A little late, but happy new year and lunar new year everyone! I took quite a break with my last post being 5 months ago, as I was quite busy with work, personal and travelling! I'm back to start 2024 with a special kind of post.
My friends and I visited South Korea in November, where we booked a table at Mija Seoul. Founded by YouTuber, Doobydobap (Tina Choi), Mija Seoul was a restaurant focusing on creating a menu inspired by hearty Korean meals with local and seasonal ingredients along with a traditional liquor pairing experience.
Doobydobap is well-known for her online presence in food science, where food is her medium to tell a story and connect with her fans who share the same passion. Together with her partner, Danish chef Kevin Kroløkke, who brings with him 10 years of restaurant experience from the now defunct, Michelin-starred, Restaurant Relæ, they opened the doors of Mija Seoul in May 2023 and recently announced the closure of their restaurant, last service 8th February 2024.
So let's kick off! We arrived a little early for our booking, and as soon as the doors opened we were taken to our table swiftly getting a nice little tour of the small space. It was a completely open layout, with a lot of homey touches. There was also a whole wall dedicated to the pickling of ingredients! Did I mention Mija Seoul grows most of its produce from its rooftop garden and sources from local farmers?
Starting off with the snacks we had their roasted carrots, glazed eggplant, pickled radish and Korean pancake. The pancake was very flavourful and delicious. The vegetable platter was also not too bad but it wasn't mindblowing. The carrot was tender yet crunchy, the eggplant was a little salty to my liking but had a beautiful smokey flavour whereas the pickled radish was refreshing and perfect as a palette cleanser. We paired this with their 88 makgoli which was a light and refreshing citrusy rice wine.
Next was their Onion Nabak Kimchi, which is essentially a water kimchi dish. The flavours were tangy and refreshing yet had a touch of marigold that gave it an earthy element. Overall it was a lovely dish and the pairing drink further enhanced the sweetness of the broth and onion.
Moving on, we were served their Zucchini Mackerel Buckwheat Jeonbyung (crepe). The mackerel taco had a nice meaty texture, with the initial creamy flavour before a sweet aftertaste which really rounded up the overall flavours. This was probably one of my favourite dishes of the night~
Next, we had the abalone with mushroom, potato and yuja. Beautifully presented, the abalone was very sweet and tender. This was complemented by the creamy sauce with yuzu. Thoroughly enjoyed this one, even though I found the mowol yeon pairing only complimented the yuzu sauce.
The next dish that was served was their Aged Pumpkin with rice cake and black garlic puree. The combination of the pumpkin and black garlic was absolutely divine! Sweet, savoury and umami! The pairing makgeolli went really well with this dish!
Their Napa Cabbage with perilla and dwenjang had a nice combination of sweetness from the cabbage and savoury from the beef dressing. The drink pairing, woopoeu ahchim was a little too sharp in taste for my liking, however it did make the cabbage taste sweeter.
Moving onto the carb dish, the Beetroot, hanwoo yukhwe bibimbap was served. By this point, I was getting so full and could not finish the dish, but it was so beautifully presented that I had to take a couple of bites. Overall, it was not bad and had a homey kind of dish vibe. We got the bibimbap with the galbijjim, which came later.
The Galbijjim was super flavourful and delicious with carrots and jujube to soak in the additional flavours. Wish I could have finished this off, but I was just too full! This would go so well with a bowl of rice!
The last dish of the night was their dessert, Yogurt, baked sweet potato with chilli oil. As I had forgotten to take a photo of the dish, this one had a simple presentation, but it was absolutely delicious and went incredibly well with the chilli oil. The yogurt could have had a smoother consistency but otherwise, I really enjoyed this little treat.
At the end of our dining session, we ended the night with tea and small bites of traditional Korean snacks and figs.
Overall, I felt Mija Seoul would not be on the top of my list to revisit should they have not closed already. Although most of the dishes were nice, there were definitely areas that felt lacking, when it came to complimentating the ingredients for each dish and then bringing that to a complete balance as an overall menu. I had things I liked and things I found out-of-place, however, I must say customer service-wise, the entire team were super friendly and welcoming. Before each course, they'll introduce you to the dish or drink, share its story, and give you tips on the best way to enjoy it. If a new restaurant were to come about in the future by Doobydobap again, it would be good to see how far the menu would have come along by then.
61 Hoenamu-ro, 13 ga-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea Seoul
PERMANENTLY CLOSED
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