Euljiro3-ga pasta spot with a one-drink-per-person rule: Pyu Euljiro

I had some seriously fragrant pasta in Euljiro3-ga.

It's in the restaurant row near Euljiro3(sam)-ga Station, so it's within a 5–10 minute walk from the station. Euljiro date-spot Pyu's hours: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Naver Reservations available.

I'd walked past this building before and noticed it because of the sculpture out front... but this was my first time actually going in, and it was clean and tidy. Turns out it's even the building where a sponsor from my old workplace is located, haha.

What are the seating and atmosphere like at Pyu Euljiro?

The date-spot Pyu's interior is split into two sections — the one closer to the kitchen felt a bit cozier, though it also seemed to be the one that closes first.

And then the left-side space, where most people were seated! There's a big table, and the interior overall feels clean and stylish!

Pyu Euljiro's menu and the one-bottle-of-alcohol-per-person rule

The menu at Euljiro date-spot Pyu looks like this... pasta and risotto come in 2–3 varieties each, not a huge lineup, more like a curated selection. There's also a ₩100,000 set menu for two, so check it out and pick what suits your taste. The day we went, both the mackerel and other fish dishes were sold out, so after a lot of deliberating we had to switch our order several times to fit our budget.

Alcohol is mandatory, and you have to order from the items listed in the second row of the menu (no juice allowed).

Also... one drink per person is required, meaning one bottle each, which runs about ₩10,000 (no soft drinks, no juice) — worth factoring into your budget! We ended up spending ₩35,000 each... you should probably budget a bit more. Great for a company-card gathering, haha! There seemed to be a no-show penalty for reservations too, so check that — though there were plenty of seats, so you might not even need to reserve. Time limit is 2 hours "after being seated."

Ordered: bisque pasta / garden tomato risotto / Gyullurala (non-alcoholic) / Cheotsarang-ui Hyanggi (wheat beer)

For two women... I finished my whole drink and still wasn't full. (Also ate a whole waffle and was stuffed after that.) I'd recommend ordering one more dish. There weren't any standard side dishes, though I'd guess pickles might be available if you ask. Not totally sure though.

Gyullurala non-alcoholic drink and Cheotsarang-ui Hyanggi wheat beer

The alcohol and non-alcoholic drink came out first after we ordered.

Think of this one as sparkling water with various fruit juices mixed in. Not very sweet, just kind of sparkling... Worth trying once, but if drinking alcohol isn't an issue for you, I'd just go with the beer.

This one's the beer... fruity!! Refreshing feel, and I picked the lowest ABV option — maybe because we alternated between the two drinks, I never really felt buzzed. A solid, easy pairing beer! By the way, a lot of other tables seemed to order just one drink total... meanwhile it was just us struggling, ha. Did the policy change or something?

Garden tomato risotto: barley mixed into the rice

The risotto came out first. So cute, haha.

Topped with cheese, roasted tomato, and eggplant — mixing a bit in with each bite made everything melt warmly together in the mouth, which I loved.

Since the risotto has barley mixed in (though not entirely 100%), the texture was great, and it tasted a bit different from what we usually think of as tomato-flavored. It wasn't overly salty for a risotto, either — a dish we finished happily!

Eating it together with the cheese and eggplant — goes really well together, and I thought, yeah, this is a signature dish for a reason.

Bisque pasta: is the shrimp-head aroma too strong?

Then the pasta menu: bisque pasta.

Portion was cute as expected — two shrimp, and unusually, some foam on top. (I tried it on its own — not much flavor to it.) There's no sauce pooled underneath; it comes already tossed, and the sauce was on the thinner side, which was a bit of a letdown — but the shrimp-head flavor came through strongly in the sauce, which I liked. That said, it's very much a love-it-or-hate-it thing, so keep that in mind!!!

The shrimp were firm and good.

The noodles had a decent coating of sauce, slightly flatter than regular pasta noodles, with a bit of chew to them. Both dishes were good enough that we scraped the plates clean down to the last bite... it would've been great to order one more dish, honestly, haha.