Yangjae Korean tasting menu with chicken leg main, ₩109,000: MUSEO

Yangjae is honestly a fine-dining desert, haha — everything's clustered around Apgujeong Rodeo. But a fine-dining heavyweight has shown up in Yangjae! Here's my review of the dinner tasting course at MUSEO, a Korean dining restaurant in Yangjae :)

The mood was genuinely great and every single dish was delicious. The Chef's Tasting Menu I had was ₩109,000 per person. Looking at how many courses and what ingredients were involved, I kept thinking — is this actually a profitable price?? lol I think it's still underrated because it just opened and because of the Yangjae location...!

Where is MUSEO? Finding the entrance near Yangjae Station

MUSEO is on the basement floor of a building. The entrance isn't flashy at all, so it really feels like only people in the know go down here haha. The stairs down to the basement are on the narrow side, so it's worth being a bit careful when you're heading down.

Is MUSEO good for a date or a birthday? Mood and private room

The moment you open the door, the atmosphere completely changes. It's a black-toned space with low lighting, and there's a big floral arrangement set right in the middle of the long bar table — really sleek. The open kitchen is right in view, so if you sit at the bar you naturally get to watch the cooking happen.

Above all, finding a restaurant with this kind of mood in Yangjae isn't easy, which made it even more of a surprise. It's a space that really suits days when atmosphere matters, like a date or a birthday. There's also a separate room and group seating further inside, where other diners were having their meal.

This week happened to be my boyfriend's birthday week, and this dinner was for his birthday — they even added a congratulatory message on the menu card for us. It's a small detail, but that kind of thing genuinely makes you happy haha.

What's in MUSEO's ₩109,000 Chef's Tasting Menu

What I had was the Chef's Tasting Menu at ₩109,000. It ran from Sinan scallion and egg to mulhoe (cold raw seafood soup), tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty), Spanish mackerel, truffle, sea urchin buckwheat noodles, all the way to the main course and dessert.

The main was chicken leg or Hanwoo striploin 1++ NO.9, with a +₩38,000 charge to switch. The menu card also listed a 5-glass wine pairing at ₩51,000, and an add-on seasonal hot pot rice set at ₩16,000 per person, orderable from 2 people. Personally, I found it pretty impressive that a course this long comes in at just over ₩100,000.

And of course, wine can't be missing!

Sinan scallion tart and steamed egg

Sinan scallion starts the meal as a scallion tart. It was the very first dish of the course, and just from this one bite I knew — oh, this place is amazing 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹. The subtle scallion flavor paired beautifully with the sweet tart.

The accompanying egg dish was steamed egg with seomcho (island spinach), dried anchovy sauce, and fried baby anchovies. I'm not usually a fan of those small anchovies, but paired with the soft egg the texture felt surprisingly fresh — and honestly, it was really delicious!!

Tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty) and seafood mulhoe

The tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty) came with garlic chive salad and pine nut sauce. It's a familiar name in Korean food, but it looked completely different on the plate, which made it fun to see. It could've easily felt bland, but that sauce was the real kicker — I scraped up even the vegetables underneath.

The seafood mulhoe (cold raw seafood soup) had sweet shrimp, mustard jelly, ggosiraegi (a type of seaweed), and pickled seaweed in it, with a refreshing, well-balanced sweetness — honestly, this was my favorite dish of the whole meal.

Wando kelp brioche and Goheung Spanish mackerel

Wando kelp came with brioche and kelp soy butter — I'll admit I underestimated this one, thinking bread is just bread. But that kelp soy butter was actually insane. It was soft and sweet, yet you could genuinely taste the kelp — such a fun and sophisticated flavor.

Goheung Spanish mackerel was straw-smoked mackerel with white kimchi beurre blanc and kimchi powder. This place really knows how to use a sauce... I scraped every bit of that sauce clean too.

Gangneung potato with truffle and shredded potato ice cream

Gangneung potato and truffle came as a dish with truffle on top of shredded potato ice cream. I wondered what the shredded potato ice cream even was — turns out they reimagined a shredded potato pancake as an ice cream. Crispy outside, moist inside, this was also really delicious. If you look inside, you can actually see real shredded potato.

Seaweed pesto buckwheat noodles with sea urchin

The seaweed pesto buckwheat noodles were buckwheat noodles in a seaweed sauce, topped with sea urchin!! I'm sensitive to fishy flavors and can barely eat sea urchin normally, but this seemed genuinely fresh. It had a slight buckwheat-noodle flavor to it.

After that came a pear and lemon palate-cleanser sorbet to reset the flow before the main course.

The main course: chicken leg

The chicken leg I chose for the main was slow-cooked in pork fat, served with pickled scallion, mung bean porridge, and a pepper sauce. It was really fun seeing a familiar Korean dish twisted just slightly like this — and again, the sauce on this dish was incredible... I didn't expect scallion to work this well.

Makgeolli (rice wine) dessert to finish

The final makgeolli dessert finishes things off with makgeolli ice cream, soy sauce crumble, and fig.

Why MUSEO is worth booking for an anniversary in Yangjae

Yangjae isn't a neighborhood packed with fine dining like Cheongdam or Hannam, so MUSEO seems to show up less than you'd expect when you search. But once I actually came here, the space was so beautiful, and considering the length of the course, how original the dishes were, and the flavors, ₩109,000 for the Chef's Tasting genuinely doesn't make sense. Fine-dining dinners in Cheongdam these days run close to ₩300,000.

If anything, I want to flip the script and say: save MUSEO in Yangjae specifically as your anniversary fine-dining spot. Buy the dip on this one, seriously... If you're hesitant because it's a new restaurant for an anniversary, go check it out yourself, and if it's not good, come complain to me lol.

Comparing it to Jungsik, which I visited not long ago — at Jungsik there are dishes that make you pause and think about the flavor, but here every single dish is instantly, obviously delicious!!!!!!!!!!!