Lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant: 가림시골밥상

After our visit to Imjingak, we had lunch at this traditional Korean restaurant, 가림시골밥상, which was a short drive away. [가림시골밥상 Facebook]

The entrance

Before we entered the restaurant, we had to remove our shoes and place them onto the shoe rack before the entrance (and cashier), and yes, it was dining while seated on the floor. The interior was wood and little wooden partitions provided some sort of privacy. Most of the customers were in relatively large groups and it was quite the boisterous environment; authentically Korean dining experience.

The interior

The menu.. all in Korean

Once our order had been taken down, the food started to fill the table. The female server who was dishing the food onto our table kept telling us, "Not yet, not yet there is still more food coming", each time she saw us take our phones to snap the food. 😂

The starters.. It was on the begining before the table was "assaulted" by food.

By the time all the dishes had arrived, the table seems like it spill over. It was the most satisfying meal ever!

Table of food once again

There were vegetables of all sorts, as well as salads, pancakes, fish, raw seasoned crab, japchae, beef, chicken, stews etc... Truly a feast. Traditional Korean meals are named for the number of side dishes, called banchan (반찬), and in this meal alone there were at least 12 of them!

The food was fresh and delicious, I did not know that vegetables could be fermented and seasoned in so many ways, let alone the variety of vegetables some of which I had not seen before. The raw crab in its seasoned sauce definitely requires an acquired taste (you'd have to be into raw foods). The texture and taste is similar to the raw prawns (Japanese cuisine), but the meat was sweet and firm; perfect to go with rice.

By the time we were done with the meal, we were very satisfied and started to discuss our next venue, Heyri Art Village. At least that was the plan, but somehow we got sidetracked and ended up going to Chocolatier Zino, a venue which appeared in the Korean drama – Goblin: The Lonely and Great God. The restaurant scene(s) which was supposed to be Quebec City in Canada was actually taken in Café Zino, Paju, Gyeonggi a province of South Korea.

[The “Canadian Restaurant” in Goblin isn’t in Canada…but somewhere else entirely]

[Goblin's restaurant in Quebec turns out to be found in South Korea]

With 2 Korean drama fans in our group, and it being somewhat along the way, we decided to make a trip down to visit this famous place.

About TravelBytez

When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.