Japanese-French omakase in Pangyo: 8-plate spring dinner at Kkweda

I wanted a special evening with my partner, so I booked the first dinner seating at Kkweda (꿰다), a place famous as a Pangyo omakase favorite. It's on the first floor of the Pangyo Avenue France building, and it's a Japanese-French style dining spot that changes its course with seasonal ingredients every season.

When we visited, the course was themed "Spring and Jang" (jang means fermented Korean sauces and pastes). From the cold potato soup to the rare cheesecake, every plate was so well made that we kept marveling all through the meal. We took our time with 2 Kirin draft beers and 1 glass of house red wine. It's a great fit for a Pangyo date, and also for an anniversary or a meeting with your future in-laws.

Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch basics: hours, reservations, parking

Kkweda Pangyo Avenue France Branch is open daily 11:30–21:30, with a break from 14:00 to 17:00. You can reserve through Catch Table or Naver Reservation, and reservations are required. At dinner you must order a drink.

One-line review: a Pangyo fine-dining spot that offers a new experience every time with seasonal-ingredient courses

• Location: 25 Dongpangyo-ro 177beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, South Korea (Pangyo Hoban Summit Place, 1st floor, Unit 143)
• Hours: daily 11:30–21:30 (break time 14:00–17:00)
• Reservations: Catch Table, Naver Reservation (required)
• Seating: dining bar (open kitchen) plus a separate table room for 6
• Drinks: a wide range including wine, sake, traditional Korean liquor, draft beer and non-alcoholic drinks; ordering a drink is required at dinner
• Extras: uni, truffle, hanwoo uni maki and more available separately

Where do you park at Kkweda?

Use the underground parking of the Pangyo Avenue France building; it's free for 3 hours. It's about a 10-minute walk from Pangyo Station.

Kkweda atmosphere: open-kitchen dining bar and a table room for 6

The heart of Kkweda is a long open-kitchen dining bar, with a separate table room inside that seats up to 6. When you walk in, warm lighting and a stylish space open up, and the first thing that caught my eye was the dining bar. Since it's an open kitchen, you can watch the chefs cook right in front of you, which I loved.

The 6-person table room inside also looked well suited to a Pangyo company dinner or a small gathering. Overall the mood is calm and quiet, so it's easy to focus on the food, and it's just right for a Pangyo date or a meal with your parents. I felt there aren't many places in Bundang where you can enjoy dining at this level.

First dinner seating at Kkweda: what did we drink?

Dinner at Kkweda requires a drink order, so we ordered 2 Kirin draft beers and 1 glass of house red wine. We had booked the first dinner seating, and the restaurant was easy to find on the first floor of Avenue France; we parked in the underground lot and came up. Once we sat down, we got the menu along with a drink list, and there were so many options, from wine to sake, traditional Korean liquor and draft beer.

We started with the crispness of the Kirin draft beer, then set the mood with red wine from the middle of the course, and the pairings with the food worked well.

Kkweda "Spring and Jang" dinner course lineup

What we had was Kkweda's "Spring and Jang" dinner course, 8 plates in all. The course changes each season with seasonal ingredients, and this season's lineup is as follows.

• Cold potato soup
• Barley salad
• Steamed abalone and eggplant
• Shrimp cannelloni
• Clear chicken soup
• Roast beef
• Eel katsudon (anago katsudon)
• Rare cheesecake

It flows naturally from a cold soup to salad, a steamed dish, pasta, soup, a meat main, a rice dish and dessert.

Cold potato soup

The first plate of Kkweda's "Spring and Jang" course was a chilled potato soup. The texture was silky smooth, and the mild, clean flavor of potato came through first. The sweet shrimp and kohlrabi pickle on top added accents, and the faint aroma of wild chive oil opened up my appetite right away.

Barley salad

The barley salad is barley and vegetables piled onto crisp endive that you eat wrapped up, and the nutty barley texture stayed lively the more I chewed. Olives popped up here and there, the mix with quinoa and barley was good, and it was a completely different style of plate from the cold soup before it.

Steamed abalone and eggplant

The steamed abalone and eggplant was, unexpectedly, one of the plates that stayed with me longest. The abalone was cooked bouncy, not tough, and the eggplant had soaked up moisture and was much softer. The combination of sea urchin and a rich, thick sauce was great too; the abalone wasn't the only star, since the eggplant anchored the flavor in the middle, which made it a well-balanced plate.

Shrimp cannelloni

The shrimp cannelloni is packed with shrimp inside capellini pasta, so every bite was dense. The outside was crisp and the sweetness of the shrimp came through clearly inside, and with the rich sauce made with shrimp bisque the flavor got much deeper. We finished this plate in no time, it was almost a shame to see it disappear, haha.

Clear chicken soup

The clear chicken soup came with noodles and chicken in a clean chicken broth, and it worked as a palate cleanser after the earlier plates. The broth had the deep savory taste of grilled chicken, and the noodles were cooked well and the seasoning was just right.

Roast beef with mugwort doenjang

Kkweda's roast beef, the main, had a beautiful pink cross-section. It's the style where you first feel the tender grain and juices inside, rather than a steak seared hard on the outside, and with the asparagus, glehnia (bangpung) greens, whole-grain mustard and mugwort doenjang (fermented soybean paste) served alongside, the flavor got richer. The mugwort doenjang was especially impressive, both Korean and a great match for the beef.

Eel katsudon (anago katsudon)

The anago katsudon was the plate that stayed clearest in my mind that day. Plump eel is coated in a crisp batter and fried, brushed with tare sauce and set on rice; crisp outside and moist inside, it went down really well as the final meal. Its hearty flavor, a contrast to the delicate plates before it, firmly anchored the finish, and the broth served with it was clean too.

Rare cheesecake

The final dessert, the rare cheesecake, charmed me with its soft texture and gentle tang. It wasn't overly sweet, so it wrapped up the end of the course freshly.

Is the Kkweda dinner course enough food?

The 8-plate dinner course at Kkweda should leave two people comfortably full. The course moves from light plates to gradually heavier ones, so by the time you finish the last eel katsudon you feel properly filled. You can also pay extra for uni, truffle or hanwoo uni maki to make it even richer.

Kkweda "Spring and Jang" dinner: overall verdict

Dinner at Kkweda, the Pangyo omakase favorite, with my partner was a joy throughout because every plate was so well made. Starting with the cold potato soup, through the barley salad, bouncy abalone and eggplant, dense shrimp cannelloni and clean clear chicken soup, to the tender juicy roast beef and the crisp finish of the eel katsudon, the flow of the course was perfect.

The pairing was good too: a refreshing start with Kirin draft beer, then red wine to carry the mood. Among Pangyo restaurants, it's a place where you can enjoy omakase-level fine dining in Bundang, and I recommend it for a Pangyo date as well as anniversaries, meetings with future in-laws and company dinners. The mood and food suit a meal with your parents too. Kkweda is a place I'd want to return to every time the season changes.