Jamsil Italian restaurant for a 100-day anniversary: Mano di Chef

Mid-June is already slipping by... time flies, right? This time my boyfriend and I hit our 100-day mark, haha, so we had dinner at Mano di Chef, a well-known pasta place in Jamsil.

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch: location and opening hours

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch is on the B1 floor of Tower 730 in Jamsil. It's open 11:00–21:30 Monday to Saturday and 11:00–21:00 on Sunday. It seems to be famous already as a Blue Ribbon restaurant, and I heard it can seat anywhere from a private room up to 100 people, wow.

• Mon–Fri & Sat 11:00–21:30 (break time 15:00–17:00)
• Sun 11:00–21:00 (break time 15:50–17:00)

Sunday hours differ from Monday to Saturday, so keep that in mind.

Take the elevator down to B1 and you'll see the Mano di Chef entrance right away. Even from outside, the interior looked huge and comfortable.

Right as you walk in, you can see the kitchen and all sorts of wines.

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch: what's the vibe for anniversaries and blind dates?

Private rooms run in a line along the right side of the entrance, which looked great for birthday parties or group gatherings, while the main hall had a nice mood for blind dates or couple dates. We booked ahead and arrived at 5 PM on a Friday, right when the break time ended, so the place was super quiet.

We sat at the very back, and a blind date was happening right behind us. For a blind date, Mano di Chef seemed pretty good in location, atmosphere and price range.

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch: the menu and what we ordered

You get two menus, set menus and à la carte, with a huge variety: steak, salad, pasta, pizza,

risotto and gnocchi too. Everything looked delicious and we agonized, but in the end we ordered these three.

• Vongole aglio olio pasta (clam garlic-and-oil pasta) ₩27,900
• Margherita pizza ₩27,900
• Seaweed (gamtae) pesto & octopus gnocchi ₩31,900

They also have soft drinks, beer, whisky and highballs, so it looked good for a light drink in the evening too. We barely drink alcohol or soft drinks, so we only ordered food.

The chairs are comfortable and the tables are nicely spaced, so it's great for a cozy chat. After about 10 minutes of chatting post-order, the food started coming out one dish at a time.

Vongole aglio olio: generous portion, noodles cooked just right

The vongole aglio olio (₩27,900) came out first. (This was my favorite!!!!) These days pasta portions are often so small you're not full at all, but at Mano di Chef the portion is generous, they put in plenty of clams, and the sauce is tasty too, so I think I really finished it all. The noodles were cooked just right, which I liked most.

Margherita pizza: thin, crispy dough

Next came the margherita pizza (₩27,900). The dough is super thin and crispy, with plenty of tomato sauce and loads of cheese, so we could keep eating without getting tired of it. My boyfriend said the pizza was his favorite!!

Seaweed pesto & octopus gnocchi: scraped the sauce clean

Last came the seaweed pesto & octopus gnocchi (₩31,900). We debated between risotto and salad, but I wanted octopus, so we got the octopus gnocchi. The seaweed pesto sauce was richer and tastier than I expected, so we scraped up not just the gnocchi but every bit of sauce. The octopus was very tender with no tough parts at all. Isn't the plating so pretty too? Perfect for a date vibe.

Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch: how was it for a 100-day anniversary date?

The staff gave us two small plates each, so the food didn't get mixed up and we could enjoy it to the end, and with pickles served, we ate happily without feeling heavy even without drinks!!

My boyfriend and I meet up 4–5 times a week at most, and I deliberately never ate pasta on our dates until now, to save it for the 100-day mark, haha. And for this occasion, tasty pizza, pasta and even gnocchi at Blue Ribbon Mano di Chef!! We had a great date, haha.

I really want to come back to Mano di Chef Jamsil Branch for our 200th and 300th days. I especially recommend the vongole pasta ^.^