Pork omakase in Magok with flea-market wine corkage: Don Tamguso

A pork omakase restaurant, Don Tamguso (豚탐구소)

Don Tamguso is a Magok date-spot restaurant where the head chef — a Le Cordon Bleu graduate who worked at top hotels — reinterprets fine-dining-level pork dishes as a casual omakase course. I went for my birthday :-)

Don Tamguso location, hours and parking near Magok Station

Don Tamguso is at 128, 11 Magokjungang 6-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, 300 meters from Exit 3 of Magok Station on Line 5. It opens at 11:30, closes at 21:10, with break time from 14:00 to 17:30.

• 📍Location: 128, 11 Magokjungang 6-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul
• ⏰Hours: Open 11:30 / Close 21:10 / Break time 14:00–17:30
• 🚗Parking: Building underground lot available⭕

It's 300 meters from Exit 3 of Magok Station on Line 5, and if you park in the underground lot of the Botanic Park 3 building, they'll validate it for you.

How to book a course at Don Tamguso

✅How to book at Don Tamguso, a Magok date-spot restaurant

There are two ways — Catch Table or Naver Reservation — and I booked through Naver Reservation. Since it's a course menu, you can only dine here with an advance reservation, so make sure to book before you visit!

Bar seats, group table and the room at Don Tamguso

You're seated at the bar counter by default.

I arrived 10 minutes before my reservation and the chefs were already prepping food.

I gave my reservation name and was seated at the assigned spot.

There's also a separate group seating area toward the back, which looked good for gatherings or company dinners.

Drinks and corkage: bringing flea-market wine to Don Tamguso

The restaurant had its own drinks menu too — wine bottles seemed orderable as well, along with bottled beer (Heineken, Stella, Blanc), glass wine, highballs, ade, and cola.

🍷Corkage policy: 20,000 won per bottle under 25% ABV, 40,000 won per bottle 25% or higher.

At Don Tamguso, the Magok date-spot restaurant, we got the corkage down to 30,000 won. We hadn't even been planning to drink that day, but there was an art-street festival happening right outside, and a flea market was selling good wine cheap, so we grabbed a bottle and used the corkage service.

Courses 1 and 2: button mushroom soup and shiitake lasagna

✔Soup — chestnut, mushroom, cream

We booked the dinner course, and the first dish was mushroom soup.

It was completely smooth and delicious, a great first impression.

✔Lasagna — shiitake mushroom, white ragu, mozzarella cheese, smoky sauce

Second was a lasagna made with shiitake mushrooms.

The mushrooms were plump and juicy — I don't even like shiitake usually, but this was delicious. The mushrooms themselves were great, but the sauce was really the star..!

Next up was the main course, and watching the cooking happen right in front of us made it even more exciting.

Main 1: shio koji pork tenderloin steak

✔Main 1 — shio koji, tenderloin, mushroom, sun-dried tomato

The first main of the dinner course was a pork tenderloin steak, served with altari radish pickles that were also made in-house — clean and delicious, so I savored them.

They said the tenderloin was aged with koji culture — I'm no food expert so I couldn't tell you exactly what that does, but it was cooked evenly and stayed juicy. Loads of meat juice.. and a hint of truffle oil aroma added a touch of luxury.

Mid-course: rigatoni served on nachos

✔Rigatoni — con carne, nachos, rigatoni

An in-between dish of rigatoni pasta — we were told to eat it on top of the nachos, and that's what we did. The crunchy texture was great. The sauce itself was delicious too, so we scraped every last bit — it paired perfectly with the rigatoni. Spicy enough to really kick your appetite into gear.

Main 2: pork belly with huajiao and cumin

✔Main 2 — pork belly, minari, huajiao, cumin, fennel

The second main was a spiced pork belly dish. The spices were ones I'd never had before, but the flavor wasn't off-putting at all. I wrapped it in minari (water dropwort) and enjoyed it.

Choice dish: signature jambon burger or abalone risotto

✔Signature Burger — jambon, arugula, fennel

For the final dinner course dish, we got to choose between two options: a burger or a risotto. Since there were two of us, we each picked one and split them. First, the signature burger.

It was cut neatly so I could share half with my companion. A burger with jambon ham inside — as the signature menu item and the last dish of the course, it was the one that left us most satisfied.

✔Signature Risotto — Wando abalone, barley, glasswort, Grana Padano cheese

The second choice was abalone risotto. The barley gave it a nice popping bite, and the creamy flavor was delicious.

Dessert changes daily: panna cotta on this visit

✔Dessert — today's dessert, panna cotta

The final dish was panna cotta. Dessert changes based on the chef's mood each day, so you never know what you'll get. On our visit it was panna cotta, and they explained it only used good ingredients — blueberry compote, honey, milk.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ From the soup to the mains to the final dessert, every single dish was delicious — a wonderful dinner course. Getting to enjoy fine-dining-level dishes at a reasonable price made Don Tamguso, this Magok date-spot restaurant, a real find.