Dongtan Station pasta restaurant: oil vongole vs cream risotto, Paol

I was looking for a nice Western restaurant near Dongtan Station, and ended up at Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch, close to Yeoul Park.

Search for Dongtan Station restaurants and plenty of pasta places come up, but picking one with a good date-night mood and decent food was a real dilemma.

Paol specializes in pasta, steak and risotto. I was especially curious about the risotto topped with steak and the seafood oil pasta, so I came to try them. 🍝

What do the exterior and atmosphere of Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch look like?

Paol has a clean beige exterior with a black PAOL sign that stands out. Right from the outside it feels calmer and more upscale than a typical casual pasta place. You can see the interior through the floor-to-ceiling glass, so you can get a feel for the mood before you even go in.

Next to the entrance there was decoration with flowers and plants. Together with the soft lighting, it gave off that warm restaurant feeling. If you're looking for a Dongtan Station date restaurant or an atmospheric restaurant in Dongtan, I think you'll care about this kind of interior too.

Paol's warmly lit dining room

Step inside and the white-and-wood interior is the first thing you notice. It's bright and tidy overall, and with a small lamp on each table it felt even cozier in the evening.

The window side is all floor-to-ceiling glass, so it didn't feel stuffy. One wall displayed wine bottles and small decorative items.

It's not over-the-top fancy, but the wine display and soft indirect lighting give the space a refined feel. Tables are arranged for 2 up to 4 or more people, and the chairs have backrests, so they looked comfortable.

Each table comes pre-set with tableware and water glasses, which felt more like a proper restaurant than an ordinary eatery. A large mirror on one wall makes the room look bigger. It's a tidy, calm interior, so I think it would suit a blind date, an anniversary meal or an evening date with your partner.

Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch menu and prices

Pastas at Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch run ₩19,000–23,000, and the 250g sous vide flat iron steak is ₩40,000. I'm told the dishes are cooked by a chef who came from a luxury hotel.

They serve a range of Western dishes, including sous vide steak (slow-cooked at low temperature), pasta and risotto. Here are the main menu prices.

• Sous vide flat iron steak 250g ₩40,000
• Ricotta pomodoro ₩19,000
• Gambas aglio e olio (shrimp in garlic and olive oil) ₩19,000
• Clam vongole pasta ₩20,000
• Ragu pasta & bread ₩20,000

• Whole bacon carbonara ₩20,000
• Cheongyang chili cream ravioli ₩22,000
• Spicy crab rose pasta ₩23,000
• Steak risotto ₩23,000
• Ricotta cheese salad ₩12,000

What we ordered at Paol: oil-based pasta and cream risotto

At Paol we ordered the clam vongole pasta (₩20,000), the steak risotto (₩23,000) and a Coke Zero. A cream-based risotto and an oil-based pasta seemed like a good pairing for tasting two different flavors.

The first thing I noticed when the food arrived was that both dishes were plated neatly! The steak risotto especially, with meat and arugula on top of the cream sauce, looked really appetizing.

How does Paol's clam vongole pasta (₩20,000) taste?

Paol's vongole is an oil-based pasta with clams, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and more. Vongole is a pasta made with clams and olive oil.

Compared with a standard vongole, the vegetables stood out. The noodles looked glossy, evenly coated with the oil sauce. The clam meat could be eaten together with the noodles, and because it's built on garlic and olive oil, it had a clean appeal that's different from cream pasta.

With the clams, you can expect that savory seafood depth. The cherry tomatoes dotted throughout add a fresh accent to an oil pasta. The zucchini also gave more variety in texture than noodles alone.

With vongole, a heavy sauce can easily mask the clams' own flavor, but Paol's is built around oil, with no cream or tomato sauce.

If you like oil pasta where garlic and seafood come together, it's worth a look. I think it also suits anyone searching for a Dongtan Station pasta place who feels like a lighter oil pasta rather than a heavy cream one.

Is Paol's steak risotto (₩23,000) worth ordering?

Paol's steak risotto is creamy risotto topped with sous vide steak, arugula and finely grated cheese, and personally its look caught my eye most. The creamy risotto comes on a wide plate with steak, arugula and cheese on top.

According to the menu description, it's a risotto made with oats for a pop-in-the-mouth texture, served with tender sous vide steak. When I cut the steak, the outside was browned and the inside still had a red tint.

Even the cross-section looks different from well-done meat. Sous vide means cooking ingredients precisely at a relatively low temperature, and I'm told Paol prepares its steak this way.

The charm of the steak risotto is getting meat and risotto in one bite. Unlike eating the meat alone, putting it on risotto coated in cream sauce makes a much richer combination. The risotto has plenty of sauce, so the overall texture was moist and creamy.

The arugula on top adds a vegetal aroma that contrasts with the rich cream sauce. The cream sauce also had mushrooms in it, so it should suit people who love a nutty, savory flavor. I liked that you can enjoy risotto and meat together without ordering a separate steak.

If you're looking for a good risotto in Dongtan, Paol's steak risotto is worth keeping an eye on. It was also a nice thing to have alongside the cream-sauce risotto as a bite-by-bite pairing.

Is Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch a good date restaurant near Dongtan Station?

If you're looking for a nice Western restaurant near Dongtan Station, Paol Dongtan Yeoul Park Branch is worth putting on your list. The white-and-wood interior plus the small lamp on every table made it a good fit for an evening date 😊