Gangnam anniversary dinner, lobster & Korean beef steak set: Mano di

Today I'm writing up my visit to Mano di Chef, a place I found while looking for somewhere nice for an anniversary meal! It's the kind of spot with such a great atmosphere that people pick it for dates, family dinners, and even blind-date meetups. Here's the review~!

Mano di Chef Gangnam — location, hours, parking

• Hours: Mon–Fri 11:00–21:30 (break 15:50–17:00, last order 14:00, 20:30) / Sat–Sun 11:00–21:00 (break 15:00–17:00, last order 14:50, 20:30)
• Parking available (2-hour discount offered)
• Rooms (8–20 people), group seating (40–55 people)
• 262m from Yeoksam Station Exit 4, 367m from Gangnam Station Exit 12, B1 Bithumb Finance Tower

Located roughly halfway between Gangnam Station and Yeoksam Station, Mano di Chef sits on the basement level of Bithumb Tower alongside a variety of other restaurants! Getting off the elevator and heading left brings you right to it — and I noticed it had two Blue Ribbon marks on the door.

The dining room and seating layout

Past a counter lined with various wines, there's quite a lot of table seating set up further in.

Inside the arched hall there were about 12 four-person tables! There were also 3–4 rooms set up for 8 people.

Looking back toward the entrance from inside, you can see the huge windows — bright, open table seating too!

The menu — what to order

Once we got to our table, the menu was laid out nicely for us.

The menu ranges from set combos to steak, lobster, salads, pasta, risotto, gnocchi, and pizza, so there's plenty of fun in picking what to order!

Since it was an anniversary, we went with the lobster and Korean beef steak set! For the salad we picked the premium avocado salad (shrimp), kept the lobster & Korean beef steak as the base option, chose the signature red shrimp bisque linguine, and picked fresh-ade (red grapefruit, lemon) to drink. We also added the gim-tae (deep-sea seaweed) pesto & octopus gnocchi!

Here's how it looked once we sat down!

Ade and the avocado salad

The fresh-ade (red grapefruit, lemon) came out quickly after ordering!

First up was the premium avocado salad (shrimp)!

Garlic bread brushed with honey came out right after. It looked so good! ㅇ//ㅇ

I held back from diving into the garlic bread and did the responsible blood-sugar thing... salad first!

The avocado — good fats! — was delicious with the tomato and cheese, and the salad was plated so nicely ㅇ//ㅇ The dressing was oriental-style! There were chickpeas and olives too, good for refreshing your palate between bites.

Gim-tae pesto & octopus gnocchi

While we were still working on the salad, the mains started arriving one after another! The colors on the plates made everything look even more appetizing ㅇ//ㅇ

Gim-tae pesto & octopus gnocchi. Totally recommend this one! The seaweed and pesto were mixed in just the right ratio — nutty and so delicious! The soup was fantastic too... and the potato gnocchi was chewy and just... so good!!!

It's great just dipping the gnocchi in the sauce alone, and just as good scooped up together with everything else!

I kept scraping the plate clean. This was so good I couldn't move on to the next dish for a while and only reluctantly turned my attention to the pasta.

Red shrimp bisque linguine

Linguine pasta loaded with octopus and red shrimp. Generous portion — think of it as a salty pasta with a strong taste of the sea!

Portioned nicely onto the plate and topped with octopus, it had a flavor that really woke up your appetite ㅇ//ㅇ

Lobster & Korean beef striploin 150g

A whole lobster comes with the set, and the steak comes with salt, wasabi, and mustard on the side!

We chose medium rare for the steak. It came out cooked evenly all the way through ㅇ//ㅇ

Not tough at all, and so tasty! I'm the type who goes for the salt with steak.

The lobster came pre-cut so it was easy to pick out the meat. The roe in the body was completely packed full too! It was really rich and delicious ㅇ//ㅇ;; the kind of roe you just want to mix into a bowl of rice.

The claws were also already half-cracked, so you could just pull the meat out with a fork! Staff kept checking in around the room throughout the meal to make sure everything was going smoothly, and I really appreciated that kind of service!

Don't forget the soda refills and the takeout discount

Ordering a fresh-ade also gets you free refills on soda (zero-sugar cola, Sprite, etc.) — that was such a nice bonus! Definitely keep this in mind if you visit Mano di Chef!

The two of us ate through all of this... and finished nearly everything. It really is a lot of food...! We had some garlic bread and steak left over, but don't worry about that part!

Just let them know, and they'll pack it up for you like this ㅇ/ㅇ This was another great touch! And packing your leftovers for takeout at the restaurant gets you a 20% discount, so keep that in mind too~~

Don't forget to register for parking when you pay!