Brunch café in Dongnae before baseball: gorgonzola pizza, Sasaenghwal

Where to eat in Dongnae before a baseball game: Sasaenghwal

Sasaenghwal (사생활) is a Western brunch café near Dongnae Station that serves a new style of Western food made with a harmonious mix of Eastern and Western ingredients. I went there to get a meal in before heading to the ballpark.

Have you even eaten? Getting to the ballpark too early is boring. Waiting is tiresome... but I still needed a meal. After going back and forth, I ended up at Sasaenghwal in Dongnae-gu. It's near Dongnae Station so it's easy to reach, and if you bring a car there's parking support, so it's supposedly perfect. Let's find out how it actually tastes.

Sasaenghwal opening hours and parking

Sasaenghwal is open daily 11:00–21:00, with a break time of 15:00–16:30 and last order at 20:00. The shop has no parking of its own, but if you park at Dongyeong Parking Lot you get 1 hour of parking support.

• Hours: daily 11:00–21:00
• Break time: 15:00–16:30
• Last order: 20:00
• Parking: none at the shop (1 hour of parking support at Dongyeong Parking Lot)

The neighborhood around Sasaenghwal is honestly a tricky place to park. To make up for that, parking at Dongyeong Parking Lot comes with 1 hour of support, so it works whether you come by public transport or by car.

What are the atmosphere and seating like at Sasaenghwal?

Sasaenghwal sits inside a market rather than on a busy main street, and I actually liked that it was much quieter than a crowded downtown area. Unlike the outside, the inside gives off a really upscale café or restaurant feel, so the mood is great.

There are all kinds of seats, from regular tables to floor seating and bar tables, so it's good for a chat and just right for a date. The central table adds a café vibe.

There are high chairs too, so it's a good place to come with kids. Every table has a scented candle giving off a soft fragrance, which somehow puts you at ease before the meal.

Free amenities at Sasaenghwal

There's also water, blankets, chargers, phone stands, book stands, aprons, hair ties and even earplugs. It's Sasaenghwal's way of looking after its guests.

How do you order at Sasaenghwal?

You can order at Sasaenghwal with a kiosk, which mostly takeout customers use.

If you're eating in, it's convenient to check the menu and order via a QR code or NFC tag. For people who find that difficult, you can also order the usual way from a menu board, so just pick whichever you prefer.

Sasaenghwal menu overview

The menu at Sasaenghwal is really varied. There's brunch, pasta, pizza, risotto and katsu (breaded cutlet), so Korean, Western and even Japanese-style katsu are covered. There are also café-style items like coffee, milk beverages and smoothies, plus alcohol, which is why it's called both a Western restaurant and a brunch café!

Question cards and a guestbook while you wait

For people who get bored waiting for food, Sasaenghwal has question cards and a guestbook. After ordering, the question cards were the first thing I noticed.

The questions are innocent but make you think a bit, so they'd be handy on a blind date. Maybe that's why Sasaenghwal is such a good date spot?

There's also a notebook and paper for a guestbook, so anyone who wants to can leave their mark.

While I was playing around, the food started coming out. The side dishes were homemade pickles and radish, a good combination to eat with pasta or risotto.

How does the zero-sugar Harmonious Life Tea Ade 1 (6,000 won) taste?

Sasaenghwal's Harmonious Life Tea Ade 1 costs ₩6,000 and blends apricot, grapefruit and lemon. It's an ade that brings out the character of each season in a many-layered harmony, and its biggest plus is that it's zero sugar, with no syrup at all.

It's sweet and tangy, you taste the fruit juice as it is, and it's refreshing too, so it helps digestion. It has that upscale feel of something made in a café. I get why it's called a harmonious ade.

Sous vide sirloin barley cream risotto (16,900 won)

Sasaenghwal's sous vide sirloin barley cream risotto costs ₩16,900. It's a healthy cream risotto made with barley, topped with pieces of tender sirloin cooked sous vide.

Barley definitely has a nuttier chew than white rice, and the sous vide sirloin is tender, so it's easy to eat without feeling heavy.

Cooking it slowly sous vide really makes the meat unbelievably soft. Sirloin can be tough, but there's none of that here, it just melts in your mouth.

Countryside oil pasta (16,900 won): made for Korean tastes

Sasaenghwal's countryside oil pasta costs ₩16,900. It has pork belly, oyster mushrooms, whole garlic, garlic stems and hot dried chili flakes, served with olive oil and perilla leaves, a pasta that's aimed squarely at Korean tastes.

Fragrant perilla leaves, oyster mushrooms soaked in olive oil, and noodles cooked just right. It's spicy and exactly the kind of flavor Koreans like.

The thinly sliced pork belly isn't tough; it's cooked moist in the oil and tender, and you can taste the meat's juices.

Gorgonzola pizza (23,900 won)

Sasaenghwal's gorgonzola pizza costs ₩23,900. It's made with blue cheese, so it's salty and nutty with a creamy texture.

The amount of cheese and the thickness of the dough are just right, and the salty, nutty gorgonzola flavor is a perfect match with honey.

Maybe because Sasaenghwal also does delivery, delivery drivers kept coming and going while I ate. Even well past mealtime there were lots of deliveries, so it must be a well-known spot in Dongnae-gu.

Anyway, from pasta to pizza to risotto, meal finished cleanly!

Verdict: Sasaenghwal for a meal in Dongnae before baseball

Sasaenghwal in Dongnae, Busan is a place where you can enjoy a range of Western dishes along with a brunch café. I visited out of curiosity before the baseball game, and it was a Western restaurant with clean flavors and no regrets.

All three dishes I ate suited my taste, and I think the countryside oil pasta in particular is one that even people who dislike pasta for being heavy could enjoy. On top of that, the atmosphere is good, so it's a nice place to visit. If you come to Dongnae-gu for baseball, it's somewhere you'd go back to again and again, so I recommend Sasaenghwal in Busan.