Dinner At Itaewon Restaurant: New Korean Restaurant In Town

August 5, 2014 - After my report on Social Dimensions in Education, I decided to bring my classmates Tri and Claire to a new Korean restaurant across McDonald's Matina near MTS. Since Tri is a K-Pop fan, one must undergo an initiation and that is eating in a Korean Restaurant!

I have to admit, it's also my first time to visit the resto so practically, it's our first time together to explore Itaewon Restaurant which of course, serves Korean cuisine.

Inside Itaewon

Unlike the previous restaurant that I've visited, Itaewon Restaurant is spacious and more quiet. It's not crowded and I love the atmosphere right ahead! It's clean, modern and minimalist which suites my style. There were only few customers when we entered and it's why we found our table in a breeze! :D

Side dishes before main dish

In a Korean cuisine, one must take note that side dishes are being served first before the main dish. The reason is for the customers to enjoy munching the side dishes while waiting. They also have a television and it featured mostly K-Pop groups performing their songs. And Tri was so lucky at this dinner since most of the videos were Girl's Generation which happened to be her favorite girl group in K-Pop.

My favorite side dishes were the fried sweet potatoes and the kimchi! I've grown my love on kimchi and it gets even stronger! One may be disoriented with the taste of kimchi. It's spicy but it has other flavors that I don't even understand but I just happen to love it! My two classmates were not a fan of kimchi so I was the one who finished them all. Oh well! :D

Dak Gang Jung

Since we promised to avoid pork at all cost, we settled for what's good for all of us and with that, I chose Dak Gang Jung. This name might seem unfamiliar but it consists of boneless chicken meat sliced into pieces, caramelized, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Price: 300 Pesos with 5 side dishes included (even refills!). I also ordered 2 sticky rice for my classmates. The price is 40 Pesos each.

When the main dish was served into our table, we were in shock to see a large serving of Dak Gang Jung and yes, we were not prepared for it! We were wondering how could we finish by just the three of us but, we still went on with it! The pieces of this dish were sticky and was a bit hard for us to pick it up. When I took a bite on the chicken, the caramelized sugar was stuck in my teeth but I just chewed and swallowed it. It's a sweet dish but not overwhelmingly sweet. I ate lots of it even though it's challenging to chew the chicken. But you've got to try it if you want! :D

Iced Coffee

To cap off our dinner, we were treated with their Iced Coffee which made me wonder first if I have to pay for it. When they said it's for free, we gladly accepted the offer and drank the Iced Coffee. The taste made me remind of the Iced Latte that I used to order before in coffee shops and they have the exact same taste! What worried me that night was I would stay awake for the whole night. Good thing I slept in the usual time. :D

My classmates: Claire and Tri

Our experience at Itaewon Restaurant was awesome! We talked random stuff and most of all, K-Pop which me and Tri would only relate and Claire, kept herself busy by asking for refills! (Good thing it was for free!). Thank you Itaewon Restaurant for our dinner especially the infinite refilling of our side dishes which made me eat kimchi for the second time and fried sweet potatoes for the nth time (hehe!). Thanks to my classmates Claire and Tri for experiencing Korean cuisine with me. Let's do this more often! :D

Kamsahamnida! Thanks for reading!

If you want to know more about Itaewon Restaurant, click the link below:
- Itaewon Restaurant on Facebook