Named as one of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for the second consecutive year in 2016, La Yeon has been credited for bringing Korean haute cuisine in true fine dining style to the Korean capital since its opening in 2013. Headed by chef Kim Sung Il, La Yeon offers the traditional tastes of Korea using only the highest quality local, seasonal ingredients and authentic cooking techniques.
Recently the restaurant also awarded three-star by Michelin’s first-ever Michelin Guide for Seoul. With the release of the Seoul Michelin Guide, I knew it would be even harder to get a reservation at La Yeon. Luckily we were able to get a lunch reservation on the second to the last day of our Korea trip.
La Yeon is located on the 23rd floor of The Shilla hotel, which offers a spectacular views of downtown Seoul. The interior is simply modern and elegant.
The table setting features porcelain masterpieces by renowned Korean artists La Ki-Hwan and Lee Ki-Jo.
The restaurant offers four tasting menus with optional wine pairings – The Properity (￦ 98,000), LaYeon (￦ 170,000) for lunch; and The Feast (￦ 150,000), Shilla (￦ 230,000) for dinner. We opted in for the LaYeon tasting menu with wine pairing (3 glasses).
The first course was appetizing nibbles – dried jujube with grain syrup and seaweed chips.
Followed by the finely strained chestnut purée. The creamy texture and rich flavor of the purée makes it almost like chestnut (American-style) pudding. It was a very interesting dish and I like it a lot.
The third course was a cold dish, chilled marinated octopus. Simple but tasty.
Next was pan-fried Korean beef slices coated with flour and egg, topped with pachae (파채). The beef slices were so moist and tender.
The second seafood course was steamed Tilefish with red pepper seasoning. The perfectly steamed fish was moist, and the broth added another layer of flavor.
A glass of red was served before the meat course.
Continued with the Hanwoo (also called Han-u, Korean native cattle) course. There were 3 Hanwoo dishes to choose from, and I ordered the Galbijjim – braised Korean beef short ribs in sweet soy sauce. By far, it was the best Galbijjim I have ever had. The beef was so flavorful and so tender it melts in your mouth.
For the rice dish, there were also 3 dishes to choose from, and I went with the Korean beef rib broth with Abalone. Again, the beef rib was super tender and the flavor of the broth was fantastic.
The dessert course was red Ginseng ice cream topped with ice flakes. The ice cream was smooth, creamy and rich but not too sweet.
Our meal concluded with Korean traditional Omija tea and refreshments.
Overall, I was impressed with the meal. All dishes were definitely on the sweet end of the spectrum but it fits my taste buds. It was definitely one of the best Korean meals I have ever had.
Visited: Lunch | Nov 22, 2016
La Yeon
Hotel Shilla, 249 Dongho-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-856
Phone: +82 2-2233-3367
Hours: Lunch 12:00pm-2:30pm; Dinner 6:00pm-10:00pm
http://www.shilla.net/seoul/dining/index.do
Price: Chef’s Tasting Menu – (Lunch) The Properity ￦ 98,000- LaYeon ￦ 170,000- ; (Dinner) The Feast ￦ 150,000- Shilla ￦ 230,000-| Service Included (as of Nov 2016)
