Family-friendly steak & risotto dinner in Seo-gu, Daejeon: Plate

A steak spot in Daejeon 🥩 Plate Dunsan Branch

We were in Daejeon for a relative's wedding on a weekend afternoon! Since we were near Dunsan-dong, I went looking for good spots by Galleria and found Plate 🩷 Most people seemed to be there on dates, but we came with our kid.

• Address｜34 Dunsan-ro 31beon-gil, 2nd floor, Seo-gu, Daejeon (Plate)
• Hours｜Daily 11:00–21:45
• Baby chair available / basement parking in the building / near Galleria

Parking and location — 2nd floor of the building next to the Galleria annex

It's the building right next to the Galleria annex parking lot, so if there's no space, you can just park at Daejeon Galleria — the route lines up perfectly. It's on the 2nd floor so walking up is no problem 👌 Apparently a good spot for steak, pasta, and pizza, and it seems like there are several branches?

Floor-to-ceiling windows with a tree view

I haven't been to other branches so I can't say, but the Dunsan branch is on the 2nd floor with a tree view, and it was really pretty. Perfect date atmosphere, honestly haha. My husband and I, and even our kid, kept saying wow, the floor-to-ceiling windows made the mood so nice.

They bring kids' cutlery without you even asking

They bring kids' cutlery without you even saying anything. At first they gave us plastic disposable utensils, but now that our kid's a kindergartener I told them adult-sized ones are fine — I guess they default to the smaller set because the sizing doesn't fit otherwise!

How to order: flavor, noodle, and pasta/risotto chosen separately

Plate's ordering system really stood out haha — you might be confused at first, thinking wait, what is this. Here, you choose the flavor, the noodle type, and whether it's pasta or risotto all separately. If you're visiting with a kid, you can also adjust the spice level, so you just check off boxes with a pencil as you go. There's also a separate set menu — for an extra charge on whatever you ordered, you can add salad + bread + soup to make it a set. Ooh...

Bread, salad, and soup before the meal

We ordered the pasta set, so first came the pre-meal bread, salad, and soup haha. It was bushman bread, and instead of a dip they give you fresh cream >.< so freaking good... a flavor that kids are guaranteed to love.

Abalone liver cream risotto

🍛 Abalone liver cream risotto — I ordered this one specifically for our kid to eat, since he can't really handle much noodle. As soon as I saw peppers on the menu I thought oh no 🫢, but they turned out to be kkwari-gochu (shishito-style mild peppers), and eating them mixed into the risotto was actually a nice touch. Not spicy at all — even our spice-wimp kid could eat it.

Rosé cream pasta, with tagliatelle noodles

🍝 Rosé cream pasta — my husband's and my favorite. For the noodle we recommend tagliatelle, the thick noodle that looks like kalguksu (knife-cut noodle), and as expected it was delicious. Drool 🤤

Skirt steak

🥩 Skirt steak — well, what can I say, meat is always good. We didn't even pick the doneness, figuring they'd just cook it well, and sure enough it was all delicious, truly tasty. Juicy, no tough spots, and our kid ate it well once we cut it up for him. Of course, since it's skirt steak there are some tendon-ish bits, but you can just cut around those. Even the mashed potatoes were soft and creamy.

Adding a photo of the cut cross-section. The grilled cabbage, whole-grain mustard sauce, and mashed potatoes were all great.

The three of us really cleaned our plates on three mains plus the set add-ons — that's our review 〰️

Our theory that the noodles aren't dried pasta

And here's our theory — there's no way this is dried pasta. Something this soft can't be dried noodle. It was soft enough for kids to chew easily, more like moist fresh noodle, and so rich and delicious that we're already planning a return visit, haha.

Private room, wine, and waiting

There's an inner room too, and they sell wine, so it seems like a good spot for a date night when you want a bit of atmosphere. The location near Galleria is great, and customers kept streaming in nonstop — we sat down the moment a table opened up. If you don't want to deal with waiting, I'd recommend calling ahead before you go 🙂

If you're looking for a pasta place or steak place in Daejeon to visit with your kid, Plate is a totally solid, great-value recommendation!!!