Open-kitchen bar seats at a Seongsan, Jeju lunch course: Nansan-ri

Today I'm posting about a Western-style course meal I had in Jeju! It was a special day, so I went looking for a restaurant with real atmosphere, and this one caught my eye!

How to book Nansan-ri Restaurant, and its lunch hours

Located in Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju, Nansan-ri Restaurant (난산리 식당) serves a distinctive Western course menu. I was really looking forward to tasting chef Kim Chang-seop's cooking firsthand. It's reservation-only, so make sure to book before visiting.

Lunch: first seating 11:30, second seating 13:00

How to reserve) Book through Naver or Catch Table, and the restaurant will contact you by text! To prevent no-shows, they take a ₩20,000 per-person deposit. Once you pay the deposit, your reservation is confirmed! They note that getting a confirmation through Naver alone does not count as a confirmed reservation!

• Cancel 7+ days before your visit for a 100% refund
• 50% refund 3–6 days before your visit
• No refund within 2 days
• Refunds are possible for flight cancellations due to natural disasters, but only if it's the same-day flight — they said to ask for details!

We went for the Monday 13:00 lunch seating, and it was fully booked that day..! It's seriously popular. The age range was also more varied than I expected — about half the guests looked to be in their 40s to 60s, so I thought, wow, this place is popular across a really wide range of ages! haha

It was delicious and the course was perfect — let's get into the review!

Nansan-ri Restaurant from outside, at the end of a country lane

Naver's directions basically say 'is this really the right road...?' which I totally understand haha — it's a restaurant tucked in a rural part of Jeju. The whole drive there felt like a scenic countryside drive. It had that cozy, quiet Jeju feeling so strongly, and I loved it.

You wind along the road and eventually arrive at Nansan-ri Restaurant

And here's the front yard!

Isn't the place just so pretty? I gasped when I arrived and took a ton of photos. Note: the parking lot is in front of the blue-roofed house if you turn right from the entrance! It's about a 2-minute walk!

That's the spot you see when you turn right from the entrance — that's the parking lot!

Inside Nansan-ri Restaurant: tables and the open-kitchen bar seats

The scenery outside was beautiful, but I gasped again once I stepped inside. The restaurant is just so pretty!! They mentioned in the guidelines that seats can't be reserved in advance, but once I saw the place I understood why guests want to pick their seat haha. There are so many pretty spots. We arrived last, so we landed the bar seat! With the open kitchen right there, I had a lot of fun just people-watching and checking out the space — I really enjoyed it. (You can't reserve a specific seat, but you can enter from 10 minutes before your reservation time, so if you wait ahead of time you can get the seat you want.)

Step into the restaurant and a cozy atmosphere greets you. The red walls and warm lighting together feel very upscale! The forest view through the window was also lovely.

The seating is really pretty, right? Genuinely fairytale-like — once you sit down, a welcome postcard greets you

I heard that they made everything themselves — the dishware, ingredients, interior, all of it — which made me look at everything with fresh eyes. It felt really nice haha

You can also order alcohol, either by asking for a recommendation, or picking one yourself from the wine cabinet on the wall!

What's on the menu: a 76,000 won lunch course for two

Lunch for two (₩76,000) + swapped to basil pesto pasta (₩3,000)

Here's what the lunch course looks like! Only one of us swapped to the basil pasta!

Course 1: bracken butter with warm bread

As someone who doesn't love bracken (fernbrake), I was a bit hesitant, but of course butter makes everything delicious haha. And the bread was so, so nutty and good that I basically ate the whole course for the bread! I thought the ₩2,000 bread refill was unnecessary, but then I tried the bread and completely changed my mind — the bread is just too good

Course 2: soft-boiled egg, caviar and truffle mushroom cream sauce

As someone who hates vegetables, the mushroom sauce was a bit intimidating, but it tasted exactly as expected — a truffle cream pasta sauce!

Underneath was diced tomato and tomato sauce as well. Scooped together, it was really delicious. I scraped the sauce completely clean

Course 3: salad

As someone who hates vegetables, this salad had a fairly strong bitterness for me. My friend, though, said it was delicious and ate it all up. It came topped with cheese, bacon, and egg — how bad could it be, right? The dressing was also really good!

Course 4: roasted rosemary potatoes

As a potato fanatic, I really liked this one! It's a bit dry, though, and less seasoned than expected — more of a plain, mild flavor? So the rosemary aroma really came through. Also the potatoes were bigger than expected. A really filling part of the course! (I ended up asking for salt and ate it with that haha)

Course 5: Jeju black pork tenderloin steak

They give you four pieces per person, sous vide then seared once, apparently! Inside there's caramelized onion, and the sauce is a fermented shrimp (myeoljeot) cream sauce!

The tenderloin itself was really tender. Eaten together with the onion and sauce, it was so good haha. I'm not great with anything fishy, and the myeoljeot was slightly fishy, but it was creamy enough that I kept dipping it in! The onion was so good I wished there was more of it haha

Course 6: chorizo oil pasta and basil pesto pasta

Chorizo oil pasta with house-made pickles. I wondered what chorizo was and looked it up — turns out it's a type of sausage! As I ate, I found lots of diced ham-like bits. Great umami flavor~

And here's the basil pesto pasta I switched to for an extra charge

They pile on a generous mound of cheese, making it wonderfully thick and rich! Personally I like both oil and basil pasta, but the oil pasta suited my taste more! The basil had a strong herbal flavor, with quite an intense aroma. My friend actually preferred the basil. For me, the oil pasta was well seasoned and just the right amount oily, so I really enjoyed it! (Toward the end, when the oil pasta was running low, they gave us a refill,, that made me so happy haha) Honestly, out of every course dish I've had, this oil pasta ranks number one,,

Course 7: milk pudding dessert

A milk pudding base topped with berry jam and berries. It was just the right sweetness and just the right size, a perfect palate cleanser at the end,, I wondered if a course meal would actually fill me up, but I was already full before even finishing the pasta, which surprised me haha. By the time the course wrapped up, about an hour had passed. Table time is 1 hour!

Verdict: is Nansan-ri Restaurant worth it for a Western course in Jeju?

If you want Western food that still feels distinctly Jeju, I highly recommend this place! First off, the interior, the dishware, and the restaurant itself are so pretty that I was just happy being there. Every piece of dishware was carefully matched to the dish, which made the food taste even better! At a reasonable price for such a good course meal, I'd love to come back again,,! Overall I was extremely satisfied, and next time I definitely want to try the dinner service too. Just remember that reservations are required, and you're set up for a great experience. If you want a special meal in Jeju, I highly recommend it!