Gangnam Korean restaurant for perilla oil pasta: Moa Gangnam

I think the time I feel happiest all year is when that cool breeze arrives to announce that summer is over. As usual, I had dinner around Gangnam Station today. Mumu and I went to Moa Gangnam (모아 강남), a Korean-Western fusion restaurant near Gangnam Station that we love. It is great for a date course, or for gatherings such as wedding-invitation meetups.

Moa Gangnam location and waiting

This was my second visit to Moa Gangnam. It is about 5–10 minutes from Exit 11 of Gangnam Station. Go straight uphill through the New Balance alley and you will find it.

The last time I arrived around 6:30 p.m., I think the wait was quite long. There are chairs where you can wait after joining the queue on Tabling, but it would probably be best to book ahead through Naver Reservation!

Parking is not available. If you are driving, I heard you can use the nearby Yeoksam Cultural Park No. 2 Public Parking Lot. It is ₩300 per 5 minutes.

The atmosphere inside at 8:30 p.m.

The interior is quite spacious. We arrived around 8:30 p.m. and there were plenty of empty tables. It has a pleasant, tidy atmosphere that is neither too dark nor too bright.

We finished ordering on the tablet and waited...

Fusion dishes between Korean and Western food

Here is the menu! Think of it as fusion cooking between Korean and Western food. On my previous visit, I had spicy tomato Korean beef cheese tteokgalbi (grilled minced-beef patties), perilla oil salted seafood pasta, and maesangi conch risotto.

The spicy tomato Korean beef cheese tteokgalbi was lightly spicy and felt a bit like a stew eaten with baguette.

On this visit, we ordered the same perilla oil salted seafood pasta and maesangi conch risotto, plus pork jowl steak with chamnamul chimichurri because we wanted to try something new.

The signature perilla oil salted seafood pasta

This is the perilla oil salted seafood pasta. I think they named it so well. Perilla oil + salted seafood + perilla leaves: they are all things I love. As the signature dish, it is seriously delicious!

Mix it well with the perilla leaves and it is nutty and salty—a pasta that seems likely to suit everyone. The bits of octopus you encounter along the way have such a fun texture, too.

What comes with the chamnamul chimichurri pork jowl steak

Next was the chamnamul chimichurri pork jowl steak. Pork jowl steak simply cannot fail...

Pork jowl is fatty, so it can be a little rich, but the sour chimichurri made with chamnamul balances it beautifully. Add wasabi, salt, whole-grain mustard, and Moa's special sauce for even more flavors.

A risotto even a maesangi avoider enjoyed

The final dish was maesangi conch risotto. Mumu strongly recommends this one. I normally never eat maesangi, a delicate green seaweed... Even though I tell everyone that I eat anything, maesangi is one of the few ingredients I do not go out of my way to eat.

In this maesangi conch risotto, the texture and aroma that can make people dislike maesangi are not very pronounced; it is more like miyeok (sea mustard). So I could eat it. No—not merely could eat it, I absolutely devoured it (nom nom).

After the shock of eating maesangi kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) in high school, I would not even put maesangi near my mouth. This maesangi risotto was another shock. It goes together far better than I expected.

It may look like a lot of food, but the two of us polished off all three dishes.

What I want to try next and my recommendation

If I remember right, we booked and visited around last Christmas. Since it was year-end, I remember lots of couples on dates and people having year-end gatherings. We had eaten so well last time that we said, “Let’s come again later!”—and that is why we came back. It seems they have added lots of new dishes in the meantime, too.

Next time, I definitely want to try the gangdoenjang arancini, and I am also so curious about the spicy buckwheat noodles with flounder. I have left the chef’s recommendations below, so have a look if you are wondering what to order.

Chef’s recommended dishes

• Gondeure cream sujebi (hand-torn dough soup)
• Barley gangdoenjang arancini
• Abalone, mushroom, and butter pot rice
• Maesangi conch risotto
• Spicy tomato Korean beef tteokgalbi
• Bracken fern cream tomahawk pork steak
• Salmon avocado rice bowl
• Spicy buckwheat noodles with flounder
• Aged kimchi and flounder sashimi rice bowl
• Mackerel and white kimchi pasta

If you are planning a gathering such as a wedding-invitation meetup, are a couple a little tired of pizza and pasta, are looking for a blind-date spot around Gangnam Station, or want Korean food without going too traditional, I recommend stopping by the atmospheric Moa Gangnam at least once~