Pangyo brunch spot with wood-fired panuozzo and gnocchi: Tobeu Nain

A little away from the main Pangyo office district, in Sasong-dong, there's a wood-fired pizza place our family loves. When I heard they'd rolled out a fall basil gnocchi, we headed out for a rare family meal.

Tobeu Nain Pangyo hours and parking

• No closed days
• Hours 10:30–21:00
• Restaurant break 15:00–17:00
• Free parking, corkage fee applies, Naver reservations, private group room, delivery/takeout available

Where in Sasong-dong is Tobeu Nain?

Tobeu Nain sits down a slightly out-of-the-way alley behind Tancheon stream, but word has gotten around — these days there's often a wait even for weekday lunch.

The house-turned-restaurant from outside

Since Tobeu Nain occupies an entire house, it has plenty of capacity even when busy, so you don't wait long, and even if there's a line, tables free up quickly. The parking lot is big too, so parking is easy.

Inside Tobeu Nain: seating and atmosphere

Go on an early weekday evening and it's not crowded — a good setting for chatting over a meal. Being an Italian restaurant, it's decorated in a European style, and the interior is pretty enough that it's popular as a meeting spot for groups of women too.

Tobeu Nain menu and prices

There are set menus that let you try a variety of dishes a bit cheaper, and if you go on a weekday lunch there's also a brunch set.

Every time I come to Tobeu Nain I'm amazed by the wood-fired pizza. Chewy pizza fresh out of the big oven in the kitchen is excellent.

Pasta, gnocchi, lasagna — basically every dish you'd expect from an Italian menu is on there.

The 2nd floor runs as a café, so there's a wide range of drinks like coffee and ade, plus desserts like Basque cheesecake and pancakes.

The three dishes we ordered

• Basil cream gnocchi - ₩21,900
• Meatball panuozzo - ₩16,000
• Mushroom salad & focaccia - ₩18,900

Whenever we visit Tobeu Nain we always get the wood-fired pizza, but this time my parents wanted to try something new, so we ordered the wood-fired sandwich panuozzo instead — which meant a more varied spread than usual, skipping pizza altogether.

Mushroom salad and focaccia, 18,900 won

This salad comes with wood-fired focaccia on the side, and the salad portion is generous enough that it worked well split three ways.

A bite of freshly baked, fluffy focaccia topped with tangy balsamic, sweet ricotta cheese and crisp salad. The salad's balance was really well done, making it a clean brunch option too. The mushrooms — oyster, button, king oyster — were piled on generously as toppings.

Fall season menu: basil cream gnocchi, 21,900 won

Tobeu Nain makes its gnocchi (Italian potato dumplings) by hand, so since you're eating here anyway, go for the gnocchi over the pasta.

The basil cream sauce also seems to be made in-house. It's not too rich, with the fragrant basil striking a nice balance — my parents loved it and said it was really delicious.

Tobeu Nain's gnocchi seems to have a high potato content.

Fluffy on the inside but chewy too — great texture, and the portion isn't skimpy either. I'll definitely be ordering the gnocchi again next time.

The sauce was so good we scraped the plate clean with the wood-fired bread that comes with the salad.

Best value dish: the wood-fired meatball panuozzo

This was our first time trying the wood-fired sandwich. We usually get wood-fired pizza, but since we'd already ordered a salad this time, I figured there'd be enough bread and ordered this instead — oh man, this thing is something else.

It was packed to the brim with meatballs — way too much for one person to finish. Meatballs, cheese, arugula and tomato salsa made for a hearty yet refreshing combination, clean enough that I'd highly recommend it as a brunch dish.

The sandwich came out last, with meatball juices running out, moist and rich — paired with the salad and gnocchi, it filled in exactly what was missing. My dad, who doesn't usually eat Western food, apparently said everything was so delicious that day and cleaned his plate too.