Myeongdong steak set restaurant: medium hanger steak, Mano di Chef

Looking for a proper sit-down restaurant in Myeongdong: Mano di Chef

Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch is a Western restaurant on the 11th floor of the UNESCO Building at 26 Myeongdong-gil. When you're looking for somewhere to eat in Myeongdong, the options are often more limited than you'd expect.

Since Myeongdong is such a tourist-heavy area, most restaurants there either cater to tourists or serve simple Korean home-style meals. So finding somewhere with a nice atmosphere and solid food quality for a date or a gathering is surprisingly tricky.

I'd had lunch at Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch once before and the food quality was way better than I expected, so this time I came back on a date with my boyfriend. Since it was a place I'd already tried and liked, I came with even higher expectations.

A Myeongdong restaurant popular with local office workers

Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch sits right in the middle of the tourist district, but most of the actual customers were office workers and groups from nearby. Last time I visited on a Tuesday lunch, I saw foreign employees working in Korea along with what looked like job-interview groups and coworkers.

Even though it's smack in the middle of touristy Myeongdong, it felt more like a restaurant actually frequented by people who work nearby or come in groups.

This time I visited on a Tuesday evening, and again it was mostly office workers eating. Personally, dinner felt a bit less crowded than lunch, so a weekday evening visit seems good if you want a relaxed meal.

Why Mano di Chef works for dates and group gatherings alike

Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch has tables for four as the default, but the spacing is wide and the space is divided. I liked the overall atmosphere too.

The gap between tables is quite generous, and even though four-person tables are standard, the layout is sectioned off so you don't feel crammed up against the next table.

The layout in particular allows the space to be divided up, making it feel workable for group gatherings of eight or more. It seemed like a fair number of people were actually there for that kind of group meetup.

When choosing a spot for a job-interview-style group meetup, food matters, but you also tend to avoid places that are too noisy or have tables packed too tightly — and on that front, this place held up well.

The view wasn't bad either, so the atmosphere was great for a date visit. Personally, I'd recommend this place to anyone looking for a group meetup spot in Myeongdong.

Steak plate at lunch, steak set at dinner

On my previous lunch visit, I had the carrot hummus steak plate for ₩29,900.

The steak was so much better than I expected that it stuck with me, so this time I figured I'd go all in and ordered the steak set.

The steak set comes with garlic bread, salad, spaghetti, steak, and a drink, so it's a combination that lets you sample several menu items at once.

We ordered:

• Mushroom salad
• Tomato spaghetti
• Basic hanger steak
• Grapefruit ade
• Orange ade

That's what we went with. We ordered the steak cooked medium, and the portion of meat was just right to share alongside the other dishes.

The mushroom salad was the best dish of the set

The tastiest item in the Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch steak set was the mushroom salad. It's a warm hot-salad style dish drizzled with balsamic sauce.

I'm not usually a big salad person, but this one was genuinely delicious. It's a warm hot-salad style drizzled with balsamic sauce, and the mushrooms were fantastic.

The mushrooms had that distinctive rich aroma and texture, but so tender that at some point I found myself thinking it tasted almost like beef. Normally I think of salad as just a side to a steak, but this salad was good enough on its own that I kept going back for more.

By the end I wanted to scrape up every last bit of the balsamic sauce. Totally recommend the mushroom salad.

Tomato spaghetti with a deep seafood flavor

Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch's tomato spaghetti had clams and shrimp in it, giving the sauce a strong seafood aroma. It was better than I expected too.

It wasn't just a pasta with an intense tomato sauce flavor — the sauce itself had a strong seafood aroma. With clams and shrimp mixed in, the seafood flavor was quite rich and paired well with the tomato sauce.

Eating it alongside the steak worked well as a combination. If the basic pasta is this good, I imagine the bisque pasta must be excellent too. Next time, I'm trying it!!

The hanger steak, ordered medium

The basic hanger steak came out medium, cooked just right, so eating it with just a light dip of salt was the tastiest way to have it. This was a dish I already liked from my previous visit.

You could tell just by looking that it was cooked well, and the portion size was right for sharing with the other dishes. Most of all, the meat itself tasted so good that dipping lightly in salt, rather than loading up on sauce, was the way to go.

When I eat meat, I prefer to actually taste the meat itself rather than the sauce, and on that front, this was satisfying.

The steak stood out to me last time too, and this time I was again glad I chose it.

Worth a try if you often eat at Outback

Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch's price range isn't all that different from Outback. Honestly, whenever I want steak or pasta, I usually end up going to Outback.

But after revisiting Mano di Chef this time, I think I'll be coming here more often going forward. The prices aren't much different from Outback, but personally, the food quality felt far more satisfying.

The steak was tasty even with just a dab of salt, and from the mushroom salad to the seafood-rich tomato spaghetti, nothing felt phoned in. Most of all, this wasn't a one-time visit — I came back myself because the food was good.

Myeongdong has plenty of tourist-oriented restaurants, which actually makes it hard to find somewhere suited for a date or a gathering. Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch held up well on that front. The atmosphere is nice for a date, and the wide table spacing makes it comfortable for group visits too.

With the divisible space in particular, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a spot for a job-interview-style meetup or a group of eight or more. Next time I'm craving steak or pasta, I think I'll head to Mano di Chef Myeongdong Branch instead of Outback.