Pangyo fine dining: mugwort-sauce roast beef, eel katsudon at Kkweda

What kind of place is Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch?

Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch (꿰다 판교아브뉴프랑점) is a fine dining restaurant in Pangyo that takes the best seasonal ingredients and serves exotic dishes inspired by many different countries, tuned to Korean tastes. This season's theme, made with high-quality ingredients, is the "Spring and Jang" course. Haha, the food carries a story as well as flavor, so let me tell you Kkweda's story!

Atmosphere at Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch

Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch is on the first floor of Hoban Summit Place. The space feels cozy and pretty, and there's a country-of-origin sign posted near the entrance.

What dishes make up Kkweda's Spring and Jang course?

Kkweda's Spring and Jang course came in this order: cold potato soup, barley salad, steamed abalone and eggplant, shrimp cannelloni, clear chicken soup, roast beef, conger eel katsudon, and rare cheesecake. Let me introduce them one by one, starting with today's menu.

Cold potato soup

The first starter of the course is a cold potato soup with a creamy, nutty potato flavor. The subtle aroma of dallae (wild chive), the fresh crunch of kohlrabi and the rich sea scent of sweet shrimp melt together into a well-balanced starter.

One alcoholic drink per person is required. Are non-alcoholic drinks OK?

Kkweda requires one alcoholic drink per person, but it also has non-alcoholic drinks, which was lucky for me since I'm under the weather! I ordered non-alcoholic drinks that go well with the course.

Barley salad

Kkweda's barley salad is an unusual one: grains led by barley, wrapped in endive leaves. The bitter yet sweet, crisp endive paired nicely with the tangy dressed grains.

Steamed abalone and eggplant

The steamed abalone and eggplant is a plate of abalone, uni (sea urchin) and eggplant. Seafood lovers will really like it. Fine dining often combines ingredients you wouldn't normally pair to create new, harmonious flavors, right? Sure enough, eating all three together tasted best.

The abalone was nicely cooked, but the eggplant stood out among the three. It seems to be cooked Japanese-style, with plenty of kombu and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) flavor... and it went really well with seafood like the abalone and uni.

Shrimp cannelloni with bisque sauce

Kkweda's shrimp cannelloni is a pasta with the tubes generously stuffed with shrimp and more. Topped with pea shoots (pisuet), isn't it so pretty? The sauce is a bisque made from shrimp heads and innards. A seafood nerd whose favorite of all pasta sauces is bisque is happy.

Oddly, fine dining is where I most often meet pasta with bisque sauce. Hahaha, almost 80% of the time, haha. Which is fine by me! It's a fairly thick sauce.

The cannelloni is packed with shrimp and cooked vegetables. Eat it with the pea shoots and... the pasta's nuttiness, the shrimp's bounce and the bisque's richness are all wrapped up in the pea shoots' freshness, and it was so, so good. >.<

Clear chicken soup with abalone broth

Kkweda's clear chicken soup uses a broth made from abalone.

The seared chicken thigh was so, so delicious. A little smokiness and so rich...!!! You can taste the sweetness of the green onion too... and the broth was cool and clear, which refreshed the palate in the middle of the course.

How is Kkweda's roast beef served with mugwort jang?

The roast beef in Kkweda's Spring and Jang course comes with ssuk-jang (a mugwort-based jang, or fermented sauce), pickled myeongi (wild garlic-like greens), whole-grain mustard and an asparagus garnish. The roast beef is fully cooked, but it has a flavor somewhere between yuk-sashimi (raw beef) and a rare steak, which I loved?! I like eating everything raw, so it was even better. Hahaha.

The roast beef is cut quite thick. It goes best with the mugwort jang, so I tried dipping it in just that. But honestly, eating it with all the garnishes and sauces together is the royal road. Gather it all up and the rich flavors fill your mouth.

How was the conger eel katsudon meal at Kkweda?

For the meal at Kkweda, a jang-guk (clear soup) comes first, then the anago (conger eel) katsudon (rice bowl topped with a breaded cutlet)! The crispy fried conger eel was really thick. A big conger eel with super plump flesh, topped with fried shishito peppers.

The shishito peppers are great to have between bites of the eel. The eel is fried like the anago in tendon (tempura rice bowl), with a little tare sauce... so delicious!!! >.< There are some pickled vegetables too.

Under the beautifully cooked rice there was a little tendon sauce! Mix it all together and it tastes great.

Dessert: rare cheesecake

The dessert in Kkweda's Spring and Jang course is a rare cheesecake with cream cheese, yogurt and pickled apple. The sweet-tart apple and the nutty tang of yogurt and cream cheese came together for a dessert I really enjoyed. It's a dessert place too! >.<

Is Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch good for an anniversary date?

Overall, the Spring and Jang course at Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch tasted very clean, and with good ingredients I got to enjoy creative, distinctive dining that suits Korean tastes well. Parking is easy and the atmosphere is so pretty, so I really felt it would be a good place for an anniversary date!