Gwangju restaurant brunch with abalone cream risotto: Bueokgan

I visited Bueokgan, famous as a great brunch spot in Sangmu District!

It is a great pasta restaurant in Sangmu District, a little removed from the busy area, so you can enjoy it at an unhurried pace!

The atmosphere is wonderful, of course, but the food is also excellent, so I recommend this Sangmu District restaurant 👋🏻 True to Bueokgan's design concept of a vintage Italian classic hotel, the furniture and decorative pieces inside were fun to look at too!

The vintage furniture and props were imported directly from the UK, France, and Italy, and apparently all the chairs used at the Sangmu flagship branch are by Karimoku.

Louis Poulsen lights sit above the round tables! And the center of the restaurant is styled with Robert Hausmann's Atomic Chandelier—of course... their taste is still so sharp!!

Parking and location at Bueokgan Sangmu Branch

Go past Jjamppong Jijeon and turn right, and Bueokgan's dedicated parking lot is ready for you. Roadside parking is allowed at lunchtime, and the parking lot inside Jjamppong Jijeon can be used as public parking. You can also use the Mudeung Church parking lot past the Bueokgan Sangmu flagship branch!

Bueokgan Sangmu Branch information

• Daily 11:00–22:00
• Break time 16:00–16:30
• Last order 21:00
• 25 Seogwangju-ro, Seo-gu, Gwangju, South Korea
• Located between Jjamppong Jijeon Jeonnam Gwangju Branch (Seogwangju Branch) and Starbucks Seogwangju Branch

A Rome hotel-concept interior

This is a European-style restaurant with a Rome hotel concept!

It was apparently designed around a vintage Italian classic hotel concept, inspired by the Titanic ballroom. There were lots of pretty photo spots throughout, so it was a hot place where pictures come out beautifully too 👋🏻

Even though it was early, the restaurant was full of guests, and it felt so nice to eat while looking out through the large windows at all that greenery ^^

Popular dishes and how to order

The pastry soup, basil pesto cream pasta, lasagna, kung pao chicken pilaf, and jambon pizza are all really famous!

So last time I tried a set menu, but this time I ordered à la carte!

It was nice that there was such a variety of drinks, and drinks were included with the set menu too!

What I ate on a weekday morning

Maybe because it was early on a weekday morning, the order went in as soon as I placed it and the dishes came out right away, which was so nice ^^

I ordered shrimp anchovy oil pasta, pepperoni pizza, and abalone risotto!

Shrimp anchovy oil pasta

The first dish was shrimp anchovy oil pasta. It is Bueokgan's signature oil pasta, bringing together fresh shrimp and anchovies!

You can taste quite a lot of the rich anchovy flavor, and it was absolutely superb!! The shrimp were springy too, and with four or five large ones, it was really satisfying ^^

At ₩18,000, it was such amazing value!! The portion was generous and it was delicious!

My favorite: abalone cream risotto

Personally, my favorite menu item at Bueokgan Sangmu Branch is this abalone cream risotto!

The abalone cream risotto was ₩20,000. It was truly delicious for the price, and I liked it even more than versions I have eaten at upscale restaurants!!

With pleasantly chewy abalone and a cream sauce made from abalone innards, this risotto was so rich and delicious!! It was a deeply flavorful risotto with notes somewhere between miyeokguk (seaweed soup) and abalone porridge.

Pepperoni pizza

Last time I had a basil-flavored pizza, but this time I chose the most classic option: pepperoni pizza. I could choose between a slightly spicy classic flavor and a less spicy one, and that thoughtful detail really stood out ^^

The crust was chewy and so delicious! Can you see that cheese pull!! It was seriously packed with cheese~~ If I may exaggerate a little~~ haha, it was thick like Chicago pizza ^^ The price was reasonable too, and sharing it together left us full.

Having brunch in such a pretty space made for such a healing start to September.

This dish has pumpkin soup inside~~ I was still wishing for more at the end, so I ordered one extra. It is a lovingly made fresh pumpkin soup prepared in-house! It comes with the set menu too, and the set was really well put together ^^

There is definitely a reason it is famous as a great brunch spot in Sangmu District!! Highly recommended 👋🏻 I recommend it for Sangmu District dates, group gatherings, and brunch :)