Seoulsup fresh pasta and gnocchi in the garden: Fleurs sur la route

The weather has been so nice lately that it feels like everyone is heading out to Seoulsup or Seongsu. I had plans near Seoulsup for the first time in a while, so I went looking for a good place to eat and ended up at Fleurs sur la route (플르서라구뜨), a restaurant getting buzz for its fresh pasta and gnocchi.

Where is Fleurs sur la route, and what's the atmosphere like?

Fleurs sur la route sits deep in an alley between Seoulsup Station and Ttukseom Station. The classic Seongsu red-brick building and stylish interior caught my eye from the outside. Once I stepped in, the place felt cozy yet refined.

Wood-toned furniture and soft lighting make it just right for a blind date or a date in general. Each area has a different mood, so I spent ages deciding where to sit.

Garden seats or window seats: where to sit?

The outdoor garden seats and the window seats with a clear view of the outside each have a different mood and their own advantages.

What did we order at Fleurs sur la route?

There were two of us, so we ordered gnocchi, one of the signature dishes, and the tomato meat conchiglie (shell-shaped pasta), whose unusual name caught my eye on the menu.

When I order pasta, I usually pick one basic tomato-based dish and one cream or oil-based one to mix things up. This time too, I wanted the nuttiness of the gnocchi together with the spicy-salty tomato sauce, so I matched them that way.

How is the cream gnocchi at Fleurs sur la route?

The cream gnocchi is baked gnocchi on a thick, rich cream sauce, and the nutty flavor was strong. It looked round and appetizing right away. A pool of cream sauce was spread underneath with nicely browned gnocchi on top, and I tried the sauce first.

The sauce is a very rich, thick cream base with a strong nutty flavor. A textbook, well-made cream gnocchi that anyone would like.

The gnocchi was baked very slightly crisp outside, and inside the chewy yet soft potato texture really came through. Some places disappoint me with too much flour taste or a sticky, rice-cake texture, but here the potato content seems high, and it went down smoothly. Great texture.

What is the tomato meat conchiglie like?

The tomato meat conchiglie is shell-shaped conchiglie pasta tossed in tomato meat sauce and topped with thinly sliced ham and basil. On a pretty wavy-patterned white plate, the conchiglie sits in a generous coating of tomato meat sauce. A lot of thinly sliced ham (it looked like prosciutto or jambon) is piled on top, with fresh basil leaves as an accent. Finally, cheese grated like snowflakes and herb powder seemed to polish off the whole dish.

The advantage of conchiglie is that the sauce pools in the hollows like a seashell. Scooping sauce and pasta together with a spoon filled my mouth with rich tomato and meat flavor. The meat sauce had a noticeable meaty bite, and it was the hearty type rather than sharply acidic.

The saltiness of the ham and the flavor of the cheese complemented the mild pasta well. Tearing the basil leaves into small pieces and eating them along with it added a fresh aroma to a meat sauce that could have felt heavy, so I never got tired of it until the last bite.

Is Fleurs sur la route a good Seoulsup date spot?

Overall the food looks great and the space is cozy, so Fleurs sur la route is a perfectly good Seoulsup date spot. It's not a restaurant that opens up a whole new world of fine dining, but both dishes we ordered stuck to the basics, and the ingredients worked well together.