Prosciutto arugula pizza at Raon Sik Tak, a Baekhyeon-dong pizzeria

When I'm looking for somewhere to eat lunch in Pangyo, the area around Pangyo Station is great, but I also like heading over to Baekhyeon-dong café street sometimes, haha.

It has a completely different vibe from the densely packed buildings around Pangyo Station — restaurants and cafés are clustered along every alley, so it's a nice place to grab a meal and then coffee. This time I went for pizza at Raon Sik Tak Pangyo Branch on that same café street, haha. It's currently located at 26 Pangyoyeok-ro 10beon-gil, 1st floor, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, and it's an Italian restaurant centered on wood-fired pizza and pasta.

Where is Raon Sik Tak Pangyo Branch, and what does the brick exterior look like?

Walking further into Baekhyeon-dong café street, Raon Sik Tak sits on the first floor of a brick building. The sky was genuinely gorgeous the day we went, haha.

The weather was so clear the clouds looked vivid, and even casual photos of the storefront turned out great. But while the photos look refreshingly cool, the actual summer sun outside was pretty intense, haha.

I personally really liked the exterior. The reddish brick walls are paired with a long ivory awning, and the big windows give it an overall warm feel, haha. Pine trees and plants are planted out front too, so it felt less like a restaurant entrance and more like a small garden attached to the place. It was a pretty good spot for exterior photos too, haha.

Inside Raon Sik Tak: the open kitchen and wood-fired oven

Step inside and the same warm atmosphere from outside continues. It's mostly wood-toned throughout, with a big open kitchen sitting right in the center, haha.

You can see the wood-fired oven directly from the dining room, so once we ordered the pizza, it was clear it'd be made right there, haha. Raon Sik Tak is described as centered on wood-fired pizza, fresh pasta, and gnocchi. I personally like restaurants where you can see some of the kitchen — watching the cooking happen, and when the kitchen itself is kept spotless, it puts me in a better mood even before the food arrives.

The ceiling is high and exposed, but with several round lights hung throughout, it didn't feel too cold, haha. If anything, the combination of brick, bright wood tones, and lighting felt close to the clean, modern Italian restaurant look you see a lot these days.

On one side, canned tomatoes, sauces, and olive oil were displayed, with wine bottles and wine glasses set alongside them, haha. But that's not all — there were such elaborate flower arrangements that this corner photographed beautifully, haha.

The orange and yellow flowers matched the wood-toned interior so well that my eyes kept drifting to them throughout the meal. It felt like a good atmosphere for a date or a casual meal with friends, haha.

What does the arugula pizza at Raon Sik Tak taste like?

Instead of ordering a bunch of dishes that day, we tried the pizza piled high with arugula. The moment it arrived, my first thought was that they clearly didn't hold back on the arugula, haha. The green arugula covered the dough so completely you could barely see it, with cherry tomatoes, prosciutto, and cheese peeking out between the leaves.

Cheese was scattered on top like snow, so the visual itself was pretty striking, haha. It was exactly the kind of pizza you want to photograph the moment it hits the table, haha. Looking at the dough, the edges had scattered char marks from the wood-fired oven. The center was built on a tomato sauce base with a generous mound of arugula on top, giving it a completely different feel from a typical cheese pizza, haha. With the distinctive scent of arugula and the salty prosciutto at the center, it leaned more toward a refreshing bite than the heavy, cheese-laden pizza you might expect.

The easiest way to eat a prosciutto arugula pizza

The cherry tomatoes scattered throughout added a juicy touch to every bite, haha. Since there was so much arugula piled on top, it was easier to first tidy it up a bit with tongs, then take slices one at a time, haha.

If you just try to grab a slice with your hands directly, a whole clump of arugula and prosciutto tends to come along with it, haha. Eating the cucumber and radish pickles that came alongside in between bites helped reset the palate. The pizza itself is fairly large, so if two people come and order one other dish together, it'd be great for trying a bit more variety, haha. Looking at recent visit reviews, it seems many people at Raon Sik Tak Pangyo Branch order pasta, gnocchi, and even steak alongside the wood-fired pizza.

Is Raon Sik Tak good for a date meal in Baekhyeon-dong?

Personally, Raon Sik Tak struck me as a place better suited to enjoying the whole atmosphere of Baekhyeon-dong café street rather than just eating and leaving. The exterior is nicely decorated with brick and plants, and the interior has plenty to look at too — the open kitchen, wood-fired oven, wine, and flower displays, haha. The arugula pizza we had that day in particular was so generously loaded with vegetables that it felt refreshingly different from a typical pizza, haha. If you're craving wood-fired pizza in Pangyo or looking for somewhere to have a date meal on Baekhyeon-dong café street, it's worth a visit.

Next time I come back, I'd like to order pasta or gnocchi along with a pizza and eat a bit more properly, haha.