Jongno Korean restaurant for bori-gulbi served tableside: Modam Dining

A Gwanghwamun Korean set-meal spot for gatherings that is neat, nicely formal, and delicious too.

A Gwanghwamun gathering spot: Modam Dining Gwanghwamun

Open daily from 11:00 to 22:00, with a weekday break from 15:00 to 17:00. Parking on B3 of the D-Palace building is free for two hours, and if it is full, you can use the Concordian Building underground car park. Just note that parking support is unavailable at the Concordian Building before 18:00 on weekdays.

From the entrance onward, its luxurious, gallery-like beauty just bursts forth.

As befits a great Korean set-meal restaurant, Korean beauty radiates from the decorative pieces. My first impression here, above all, was simply “comfortable and airy.”

A great space for family introductions and wedding-invitation gatherings

As you would expect from a popular restaurant in the heart of Gwanghwamun, where offices are packed together, it was busy even on a weekday evening with group gatherings and couples on dates. Still, the restaurant is large and comfortable, with separate private rooms. There is plenty of room between tables in the main dining room too, so it is easy to chat—ideal for special occasions such as family introductions or wedding-invitation gatherings.

Bori-gulbi and abalone tteokgalbi set meals

Since it is a Korean set-meal restaurant, the menu is a varied Korean-based lineup. Even if you order an individual dish rather than a course, it comes as a full set meal, so you can enjoy it like a course.

I ordered the stars of an upscale Korean set meal: bori-gulbi (barley-aged dried yellow corvina) and abalone tteokgalbi (grilled minced-beef patties).

At lunch, you can enjoy set meals at much more reasonable prices through the lunch specials, so the value is excellent too. For an office lunch gathering or a casual meeting, a lunchtime visit is just perfect 👍

A Korean course from appetizers onward

The appetizers that announce the start of the course.

• Mustard vegetables with pine-nut sauce
• Seasonal salad with yuzu dressing
• Mul-baekkimchi (mild white-water kimchi)

They even generously served two kinds of salad. The seasonal salad with yuzu dressing had a sweet-and-tangy flavor thanks to the sweet yuzu dressing.

The mustard vegetables with pine-nut sauce had that sharp mustard kick plus the nutty richness of pine nuts—two thumbs up ♡ Personally, this was my pick, haha. The dressing went so well with the cucumber.

After the savory porridge, it was time for the next course.

The flounder sashimi course with unforgettable capellini

Flounder sashimi, pickled-vegetable ceviche, and capellini. Capellini is an extremely thin pasta!!! The fresh flounder sashimi was delicious, but the capellini was honestly incredible.

Maybe it had perilla oil in it? It was nutty and clean-tasting, and even pretty—so satisfying! They need to sell this as an individual dish, haha.

The staff cut the crispy fried shiitake mushrooms into easy-to-eat pieces.

The four basic side dishes were seasoned mung-bean sprouts, sweet-potato stems, pickled cucumber, and kimchi. Each one arrived neatly arranged, with the care of a home-cooked meal, so the balance with the mains was truly excellent. ✔️ Of course, you can refill any side dishes that run short.

How to enjoy the abalone tteokgalbi

The abalone tteokgalbi was thick and full of juices, a dish that everyone from kids to adults can enjoy without much chance of a divided opinion. Its pairing with the abalone served alongside was unreal.

The tteokgalbi was not salty and just sweet enough, so it was delicious on its own—but even better with the pickled onion and wasabi served alongside, haha.

Bori-gulbi prepared at your table

The bori-gulbi set meal. Removing the bones from bori-gulbi can be such a hassle that, even when I want it, I sometimes do not order it, hahaha. But at Modam, they carefully prepare the corvina one piece at a time right at your table with professional skill.

With skinny bori-gulbi, once you remove the bones and head, there is hardly anything left to eat. This one was generously sized, though, so covering a bowl of rice with a bori-gulbi blanket was no problem. 👍👍👍👍 I soaked a spoonful of black-rice rice in cool green-tea water, topped it with a piece of nicely dried, chewy corvina, and got a mouthful of savory, lightly salty flavor.

Service paced to your meal

The course ended with plum tea, which is easy on the digestion. If you are having a family introduction or dining with a work superior and worry that a course meal will take too long between dishes, interrupt the flow of conversation, or lead to awkward silences, there is nothing to worry about.

At Modam, dishes are served to match our pace of eating :-)

Just ask in advance for the dishes to be served without gaps.