Birthday dinner at a Bangi-dong Italian restaurant in Seoul: Allegro

Today I want to introduce Allegro, a Western restaurant in Jamsil that newly opened in August... ♥

I had plans in Jamsil last week and kept searching for Jamsil Western food spots, Songpa Western food spots, Songridan-gil restaurants, and that's how I found this place. Both the prices and the vibe were exactly my style, so I went right away haha. They also do lettering service for anniversaries, so I'd recommend visiting on a special day too!

Where is Allegro, and what are its hours and booking options?

• Location: 57-1 Olympic-ro 32-gil, 3rd floor, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: 12:00 – 23:00
• Break time: 15:00 – 18:00 / Last order 21:30
• Closed Tuesdays
• Reservations: Naver Reservations, Catchtable

Allegro is on the 3rd floor, so you take the elevator up from the 1st floor.

Right when you step off on the 3rd floor there's a painting and the jazz lineup on display! Allegro has an evening jazz bar performance, so it's perfect for a Songridan-gil date course!!! 💕 The monthly lineup is posted in front of the restaurant and on Instagram.

Inside Allegro: seating and the Lotte Tower view

There were way more seats than I expected!!! The central seats are all arranged facing the jazz bar performance, and the seats at the edges are set up facing each other.

Thanks to the mini lamp on the table, the mood must really come alive at night when it's dark.

You can see Lotte Tower from inside the restaurant!!! It must be so pretty at sunset,,, 😍

What's on Allegro's menu? A long wine list

Here's the menu! FOOD, RED, WHITE, SPARKLING, WHISKY, DRINK — there are lots of food options, but the number of wines is really something. Drinking wine at night while watching the jazz bar show... that's exactly the Songpa date course.

Steak, pasta and salad: three plates for about 60,000 won

We ordered the sous-vide pork neck steak, carbonara, and rucola salad. It's rare to enjoy all three — steak, pasta, and salad — for around ₩60,000 in Seoul, but the quality and taste were both excellent.

Once you sit down, staff bring you your cutlery, plates, and water themselves, and they keep coming back to refill the water before it runs out haha.

Arugula salad, 10,000 won

The rucola salad is ₩10,000. I'm super picky about salad dressings so I was hesitant, but oh my god... the dressing was so good 😳 It was exactly my style, so I kept telling my boyfriend 'this is so good...' while eating haha. Rucola + cheese + salad dressing... I want to eat this salad again...

It tastes even better if you squeeze lemon over it... 💕 It gets a little tangy too, which made it even better. Going back and forth between the pasta and the salad, the salad kept resetting my palate, so I could eat it on repeat.

Italian-style carbonara, 19,000 won

Allegro's carbonara is ₩19,000. Unlike carbonara with a thick cream sauce, this Italian-style carbonara is made with just egg and cheese, no fresh cream, to get its rich creaminess! I'd only ever had the cream-sauce version before, and this was my first time trying Italian-style carbonara — and it was,,, so good,,, Thanks to the yolk and cheese it was thick and rich, and the noodles were cooked just right, so it was really nice to eat.

Up close it looks like this — the plating is so pretty when you look closely•• ♥ It's even better eaten together with the bacon and mushrooms!!!

Sous-vide pork neck steak, 33,000 won

The sous-vide pork neck steak is ₩33,000 — domestic pork neck cooked sous-vide, served with peppercorn sauce! To get straight to the point: it's g o o d. The sauce had a flavor I'd never had before and it was really delicious — even just the sauce alone was nicely salty and good! And I'm a total fries lover lover lover,,, so having fries alongside it made me so happy,,, the fries weren't greasy at all and were seasoned just right, so they were really good.

It was cooked so perfectly inside,,, ♥ It's pork neck, but being sous-vide it wasn't tough at all — nice and tender to eat.

How does the birthday lettering dessert arrive?

This is the lettering service!!! Since we were on a birthday date, we asked for the birthday lettering service. They wrote 'Happy Birthday' tastefully in chocolate and gave us vanilla crème brûlée and brownie + fresh cream.

As for the brownie... I wasn't expecting much but it was so good my eyes went wide while eating it...

The crème brûlée is all about cracking that top layer — it was sweet and the cream was smooth, so it was delicious!

Is Allegro worth it? Final verdict

The staff were genuinely kind, and I loved being able to eat such good Western food for such reasonable prices! I really recommend trying the rucola salad and the sous-vide pork neck steak — a great Jamsil and Songpa Western food spot by day, and a Jamsil and Songpa jazz bar date course by night! And with the lettering service too, it's perfect for anniversaries ♥ It's also near Seokchon Lake, so if you're looking for things to do in Jamsil, I'd recommend giving it a try!

A Jamsil and Songpa Western restaurant with a great vibe, a Songpa Bangi-dong pasta spot, Allegro — a Songridan-gil restaurant and Jamsil date course, highly, highly recommended ♥