I never imagined finding a quality gastropub in Seoul. Eating here brought back fond memories of The Linkery in San Diego and Father’s Office in LA. Ahhh, guys, I’m missing America these days. I can’t deny it. I love Korea to death, but I haven’t been on American soil in almost three years and I keep having fantasies of riding my motorcycle up the coast on the 5 Freeway from San Diego to LA. Okay, digression ended.
Hopscotch. In short, this place is absolutely amazing. The food, drinks, atmosphere, music, presentation, even the people in there were good looking somehow. Even the music quality and volume were spot on. I’m very sensitive to music. When working in cafes and restaurants for about 5 years during and after college I was almost invariably in charge of the music and would nazi that thing. The perfect vibe and volume makes or breaks the mood for me. Hopscotch had it just right. Nice upbeat and funky melodies at a volume loud enough to bump your heart, but not enough to deter conversion across a table.
The interior has a modern industrial style design. There are couches on one side , and standard tables and booths on the other. There’s also a small bar near the kitchen but no one sat there and I can imagine no one does. The mood is set from the beginning with the entrance. The only sign is the Hopscotch logo so if you don’t know the logo, you’re SOOL, as I was. Actually my phone was out of commission when I came here and so I looked around for 30 minutes before finally having to find a PC room to message my friend for directions. It turned out that I drove past the place several times and just kept going because I was looking for a sign that said “HOPSCOTCH”. So, please don’t make that mistake, just look for this logo. I suppose they do this to keep it ‘trendy’ and ‘secret’. Bullocks if you ask me, but whatever.
The real highlight of this pub (and any gastropub) is the food. The food here is amazing. It’s pricey, damit, but worth it. I’ll definitely be back on occasions to impress. I must apologize. I normally get photos of the menus so I can have accurate names and prices, but this time I did not. Also, the photos are somewhat lacking in quality because it is remarkably dark in there. Believe me, I have the best photo equipment available, and this is the best I could do without flash and without driving my 4 impatient/hungry friends bonkers. Anyway, on to the food!
Mac and Cheese 18,000w
I would go back just for this. I would give up my first son for a lifetime supply of this. They use four cheeses, and bake it to a perfect crunchy on top. This is not your mother’s mac and cheese. This mac and cheese is not even quite reinvented, but perfected. I believe there was bacon in there as well. There must have been, bacon makes everything better.
Duck Fries (~13,000w)
Apparently these are really famous for being boiled in duck fat. But to be honest, they didn’t taste much too special to me. They’re good, but didn’t live up to the hype I was hoping for.
Jambalaya (~18,000w)
The jambalaya had hefty portions of sausage, shrimp, and cheese, and was seasoned perfectly. Who knew we could find jambalaya in Korea? However!… And this is a big one, it’s made with pasta instead of rice. Yeah, it’s strange to be honest, but I give them props for nailing the sauce and serving plenty of protein.
Chicken and Potatoes (~20,000w)
Again, I don’t know the exact names or prices, so you’ll have to look it up when you get there. This is actually the one dish that I wouldn’t recommend. It’s beautiful and well seasoned, however the chicken was dry. If the chicken were good, it would be worth it. And to be honest it could have just been an off night. The chicken could have been old and accidentally overcooked, and maybe it’ll be better next time. But everything else was great. Actually the mashed potatoes were AMAZING – perfectly seasoned, plenty of butter. On the other hand, my buddy Dan from Seoul Eats highly recommended this.
Corn and Shrimp Salad (~17,000)
Again, I’m butchering the name. Apologies. By the way, in 2013 why doesn’t a fancy restaurant like this have a website with their menu on it? This drives me insane. Hopscotch doesn’t even have a website, oajsdfkljasdfkla;dsjf. Anyhow, this salad was also good. It’s a bit deceptive though, because it’s 70% corn down there under the top layer of shrimp and asparagus.
Hopscotch serves around 10 micro brew brews on tap, which can be had for 8,000w or 10,000w. On the left here is a pale ale that I was in love with. On the right was a friend’s white ale, which I didn’t like. But I don’t like white ale’s, they’re much to sweet for my palate. They also serve several Craftworks brews. It’s good to see Craftworks getting some well earned recognition and distribution around Seoul. Hopscotch also has several dozen bottled beers, a good selection of whiskeys, a small selection of cocktails, but no wine.
Again, be careful with directions. If you find the Kia dealership walk behind it and make the first left.
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Some more photos available here.
서울시 강남구 논현동 113-20
Seoul Gangnam-Gu Nonhyeon-dong 113-20
02-511-0145
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If you go, please let me know how it was in the comments below!
