Jamsil Station Italian for 3: set for 2 + burrata pasta, Mano di Chef

A Jamsil Station restaurant for a long-overdue get-together with friends! I was looking for a quiet, nice-looking place in Jamsil for our meetup, and ended up at Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch (마노디셰프 잠실점), a Blue Ribbon pasta restaurant known for its food and atmosphere. They happened to have a set menu on promotion, so three of us ate until we were stuffed. Here's my honest review.

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch: location, hours and parking

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch is on the B1 floor of Tower730, 570 Songpa-daero, Songpa-gu, Seoul, and is open daily from 11:00 to 21:00. Break time is 15:50-17:00, and last order is at 14:50 and 20:00.

• Parking available: free for 2 hours, then ₩1,000 per 10 minutes
• Reservations by Naver, CatchTable or phone
• 20% off for takeout pickup

I came by subway, and the restaurant is very close, about 180m from Jamsil Station Exit 7.

The place looks lovely, and as a Blue Ribbon restaurant in Jamsil it was just right for a quiet dinner, whether a blind date or a friends' meetup.

Interior and seating at Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch

The hall has tables for 2 to 6 people throughout. I booked for 5 p.m. on a weekend. There was still plenty of room until 5, but by around 6 it was almost full with family gatherings, dates and blind dates.

Menus, water glasses and small plates were already set at each table. It's an indoor restaurant, but two sides are wide arched glass, so it doesn't feel stuffy. The arched brick actually gives the room a European feel.

Does Mano di Chef Jamsil have private rooms for group dinners and year-end parties?

There are three private rooms that seat up to 8 each, so you can book one for a company dinner or family gathering and enjoy some privacy. Connect all three and you get a private group room for 16 to 26 people, I was told. Rooms can be used for up to 3 hours and there's a separate reservation deposit, so if you're planning a Jamsil year-end party or family gathering, get in touch soon.

What should 3 people order at Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch?

It was recommended to me as a Jamsil Station restaurant, and both the sets and the à la carte dishes looked good, so I agonized over what to eat, and then

since two friends and I made three, I picked the 2-person set from the signature menu page and added one à la carte dish.

• Special Set for 2: ₩89,900 (switching to a signature pasta +₩3,000)
• Burrata cheese & bolognese fresh pasta: ₩32,900
• Coca-Cola Zero: ₩4,900
• Total: ₩130,700

The Special Set (for 2) is ₩121,500 but was on a discount event at ₩89,900, and the price was so good for what you get that I couldn't not order it! The set is as follows.

• Choose 2 from premium pasta, gnocchi, risotto, rice and plates
• Choose 1 from pizza, Italian garden salad and grilled chicken & Caesar salad
• Choose 2 from house wine (red), fresh ade and Americano

Everything we got: the Special Set for 2 plus the extra fresh pasta! I wondered if adding a pasta was overkill, but even for three people there was plenty left over. A set is usually 2 mains plus a salad, but at Mano di Chef you can pick a salad or a pizza, so effectively it's 3 mains, which makes the price very reasonable.

From the left in the photo: burrata cheese & bolognese radiatori (fresh pasta), fresh basil pesto & burrata pizza, chamsongi (premium pine mushroom) cream gnocchi, and red shrimp aglio olio pasta.

Fresh basil pesto & burrata pizza

This pizza has a basil pesto base piled with arugula. The toppings are so generous that if you just pick up a slice they can fall off, so the staff recommended rolling it up to eat.

If you don't want to get your hands messy, you can just cut it with a knife like I did. The rich flavor of fragrant basil pesto fills your mouth, and the bitter, crunchy fresh arugula keeps it from getting too heavy.

Chamsongi (pine-shiitake mushroom) cream gnocchi

Fluffy roasted-potato gnocchi paired with chewy, subtly fragrant chamsongi mushrooms made this one fun to chew. The thick, rich cream sauce soaks up the mushroom flavor, and it's so addictive that you scrape up every last spoonful.

Best dish of the night: red shrimp aglio olio

A clean, light aglio olio oil base with deep savory flavor from big red shrimp. This was the best pasta we ate that day!

They say Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch is famous for its bisque pasta, and even the red shrimp aglio olio was a different level from an ordinary aglio olio. The concentrated savory richness of shellfish runs through the whole sauce, and the aftertaste lingered long after a single bite.

Burrata cheese & bolognese radiatori (fresh pasta)

Thanks to the unique conch-shell shape of the radiatori fresh pasta, the deep, slow-simmered bolognese sauce soaked into every ridge of the noodles. It was soft fresh pasta where you could taste the rich meaty flavor with every bite.

Mash the soft burrata and mix it in, and the creamy milk fat blends with the rich bolognese for even more nutty richness in your mouth. Magic!

Is Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch good for a friends' get-together?

This Blue Ribbon pasta restaurant, proven in taste and quality, is a short walk from Jamsil Station Exit 7, so it's easy for everyone to get to by public transport, and the 2 hours of parking helped the friend who came by car. The Special Set and fresh pasta combo the three of us ordered was excellent for the price in both variety and portion. With the location, parking, atmosphere and reasonable sets, it was ideal for a meetup.

On top of the hall tables, there are connecting private rooms for up to 26 people, so it also suits a Jamsil year-end party, a company dinner or a private family gathering. If you're looking for a Jamsil Station restaurant, do visit Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch.