Born and Bred — Restaurant in Seoul

The resto is a bit upscale and the atmosphere is pleasant. But I had a bit of an uncomfortable experience. Once seated, I was handed a menu and the pretentious older man who seated me stood right next to me and asked me what I wanted immediately. Seriously?! He didn’t even give me 10 seconds to look at the menu before asking. This was my first time here- how could I order that quickly?! He was pushy and also explained one cannot order just one lunch set but must order 2. This I understand as it is Korea and it’s common but I was surprised at his pushiness and asked how could I possibly eat all that food. I also did not see this noted on the menu before I made the reservation. Note: reservation needed!

He was wiling to make an exception but continued to stand next to me and pointed to the more expensive of the lunch sets and tried to pressure me into ordering it. He again asked me what I wanted to order.

I told him I needed more time for the second time and made it clear I wasn’t going to just order anything. He finally disappeared. Looking at the menu, the more expensive set looked better and I ordered it only to be told it was not available bc the buckwheat noodles were sold out. Without me having to say anything the young men graciously ordered me one portion of the 45,000 set and made an exception. I could see the young waiters (much kinder) had to get permission from the chef and then another man in charge. Though I was prepared to order 2 lunch sets if I had to as I traveled one hour to get here and was determined to eat!

The banchan came out and looked so beautiful. Fresh, colourful, and varietal.

Baek kimchi a tiny bit too sweet but lovely fermentation. Kimchi was not bad but not the best either. Still overall, I enjoyed their banchan side dishes thoroughly.

The meat came out and the portion for one person was frighteningly large. How on earth was I supposed to consume all of it?! Loved they use beef fat to season the grill and not any other oil and they had an amazing smoke ventilation system that sucked the smoke from 360 degree around the sides.

I tasted the meat and it was again a tiny too sweet but goodness, it was delicious. It melted in my mouth. As they were out of the buckwheat noodles, I had the signature rice noodle which was basically pho and was surprised. The pho was lovely.

In the end, I could not possibly finish it all and I brought out my teeny to go container and put the meat I could not finish and some of the banchan inside. It would be such a waste to throw this precious food away. The young man did not bat an eye but I am sure he was shocked!

I definitely recommend this resto for lunch. The lunch meal set at 45,000 is a steal for the quality of the food. Just don’t come alone! And bring an appetite! Or your own...

TL;DR - Great food, excellent service, amazing restaurant. Cons - 120-minute dining time, KRW10k cover charge for side dishes can appear a bit stingy.

Long review ahead:

Context - my wife and I LOVE beef. We've had the opportunity to dine at many awesome restaurants in the world such as Cut (Marina Bay Sands), Burnt Ends (Singapore), Kira (Saga, Japan), Royal Mouriya (Kobe, Japan).

We've purchased multiple types of beef to cook on our own. Ranging from hybrid angus/wagyu cuts from Australia, to A5 melt-in-your-mouth cuts from across Japan. Whilst most of my family tends to prefer hybrid angus/wagyu cuts (which tend to have a "stronger" beef flavour), I still lean towards A5 wagyu tenderloin cuts from the land of the rising sun.

My wife and I also tend to watch Korean variety shows. And lets just say we were a little bit skeptical about Hanwoo, which was understandably very hyped up by Korean celebrities.

During our final night of our first-ever vacation to Seoul, on the night of 7th January, we ate at Born & Bred. We had booked the 2F "Casual" dining experience, and we were served by Mr. Lee Jin Wook. He spoke very decent English, and for whatever we couldn't get across, Google Translate worked just fine.

Lets just say the dining experience was so fabulous, we ended up ordering 800gm+ of hanwoo for dinner for the two of us: 400+gm of a ribeye steak 200gm of tenderloin ("Korean cut") 200gm of marinated ribeye ("Korean cut")

Mr. Lee cooked the beef masterfully. My wife is no stranger to cooking beef, but seeing Mr. Lee cook without a thermometer over Binchotan and just eyeballing the beef, and still providing excellently-consistent doneness for all the beef cuts was a revelation. He provided excellent table-side banter, and recommended which sauces and banchan to try the beef with.

I'm now a huge fan of 1++ Hanwoo, and its such a shame that its not readily exported. The marbling and flavour combination is just perfect!

No, do not expect 1++ Hanwoo to be melt-in-your-mouth like Japanese A5, but the marbling is sufficient enough not to feel too "heavy", and the flavour of the beef is exquisite.

I do have 2 small gripes about the restaurant (these do not detract in any way from giving them a 5-star review).

1. I wish the side dishes didn't require a KRW10k cover charge (most eateries across Seoul don't charge for free-flow banchan).
2. The 120-minute time limit for dinner is understandable for a popular restaurant, but it sure does make us feel a bit rushed. We were the last to exit the 2F casual area that night.

Regardless, and suffice to say - for any/future trips to Korea, I will drop by Born & Bred again for sure.

Once again, a huge thanks to Mr. Lee Jin Wook for making our final dinner in Seoul an amazingly...

We had the opportunity to have the omakase lunch in a private room, which was ₩150,000 per person. Our chef was awesome, and everything was delicious. The only downside about lunch is that we were only able to order one round of cocktails at the beginning, due to the omakase being a 2-hour experience (our reservation was at 1300 and they closed at 1500). Not sure if others experienced this, but if you want more than one cocktail for the meal, perhaps order a couple at the start, just in case. However, we were able to get a bottle of wine, after the first round of cocktails.

I docked a star because making a reservation was a bit difficult. I read from previous reviews, to make a reservation via Instagram. When I sent an initial inquiry via DM, I got a very quick response, within a matter of hours. However, when I sent our preferred date and time requesting the speakeasy, I didn't get a response back for a week, in which I was told it wasn't available. So I immediately responded with more dates and times, and said we were open to any seating that was available aside from the speakeasy. Another week passed until I heard back, telling me there wasn't any availability... I literally received the message about one hour after we finished our meal at Born & Bred.

So how did I get the reservation? Thank goodness for American Express Concierge. I did not even know this was a thing, until I saw someone recommend it on Reddit. I highly recommend that if you want to make a reservation, and have an Amex card with the Concierge service, go this route. I should have paid attention to this card perk sooner.

I think if I have the opportunity to go back, I'd go at dinner and do the...