Bangbae-dong fine dining, abalone with liver sauce: Bistro Chai Plus

I love old-school joints and outdoor street-side drinking spots, but I really, truly love the moments of fine dining, where experimental ideas come together into harmony. I think of it as art you meet with your taste buds. Haha. I'm basically a museum regular... lol

I love appreciating and enjoying fine dining so much that I go often and diligently, and I've just come back from a restaurant that satisfied me properly for the first time in a while, so here it is. It's a contemporary crossover kitchen built on seasonal ingredients, with the refinement of modern Korean food plus the delicacy of Western and the variety of Chinese cooking: this is the story of Bistro Chai Plus (비스트로차이 플러스)!

What kind of place is Bistro Chai Plus?

Bistro Chai Plus is a fine-dining restaurant at 2nd floor, 51 Seocho-daero 27-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, in Bangbae-dong close to Naebang Station. It serves a crossover course that weaves together modern Korean, Western and Chinese cooking from seasonal ingredients, and every seat is a private room.

Bistro Chai Plus DINNER 120: today's menu

That day, the dinner course at Bistro Chai Plus came in this order: Caesar salad, seasonal soup, sous vide abalone, buckwheat makguksu (cold noodles), aromatic herb chicken, grilled sablefish, palate cleanser, BMS No.9 hanwoo (Korean beef) steak, and dessert.

Caesar salad: the best salad I've had this year

The first plate of the Bistro Chai Plus course was a Caesar salad, and the rich, nutty cheese-based dressing was the star. I really like that the course opens with a salad. Hehehe. As a raw-food lover, I like my vegetables raw too! >.<

But then I tasted it... and it's not just a salad. The dressing itself was incredibly rich, deep and nutty. T_T The cheese is the base, but it was so deep and delicious that it was easily number one among all the salads I've eaten this year... A high-level salad that raised my expectations enormously all by itself! As a salad nerd, I really enjoyed it. Haha.

Seasonal soup: potato soup

The seasonal soup was a potato soup. It was full of nutty potato flavor with a smooth texture, and so good. Haha. It even had a slightly cheese-like richness. Excellent soup too!

How were the sous vide abalone and gue sauce?

The sous vide abalone at Bistro Chai Plus comes with morel mushrooms, lion's mane mushrooms and cultivated wild ginseng roots, served with a gue (crab innards) sauce. It's a plate packed with really good ingredients. Hot ingredients lately, right? Morels are in there... plus lion's mane, cultivated ginseng roots and abalone, which are perfect summer restorative food when the heat has worn you out.

It was the deepest, richest gue I've ever had, and yet with no fishy smell at all, which amazed me. I admired how they kept the funky, characteristic flavor of gue while upgrading it into a mild, smooth sauce.

The sous vide abalone was so creamy and tender it made me gasp. Abalone is usually chewy, right? But this melted away like cream while still holding all that nutty taste of the sea... seriously... dipped in the gue it's so, so good. The morels also kept their chewy, savory umami... and even on a small plate, it was deeply satisfying.

Buckwheat makguksu: a garden-like plate topped with sea urchin

The buckwheat makguksu at Bistro Chai Plus is a plate of noodles with perilla oil aroma and a sweet-and-sour dressing, topped with sea urchin, perilla leaves, cucumber and leafy greens. It felt like being handed a pretty little garden. Can makguksu really be this beautiful?! Hehehe.

The nutty smell of perilla oil wafted up, and the sweet-and-sour dressing was impressive. The sea urchin added a spoonful of ocean aroma, and with perilla leaves, cucumber and leafy greens on top it even felt like eating a salad... a truly beautiful, pretty dish.

But... at Bistro Chai Plus, even though I'm a small eater lol, the portions are quite generous!!! A long course and big portions too. Hehehe.

Aromatic herb chicken: a Chinese-style plate inspired by yurinji

The aromatic herb chicken at Bistro Chai Plus is fried chicken similar to yurinji (Chinese-style fried chicken with a tangy sauce), topped with fragrant herbs and a sweet-and-sour sauce. They described the place as fine dining with a little Chinese flavor and I was curious, and then I saw this dish and got it. Haha. It looks like a dish inspired by yurinji.

The taste, shape and texture of the fried chicken really are a lot like yurinji. And look how carefully and prettily the herbs are arranged on top?! The sauce was zesty, sweet-and-sour and full of umami. Similar to yurinji but with an added fragrant note, so it felt familiar and was easy to enjoy.

Grilled sablefish: marinated in three kinds of doenjang

The grilled sablefish at Bistro Chai Plus is marinated in three kinds of doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and served with a chive dressing and green peas. It's a grilled sablefish with a wonderfully nutty, rich flavor.

The moment I took a bite... wow... it brought out the best of that melt-in-your-mouth sablefish texture and taste while keeping the doenjang flavor alive, so so delicious. The seasoning was right too... the chive dressing on top was tangy and became the kick, and with the peas it added a nutty note that made a harmonious taste, which I really liked. Easily worthy of being the main in most courses!

Palate cleanser

A palate cleanser came out before the main. It had a faint, fresh grapefruit scent that cleanly refreshed my mouth!

How was the BMS No.9 hanwoo steak?

The main of the Bistro Chai Plus dinner is the BMS No.9 hanwoo steak, grilled medium rare and served with garlic, zucchini and white asparagus. BMS is a marbling score: the denser and richer the marbling, the higher the grade, and the top grade is 9. In other words, the steak is made from top-quality hanwoo with the highest level of marbling.

And even among steaks served as the main in fine dining, the volume is considerable. Hehehe. The garlic and zucchini were grilled nicely as garnish.

White asparagus as garnish too. I'll slice it and show you the cross-section. A steak grilled to an appetizing medium rare.

I think grilling a steak well takes very high-level cooking skill, so I like steak in fine dining. Hehehe. And the doneness was really good, and honestly, doneness aside, when you make a steak from such good hanwoo... T_T you can't help but be moved... The rich marbling visible even in the cross-section... a really tender, nutty, deeply flavorful and delicious steak. A beautiful hanwoo steak with the taste of butter and milk!

Dessert: seasonal melon bingsu

The dessert at Bistro Chai Plus that day was a melon bingsu made with seasonal fruit. I was already quite full, but with dessert in front of me, how could I not eat it. Haha.

It's milk ice flavored with melon milk, topped with a huge amount of melon, about as much as the ice. >.< The fresh, sweet taste of natural, unartificial melon together with the milk ice... a really, really delicious dessert!

Wine and corkage: Tenuta wine shop on the 1st floor

Bistro Chai Plus is run together with the wine shop Tenuta on the 1st floor, has a wine tasting room inside, and allows corkage. It turns out it's run together with a wine shop called Tenuta downstairs! Hehehe. So after a lovely meal, I browsed the wine shop on my way out. >.<

Tenuta had a wide selection! Wine pairing seems like it would suit the Bistro Chai Plus course well, and since corkage is allowed, it's also nice that you can easily bring your own! Haha.

Is Bistro Chai Plus worth going back to?

With every seat in a private room and an upscale atmosphere, Bistro Chai Plus lets you enjoy fine dining in privacy and comfort. Every single dish was admirably delicious, so I was really satisfied, and I think I'll come back often with the people I care about!