Geomdan omakase bar with fig tofu cream cheese and Sapporo: Matgim

What kind of bar is Matgim in Geomdan?

Matgim (맡김) is a course-style bar in the Geomdan new town in Incheon. Instead of picking snacks off a menu, you get the ₩35,000 course served in order. I was looking for a nice bar in Geomdan and ended up somewhere a little special, and that place was Matgim.

It isn't the usual bar where you read the menu and order dishes one by one. The food comes out in order as part of the ₩35,000 course. It started with fig & tofu cream cheese, then grilled baby napa cabbage, gopchang (beef intestine) tacos, daily pasta, pork tenderloin steak, and finally plum granita.

I ordered Sapporo beer to go with it and enjoyed the dishes slowly, one at a time.

What are Matgim's atmosphere and seating like?

Matgim is a small shop built mostly around bar-style seats, so you can watch the food being prepared up close. The mood was a bit different from the ordinary bars you commonly see in Geomdan, and watching the cooking up close made the course even more fun.

It felt better suited to tasting each dish slowly with a drink than to a loud, rowdy group night. Because the course comes out in order, rather than everything landing on the table at once like at a typical bar, there's also the fun of waiting to see what comes next.

I thought it was a good place to visit for a date in Geomdan, or when you want to enjoy drinks and food a little differently than usual.

What comes in Matgim's ₩35,000 course?

On this day, the ₩35,000 course had six dishes, and I ordered Sapporo beer alongside.

• Fig & tofu cream cheese
• Grilled baby napa cabbage
• Gopchang (beef intestine) taco
• Daily pasta
• Pork tenderloin steak
• Plum granita
• Sapporo beer (ordered separately)

Fig & tofu cream cheese

The first dish of the course was fig & tofu cream cheese. It was fun that it started with something quite different from the snacks you easily find at a normal bar. Sweet figs and soft tofu cream cheese came together nicely, making a light way to begin.

The gentle sweetness of the fig and the softness of the cream cheese matched better than I expected, and a sip of Sapporo beer left my mouth feeling clean. Starting with something so easy to pair with a drink got me looking forward to the next dish.

Grilled baby napa cabbage

The second dish was grilled baby napa cabbage. I usually eat napa cabbage in wraps or salads, so having it grilled felt like something new. Grilling brought out its mild sweetness, and the softened texture made it easy to eat.

It made me think that even an ingredient that could seem ordinary can become something quite different depending on how it's cooked. With Sapporo beer, the clean, plain flavor came through even more, so it was good to nibble between sips.

Gopchang (beef intestine) taco

The gopchang taco that came next shifted the mood completely from the earlier dishes. Combining a taco with gopchang was fun in itself. One bite and the chewy gopchang worked with the taco better than I expected.

After the soft, mild dishes, the gopchang taco had a richer flavor, so it felt like the dish that changes the mood in the middle of the course. Naturally it went well with beer as a drinking snack. After the gopchang flavor, a sip of Sapporo beer cleaned my mouth, so I kept reaching for more.

Daily pasta

The daily pasta came in the middle of the course. As the name suggests, it changes depending on the ingredients and setup of the day, so there's some fun in wondering what pasta you'll get each time you visit.

After fig & tofu cream cheese, grilled napa cabbage and gopchang tacos, each in a different style, the pasta felt a bit more like a proper meal. The lineup was quite varied for bar food, and the mood kept changing throughout the course, so it never got boring.

Pork tenderloin steak

The pork tenderloin steak was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to in the course. After the lighter dishes, then the taco and pasta, the steak arriving made it clear we had entered the second half of the course.

I liked the clean flavor and soft texture of the tenderloin, and each bite gave a different kind of satisfaction from the earlier dishes. I'd thought a ₩35,000 course would be just a few simple snacks, but with the steak included the lineup felt more substantial than expected. It was less a bar for just drinking and more a place to properly enjoy the food with a drink on the side.

Plum granita

The course ended with plum granita. After all the different dishes, a cold, refreshing dessert at the end left my mouth feeling clean.

Thanks to the plum's tang and the cool texture, the course finished much more lightly than if it had ended on something heavy. At first I was curious what a ₩35,000 course would include, but once the final dessert arrived, it felt like I'd properly had a full course meal.

How does Sapporo beer go with the Matgim course?

This time I ordered Sapporo beer with the ₩35,000 course, and since the style of the food kept changing, it was fun matching them up one by one.

The course didn't serve similar food from start to finish. It moved from soft, sweet dishes like the fig & tofu cream cheese to grilled napa cabbage, gopchang tacos, pasta and pork tenderloin steak, with the style changing constantly.

So trying each one with the beer was fun. Since the food doesn't all arrive at once but in order, it was also nice that we could chat naturally each time a dish came out and eat slowly.

Would I recommend Matgim as a date bar in Geomdan?

Matgim in Geomdan let me enjoy food and drinks in a different way from ordering snacks one by one at an ordinary bar. With the ₩35,000 per person course going from fig & tofu cream cheese to grilled napa cabbage, gopchang tacos, daily pasta, pork tenderloin steak and plum granita, the course was more substantial than I'd expected.

Above all, every dish had a different mood, so it never felt like eating one thing over and over, and it was good for taking slowly with Sapporo beer.

If you're looking for something a little more special than an ordinary bar in Geomdan, or want to try a variety of dishes over a drink with your partner in a nice atmosphere, I think it's worth a visit. I think it would suit especially people looking for a date spot in Geomdan or an omakase-style course bar in Geomdan.

I'm curious what a different course would bring, so it's a place I'd like to visit again.

Matgim location and opening hours

• Address: 788 Seogot-ro, Geomdan-gu, Incheon, 1st floor, Unit 129 (near Dokjeong Station in the Geomdan new town)
• Hours: 18:00 ~ 24:00
• Course: they say it's an omakase bar where you can enjoy a ₩35,000 or ₩50,000 course