The one restaurant I have been waiting to try during my trip to Seoul, so my expectations are going to be high. The thing is I come across reviews for Palsaek Samgyeopsal all the time and its always amped up, of course I am going to expect fireworks.
The entrance is adorned with photographs of people who have eaten here, all korean celebrities of course. First impression.. tacky! But ready to eat!
We sit down and have a look at the menu, though the food is already being served to our table. As we try to find out why we are being served when we have not even ordered yet, the waitress gushes and tells us "its just the set".
Anyway it looks like they are only serving this "set" so the same for everybody..yay! Not impressed, terrible service.
The eight flavours of juicy marinated pork belly, boy am I excited!
The marinade verdict in order -
Ginseng, great flavour to start off with. I don't eat ginseng anything back home, so I was curious to see how this one tasted and it was delicious.
Wine, probably not the most exiting marinade but it changed my mind once I ate it, yum! So far so good six more to go.
Pine leaf, ok for me it pretty much went downhill from here. I didn't mind the pine leaf marinade, yes it was very piney and its not a marinade I have had before but there just wasn't any wow factor in this one.
Herb, probably the most un-exciting marinade ever. This tasted so stock standard like it was marinated with italian herbs. Yawn.
Garlic, I don't know why this is even one of the marinades. Couldn't they have come up with a better marinade than garlic? It just tastes just as its named.
Curry, at this point I've lost all hope and am pretty dissappointed. I am eating pork marinated in curry powder and nothing else, like.. from a packet.
Miso, finally.. One on the board I am looking forward to try after having four unimpressive flavours. I'm not sure if I like it, I know its marinated in miso but maybe a little too much, it just tastes very fermented beany for me.
Spicy, for sure this one will be good right? You can't go wrong with spicy, ok maybe you can if there was no spice! I was expecting a flame thrower in my mouth.
What a fail, sheer disappointment on my experice here. The service was a joke, the ambience of the restaurant was like eating in a cafeteria and the marinade flavours were unimpressive. I think the only thing that saved this place was that you get to eat a load of juicy tender pork belly!
Grilled kimchi, a mix of mushrooms and garlic. Feel free to grab some more if you run out, its self serve.
Mixed green leaves to wrap your pork in, I prefer to eat mine on rice.
Haemul Jjigae (seafood stew)
It turned out cheaper than I thought it would be, total cost was 30,000 won for the set which feeds two people (add rice for an extra 1,000 won per bowl).
I honestly think you can find a much better barbeque joint than Palsaek Samgyeopsal, I know its sounds exciting to try eight different flavours of pork but trust me getting two good flavours out of eight isn't a win.
But if you still want to check them out [MAP]
Betty Jane x
