8-course fine dining for ₩75,000 in Pangyo, Seongnam: Kkweda

Kkweda

A course-only restaurant I stumbled on at Pangyo Avenue France

I found Kkweda by accident a few months back when I was at Avenue France in Pangyo. The exterior looked unusual, and I thought, what is this place? So I checked the menu board casually propped out front, and oh — turns out it's a fine dining restaurant that only serves set courses...

Fine dining means... it'll be expensive... so I searched the price out of curiosity, and it was just ₩75,000 per person, no distinction between lunch and dinner!!! Wait... for a single meal that's not exactly cheap, but for a fine dining meal, it's actually pretty light on the wallet! At this price it's honestly affordable.

Two days before the reservation, a partner swap

The course lineup looked good too, so my husband and I kept this place in mind to visit together. Reservations weren't easy to get, so after waiting and waiting, I finally booked about two weeks out, making sure to triple-check my husband's schedule. Then two days before the reservation, he suddenly had training scheduled that day and couldn't make it in time. Ugh.

Hmm, changing the reservation felt like a hassle... what do I do... just as I was looking around for someone else to go with, like something out of a movie, a text popped up from my travel buddy friend. She wanted to go on an overnight trip that exact day — said it was her day off. Oh really? Then forget the trip, let's go eat something delicious instead — my treat, just come to my place that day. She said sure, haha. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Lucky you, I told her, lol.

And just like that, my Kkweda partner got swapped out fast, haha. My husband, who'd apparently been hoping to just move the date, said something to me when he saw how quickly I replaced him — I don't even remember what, lol.

After all those little twists and turns, today's finally the day — off we go, full of anticipation, to Kkweda, apparently known as the go-to Japanese omakase spot in Pangyo for special occasions.

Before heading in, a quick look at today's menu.

5pm dinner seating, at a table by the open kitchen

We got there right on time for the 5pm first dinner seating. My friend hadn't realized it was an omakase-style restaurant, and her mouth started curling into a smile like, oh this looks pretty nice, lol. The staff were bustling around the open kitchen getting ready for the first seating.

After checking out the clean interior, which includes a group seating area, we sat down at our table.

Studied today's course menu again. Hmm... 8 courses total including dessert... getting excited, getting excited.

Kkweda's 8 courses, tasted one by one

1. Watermelon gazpacho

Watermelon gazpacho. Had pieces of squid in it that looked like coconut flesh, in a dongchimi (watery radish kimchi) style broth that tasted kimchi-adjacent.

One drink per person required — non-alcoholic mojito and kombucha

One alcoholic drink per person is required, so we went non-alcoholic instead and ordered a mojito and a kombucha. Both paired surprisingly well with the courses.

2. Grilled vegetable salad

A salad with painstaking, stitch-by-stitch craftsmanship, haha. The kind of dish that proves the saying: if it looks good, it tastes good too.

3. Chodang sweet corn custard

Completely my taste. A corn dish unlike anything I'd had before — this one was genuinely delicious.

4. Iberico charcoal grill

This one's basically just meat — a flavor you expect and already know is good. But the little potato cake that came alongside it got more and more precious with every bite, haha.

5. Sea bass karaage

Fried fish is rarely bad, and dipping it in a soba-sauce-style scallion soy with grated radish was really good. Even the frying soy sauce wasn't ordinary.

6. Eel donburi

I'd started feeling a bit full after the sea bass karaage, but this is where you really get filled up, haha. The portioning was expertly calibrated.

7. Neungi mushroom duck soup

Finally, the last savory dish. After the eel donburi I was pretty much full and thought I might not finish the neungi mushroom duck soup noodles, but nope — it went down easily, haha. Maybe it's timed to arrive right when you start craving broth? Felt like the menu order had real reasoning behind it. Might just be my imagination, but the noodles didn't taste like regular somyeon either — way more delicious.

So I finished it completely, not a strand left, lol.

8. Yogurt sherbet

The crumble that came with it was so good too, and the chewy, house-made-ice-cream-like texture of the yogurt sherbet made for the perfect finish.

All 8 courses took an hour and a half to finish

By the time we finished dessert, I realized almost an hour and a half had already gone by. You know that good feeling when you're deeply focused on something, think only 30 minutes have passed, and then check the clock to find two hours went by?

Kkweda accepts local currency payment

Some of it might just be because my friend never runs out of things to talk about, but the good vibe and the food doubled the fun that day. And there was one more thing that made it even better — Kkweda accepts local currency payment! Pay with local currency and, depending on the month, you get a 6–10% discount. This is what smart spending looks like.

Finishing off with matcha ice cream at Avenue France

We'd already had dessert as part of the course, but since my friend had come all the way from Seoul to Avenue France, it felt like a waste to just head straight back without trying it. She hadn't had it before, so we capped things off with matcha ice cream from Kyoto Matcha.