But as dessert? Uh… what?

Still — we genuinely enjoyed the evening. Every dish felt like a complex puzzle. Confusing, bizarre, but with a bit of effort, oddly rewarding.

So yes, we get the Bib Gourmand nod from Michelin. It’s a refined place that dares to push the boundaries of traditional korean food. That said, we would suggest Michelin or the restaurant itself to offer guests a little more context around what to expect here. Judging by the tables around us, quite a few diners left disappointed — not because the food was bad, but because it was just so far off from their...

I arrived with quiet excitement and eager expectation of experiencing a Michelin mentioned modern Korean restaurant in a hanok (traditional Korean house) setting. Food was well presented and decent. However, I left with bitter disappointment with the lack of staff appreciation of quality serving of dishes and genuine candid customer feedback.

Longer feedback:

I liked the tucked away location of the restaurant and the hanok (traditional Korean house) helped set the ambiance. The interior was traditional cosy Korean but I questioned whether having not such attractive dried noodle packages on the wall helped its decor much.

The dishes were of decent quality. However, if you want your starters to come out first to season and prepare you for your main Bibimbab dishes instead of at the end of your entire meal, you will need to make this very clear to the waiter&manager and pray&hope this actually happens. I provided the feedback that the pimento dish came out at the very end at dessert dish timing and that the main course came out at the very beginning. The all at once serving of main meals within 5 minutes of ordering is not uncommon at many of the lunch-hour large-turnover reliant restaurants in Korea where almost the entire population simultaneously has lunch at 12pm on the dot. I accept and respect this. However, I did not expect this style of serving here at this small pricier restaurant. The attitude of the manager behind the cashier who received this feedback was also disappointing. He was like what the hxxx are you talking about and who cares about order of servings.

In short, good innovative healthy modern Korean restaurant but it would really benefit more if they paid more attention and care to the importance of timely servings of starters and main courses... and quite frankly, genuine candid customer feedback. Service was sub par. I only give feedback to restaurants which I care about but this was the first restaurant where I felt they did not care due to ignorance or unfounded...

Sorry, but this place is an absolute joke. If you are a tourist or visiting Seoul, and I say this as a local Korean: I strongly suggest you look for some place else in the neighborhood for better Korean food and service. In sum: overpriced food was mediocre at best, service was rude and slow, and the atmosphere not great.

Longer review: The service was slow, and before the dessert even came out, the staff told us to pack up and leave in 10 minutes due to the table time limits. Our table was horrible, as it was right below the air conditioner, even though we made a reservation a few weeks in advance. The table rattled the entire time.

I would have been perfectly happy, however, if the food was good enough. Unfortunately, the seasoning was uneven, the appetizers and banchan portion was too small (whereas there was too much rice in the main dish), and the flower bibimbap, which was their signature dish, was meh. It looked instagramable, so maybe that was what they were trying to achieve?

The servers were inattentive, did not care to explain what each dish was, and during the dessert service, one of the servers actually threw the plate down on the table that it made a loud thump sound.

Considering all of this, their food was way overpriced. I also read reviews written by other diners (local Koreans) and they actually saw the restaurant staff take out pre-made store-bought rice cake from a plastic vinyl packaging and throw it onto a plate.

Once again, if you are visiting Seoul, you deserve better. There are lots of other options...