Itaewon parents' birthday hanjeongsik course, ₩109,000: Modam Itaewon

I went to Modam, a Korean restaurant on the 1st floor of the Mondrian Hotel in Itaewon.

The round logo shaped like a plum blossom really catches the eye. Since it's a restaurant inside a 5-star hotel, everything about it felt grand and upscale from the outside.

'MODERN KOREAN DINING' MODAM HERITAGE

Mother-of-pearl folding screens, ceramics, and framed folk paintings blend with the gray-toned space to create a dignified, grand atmosphere. Modam serves Korean food built around signature jang (fermented sauces) and seasonal local produce, reworked in a modern way.

The menu I chose that day was the Seoksurasang. It's Modam's highest-priced course, at ₩109,000 per person. The course flows from cold, light dishes toward warmer, heavier ones.

Chilled bean porridge to amberjack ceviche: how the Seoksurasang course opens

The seasonal porridge was a cold bean porridge, topped with dried cherry tomatoes and herbs. The taste reminded me of rich kongguksu (cold soybean noodle soup) broth. As the first course, it felt like a gentle way to open the palate.

The bite-sized dish came with three items lined up on a long white plate: house-made beef jerky, yakbap (sweet rice with nuts) topped with pine nuts, and flower-shaped dates filled with butter. Everything was one-bite sized, so it was easy to pick up without hesitation.

The barley shrimp chip green salad was made of various leafy greens topped with crispy fried barley shrimp chips and young sprouts, served with a mustard seed dressing.

Barley shrimp is usually used for soup stock, so eating it this way felt fresh and new.

The seasonal sashimi was amberjack ceviche with kelp jerky and hallabong (Korean citrus) sauce.

Finely chopped tomato, cucumber, and red onion were scattered on top of the raw fish, adding a tangy note. There was a layer of jangajji (pickled vegetables) underneath the fish, and eating them together made it even more delicious — the flavor range was much wider than the fish alone.

The pine nut cold salad was the highlight of the middle courses

From the second course onward, the plates get a bit heavier. The pine nut namul, bracken fern perilla oil buckwheat noodles, and beef tartare with sea lettuce all came out together.

The pine nut namul was loaded with seafood — squid, scallop, and abalone paired with sweet fruits like fig and shine muscat grapes. The sweetness of the fruit, the texture of the seafood, and the nutty pine nut sauce all hit at once. This was the most memorable namul I've ever had.

The bracken fern perilla oil buckwheat noodles came piled high with chopped green onion and seaweed. The nutty aroma of perilla oil made it disappear in seconds.

Eating the beef tartare together with the salty gamtae (sea lettuce) butter added an oceanic note that regular beef tartare alone doesn't have.

Jeungpyeon rice cake with eel and nutty mushroom beef shank soup

In the third course, warm dishes arrive. Steamed rice cake eel, pollack roe cabbage jeon (pancake), and mushroom ox tendon soup all came out on the table at once.

The steamed rice cake eel was made with house-made jeungpyeon (fermented steamed rice cake) topped with eel and gochujang aglio sauce. With the eel sitting on top of the rice cake, it looked almost like sushi, and the flavor was spicy-sweet. There was fun in the contrast with the moist texture of the rice cake.

The pollack roe cabbage jeon came pan-fried to a golden brown and cut into easy-to-eat pieces. It had a salty flavor that would go well as a drinking snack.

The mushroom ox tendon soup, topped with water dropwort oil, also had shiitake mushrooms, dates, and ginseng in it. The broth was deeply flavorful and felt like it was doing something good for the body.

There was also plenty of ox tendon in it, so the soup alone was filling enough.

Grilled 1++ beef sirloin, mashed potato and perilla leaf sorbet to finish

Now for the main meal. Rice, soup, and side dishes came together on a wooden tray. The grilled Korean beef was served separately on its own plate for each person.

The 1++ grade Korean beef was a sirloin steak, seared golden on the outside while staying pink inside, served with grilled king oyster mushrooms and green chili peppers. The mashed potatoes on the side were especially delicious — piling a bite onto a piece of beef made it go down much more smoothly.

Today's soup was miyeok-guk (seaweed soup). The side dishes were braised lotus root, cucumber muchim (seasoned salad), kimchi, and cheongyang chili water kimchi, each served in its own small bowl.

Dessert was perilla leaf sorbet. Maybe because of the lime added to it, the perilla aroma wasn't as strong as expected. It was a refreshing palate cleanser without feeling jarring.

After a meal this filling and satisfying, I felt like even a royal court table would have nothing on it. A course that truly lives up to the name Seoksurasang!

Modam Itaewon location, hours and parking

• Location: 1F Mondrian Hotel, 23 Jangmun-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Directions: 921m from Noksapyeong Station Exit 3
• Hours: Daily 11:00–21:30 (break 15:00–17:00)
• Last order: 13:40 / 20:10
• Parking: Paid, first 120 minutes free / ₩8,000 per additional 60 minutes (max ₩60,000)
• Valet: ₩28,000 (1st floor access)
• Seating: Private rooms for 4–8 people / group bookings available
• Corkage: Available (paid)
• Amenities: High chairs, Wi-Fi, wheelchair-accessible seating
• Reservations: Available via Naver Reservation

Maybe because it was hanjeongsik, the elders loved every single dish. The taste was really excellent too.

Who should book the Seoksurasang course at Modam Itaewon?

Strongly recommended for anyone looking for an Itaewon spot for a hanjeongsik gathering, a place for meeting the in-laws in Itaewon, a Korean course to enjoy with elders, or a slow Korean course meal in a 5-star hotel atmosphere!