Gangnam Station Korean course dining with a birthday message: MUSEO

My dear close friend, who I hadn't seen in ages because she'd been living abroad, has a birthday coming up soon. So I wanted to gift her an early birthday dinner, and we headed to MUSEO, a Gangnam course dining date spot.

Where MUSEO is, opening hours and parking

MUSEO is on the basement floor of 20 Gangnam-daero 47-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, between Gangnam Station and Yangjae Station, about an 8–10 minute walk from either one. It's open daily from 10am to 10pm, with a break time from 2:30pm to 5:30pm, and last order is at 8pm.

MUSEO Hours 📍Basement floor, 20 Gangnam-daero 47-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul ⏲️Daily 10am – 10pm Break time 2:30–5:30pm / L.O. 8pm 🅿️Parking available

🅿️If you drive, the lot on the right facing the store building is free to use, while the Daemyeong Building lot on the left is paid, though the restaurant offers 1 hour of parking support when you dine there. One car per team (1 hour support) *₩1,000 per 10 minutes.

MUSEO is a dining space that reinterprets Korean food in a modern way, using seasonal ingredients suited to the time of year.

Inside MUSEO: bar tables and private rooms

The inside of MUSEO has dim lighting and a calm, weighty atmosphere that really conveys the feel of a course dining restaurant — a great fit for anniversaries or dates. Bar-style tables for 1–2 people sit at the center, with room spaces set up right beside them.

There are room spaces set up beside the bar tables.

• Room details – 2 tables, each seating 4–7 people
• Room fee – an extra ₩100,000 applies, but this fee is waived if you spend ₩150,000 or more per person including food and drinks
• Reservations – bookable via Naver or Catch Table, with a deposit of ₩50,000 per person

MUSEO menu and prices, and the dinner drink rule

MUSEO doesn't have a fixed menu — instead, it introduces new seasonal menus each time the season changes.

• Lunch – Baekban (set meal) ₩32,000
• Lunch – Premium Baekban ₩49,000
• Dinner – Signature course ₩69,000
• Dinner – Tasting course ₩109,000

✔️Note that the signature course and regular set meal are only sold on weekdays, excluding weekends and holidays. There's a wide range of drinks to pair with the food, including traditional liquor, champagne, white wine, and red wine. Lunch – drinks not required / Dinner – drinks required (1 glass per person).

Note a birthday in your booking and get a message on the course menu

When making a reservation at MUSEO, they ask if there's a birthday person in the party. I wrote my friend's birthday, and they wrote us this birthday message on the course menu paper.

Since drinks are required at dinner, we each ordered a draft beer.

What comes in the 109,000-won dinner tasting course

The tasting course I had was ₩109,000 per person, made up of fusion Korean dishes using seasonal ingredients.

Green onion tart and steamed egg

The course opened with a green onion tart and steamed egg. The tart is bite-sized, so you pop the whole thing in your mouth — so, so nutty and savory. The steamed egg came with an anchovy sauce made with sesame oil, also packed with nutty flavor and umami. It was so good from the very first bite that it got me really excited for the rest of the course.

Seafood mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) and tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty)

The dongchimi (radish water kimchi) mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) with sweet shrimp, seaweed, and sea cucumber was truly excellent — sweet and tangy, exactly the kind of thing that wakes up your appetite.

The tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty) was also made perfectly. You pick it up by the stick and take a first bite plain, then dip it in the pine nut mustard sauce that comes with it. I'm going to keep saying 'this is so good' for the rest of the course, but... it really is, haha. The whole time I was eating, it felt like I hadn't had such well-made food in a long time.

Grilled Goheung Spanish mackerel and Wando kelp butter brioche

This butter, made with kelp and gamtae (seaweed), was truly the best butter of my life. I genuinely wanted to applaud 👏👏👏👏. And serving the butter on that pretty shell tray was such a stroke of genius. Spreading it generously on the nutty, well-toasted brioche... wow, I was so happy.

The grilled Spanish mackerel was the ultimate dish from a visual standpoint alone — the plating looked like an underwater scene with rocks and seaweed dancing around. It sat on a sauce made from baek-kimchi (white kimchi) broth, topped with kimchi powder and crushed pistachio, adding texture to the soft fish. Truly perfect...💗

Gangneung potato with truffle

This is MUSEO's signature dish — a shredded potato pancake shaped like an ice cream cone. The texture of the shredded potato was so good, evenly cooked throughout, and it paired perfectly with the aioli sauce.

Buckwheat noodles with gim (seaweed) pesto

The gim (seaweed) sauce on the buckwheat noodles, made with fish sauce and gopchang gim (a type of seaweed), had insanely good umami — you mash it up and mix it in well. Fried buckwheat adds a crispy texture on top. This was the kind of place where, dish after dish, you can't help but say 'this is the best ___ I've ever had.'

A refreshing lemon pear sorbet to briefly cleanse the palate~

Braised chicken leg, the main course

A chicken leg braised for a long time in pork fat, served over mung bean and glutinous rice, topped with charred pickled scallions. I was already full at this point, but it was so good I forced myself to finish the whole thing, haha. You could really taste that deep flavor from the long cooking time. Eating it together with the pickled scallions is a dream combination!

Makgeolli (rice wine) ice cream

A perfect course right down to the final dessert. Made with nuruk (fermentation starter) and rice, it's bursting with nutty flavor, plus the saltiness of soy sauce crumble and the crunch of chamoe (Korean melon) made it even more delicious.

Is MUSEO worth booking for a birthday or anniversary course?

The MUSEO tasting course was delicious from start to finish, without a single miss! I'd strongly recommend this place for anniversaries and dates~