Seocho Italian restaurant with a truffle pasta dinner course: Vinovine

Where is Vinovine near Seocho Station?

Vinovine is an Italian wine dining restaurant near Sarang Church by Seocho Station. Head down the alley behind the church in Seocho-dong and you will find it. It is a quiet room-only restaurant serving pasta, fish and hanwoo (Korean beef) steak as a course, so it is popular for company dinners, gatherings and anniversaries.

The alley behind Sarang Church in Seocho-dong is full of solid, rewarding restaurants, and Vinovine is one of them.

What are Vinovine's hours and days off?

Vinovine serves lunch and dinner on weekdays and is closed on weekends, Saturday and Sunday.

It is an Italian course restaurant in Seocho that only opens for weekday lunch and dinner and rests on weekends.

Is every seat at Vinovine really a private room?

Yes, Vinovine is a private-room restaurant where every seat is a room. As you go down the stairs to the basement, a wall full of wine corks greets you. The room is very clean and you can't hear any outside noise, so you can focus on your meal and conversation in private. It felt like walking into a wine cellar.

Vinovine menu and wine list near Seocho Station

Vinovine has a separate wine list alongside its food menu.

The food menu and the wine list.

Is the ₩65,000 dinner course at Vinovine good value?

We ordered the ₩65,000 dinner course for two. It runs from seafood to pasta, hanwoo steak and dessert, so the value was fantastic.

A dinner at this price in Seocho-dong? The course is practically perfect! Seafood AND steak? Amazing!!!!

You can also add a wine pairing. It comes as 3 glasses per course, so you can enjoy good wine alongside the food.

Starter: egg and scallop

The starter of Vinovine's dinner course was egg and scallop. The scallop comes topped with foam, haha. One bite and I knew: this place is no ordinary restaurant!!!

Baby corn tempura and chilled chodang corn soup

The chodang corn (a sweet Korean corn variety) soup is served cold, with corn tempura on the side. And this isn't fried corn kernels. They fried the whole corn stalk!!!! I had never thought about eating a corn stalk, but it is so delicious. Sweet. Inside the crispy batter you chew sweet corn and stalk.

They even fried the corn silk and put it on top. So much fun. Eaten with perilla (shiso) leaf, it made my mouth feel fresh. A sweet, fresh soup full of summer.

Chewy, sweet raw shrimp

The third dish, Vinovine's raw shrimp, was cooked only very lightly, so it was chewy and sweet.

How can every dish be this pretty, like art? Did it taste better because it was pretty? The shrimp dish is incredible. Barely cooked, almost like raw shrimp. Chewy and sweet, really delicious.

It is topped with fried banana and Brussels sprouts. The green thyme leaves are wonderfully fresh too.

White tilefish with crispy scales and moist flesh

The fish course is grilled white tilefish. But the scales are fried. They're crunchy like a snack. The crispy skin and soft tilefish flesh go great with the basil leaves.

With zucchini and tomato full of summer sweetness and charred basil, it was a dish where everything went together beautifully.

The truffle pasta that became my pasta of a lifetime

Vinovine's truffle pasta was the best pasta the writer has ever eaten.

The best pasta I've ever had. The noodles are cooked perfectly al dente, of course, but inside them is the concentrated broth of every mushroom. I almost ordered more of this truffle pasta. Even as I write this, I still think about the taste. When can I go again?

Hanwoo sirloin with black garlic sauce and crispy crumble

The main is hanwoo sirloin with black garlic sauce and a crispy crumble.

The hanwoo sirloin arrived. The knife glides through. Tender, with fragrant juices. Wow, this is delicious too, haha.

A whole meal like art, with pasta, fish and steak, and the dinner course is ₩65,000!!! I also love that every seat is a room, so you can eat privately and quietly.

Dessert: hojicha ice cream and warabi mochi

Dessert was hojicha (roasted green tea) ice cream with warabi mochi (made from bracken starch) and crunchy nuts. I love hojicha, but I'd never had hojicha ice cream. True to hojicha being nuttier than green tea, the ice cream bursts with a roasty hojicha aroma.

Honest review of Vinovine in Seocho

Vinovine is too good to keep to myself. Who should I bring? I'm already planning in my head. Every dish that comes out is art. Not only is it tasty, the harmony with the tableware is amazing. The bowl matched to each dish is art too.

Today I found a place I really love. What a happy day!