Stone-plate lamb chop dinner near Naebang Station: Bistro Chai Plus

Bistro Chai Plus: a private-room restaurant near Naebang Station

It's 330m from Exit 7 of Naebang Station, so a five-minute walk gets you there. I settled into a room and ordered the DINNER 120 course, which brings out eight plates in order: bruschetta, seasonal soup, ricotta salad, seared scallops, pasta, hyangchae chicken (herb-marinated chicken), lamb chops, and dessert.

Bistro Chai Plus is on the second floor of a glass building. The first floor operates as a wine shop, and Western dining awaits upstairs.

You head up the stairs to the second floor from inside the wine shop. There's parking space and a mechanical parking tower right next to the building, plus an elevator by the back entrance, so it's convenient if you're driving.

The first-floor wine shop, Winery Tenuta, displays wines organized by country and varietal. Every bottle has a price tag, making it easy to choose — champagne on the left, red and white on the right. Whatever you pick here, you can drink together upstairs at Bistro Chai Plus.

What the rooms are like and how ordering works

Past the stairs to the second floor is a hallway lined with private rooms. White fabric drapes from the ceiling and framed art hangs on the walls, giving the whole space a calm, upscale feel. It suits family gatherings, anniversaries, or a quiet meal equally well.

The standard rooms fit 2 to 10 people, good for meeting-the-in-laws occasions or family gatherings, while the group seating holds 6 to 20. Inside each room there's a wooden coat rack so you can hang up your jacket and eat comfortably.

The solid wood table is preset with mats and cutlery, and a tablet with the wine list sits right there so you can order comfortably from your seat.

The menu ranges from courses and à la carte to wine, baijiu, soju, beer, and other drinks. Courses split into lunch and dinner across various price points, so it's easy to pick what suits you. À la carte options include a cheese platter, hyangchae chicken, dumplings, ppolppo (octopus), jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles), and lamb chops. Wine and baijiu come with bottle photos, and you can also swap wine glasses.

Corkage is ₩10,000 per bottle for wine bought at the ground-floor wine shop, and ₩40,000 per bottle for outside alcohol. Book a wedding invitation gathering for 6 or more and they'll give you a bottle of rosé wine.

What comes out on the DINNER 120 course

Alongside the tablet there's a separate paper menu, and we ordered the DINNER 120 course for two. The course card lists everything from the amuse-bouche to dessert. Add ₩15,000 and you can swap the lamb chops for BMS No.9 Korean beef steak.

A sip of water before the course arrives—

Bruschetta and cauliflower seasonal soup

The first plate is two kinds of bruschetta. The top one has sea urchin mousse with caviar, the bottom one pomegranate mousse with omija (schisandra berry) jelly. They kindly explained that the sea urchin mousse has a strong aroma, so it's better to eat the pomegranate one first. The pomegranate mousse and omija jelly are tangy and sweet, refreshing together, and then the sea urchin mousse brings a strong sea urchin aroma with the salty caviar adding a savory, briny balance.

The seasonal soup is made from cauliflower, topped with prosciutto and a drizzle of olive oil. Scooping up a piece of cauliflower together with the prosciutto gives you savory plus salty in one bite.

Ricotta salad and seared scallops with asparagus

The ricotta salad mixes handmade ricotta cheese with apple, beet, and radicchio, finished with a cinnamon dressing. Crushed candied walnuts on top add sweet, crunchy, nutty notes with every bite.

Eating the apple, nuts, and radicchio together with the salad is genuinely delicious, and the subtle cinnamon scent keeps you reaching for more.

The asparagus with seared scallops places scallops on top of asparagus, finished with a sherry vinegar dressing. Each plate holds two pieces of scallop and asparagus — the scallops are cooked moist and tender, cutting cleanly with the first bite. Pairing one piece of scallop with asparagus gives a crisp bite, and the doneness was perfect.

Ragù casarecce and herbed chicken

The pasta tosses casarecce noodles in ragù sauce, topped with cherry tomatoes and arugula, finished with grated cheese.

Unlike a typical ragù where the meat is shredded fine, here it stays in chunks, giving it a good chewy bite. The beef, slow-braised until tender, is deeply infused with sauce and goes down smoothly. Dipping a piece with tomato adds a tangy note that keeps you eating.

The casarecce noodles are spiral-shaped and curled, so the sauce soaks all the way in. The noodles are cooked just right — delicious even on their own.

The hyangchae chicken has its skin fried crisp, then drizzled with an herb dressing. True to its name, it seems built around strongly aromatic vegetables, and comes topped with cucumber and melon.

The dressing has finely chopped scallion and chili mixed in, giving a sweet, spicy flavor similar to yurinchi. The real kick of the hyangchae chicken is the melon and cucumber — piling them onto a piece of chicken adds a crisp, refreshing note. The skin is crispy, the meat moist — good even dunked fully in the sauce.

Lemon ginger sorbet, grilled sablefish and stone-plate lamb chops

Midway through, a lemon ginger sorbet arrives as a palate cleanser.

One spoonful and the ginger flavor, along with the tang, made it a perfect palate reset.

The grilled sablefish came out alongside it — marinated in three kinds of doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and grilled, served with peas and a grilled lemon. Piled high with chopped chives, it was almost too pretty to eat. The skin side is grilled crisp, and I'd recommend squeezing lemon over the fish before eating — the added tartness made it even better. A bite of sablefish with peas scooped on top—

The lamb chops are grilled on a hot stone plate with Isigny butter melted over them. Served alongside minari (water celery), broccoli, king oyster mushroom, and zucchini, they keep sizzling in butter the whole time. The stone plate comes out already heated, and the king oyster mushroom and zucchini pair well with the meat, carrying the buttery flavor between bites.

Plate up the grilled lamb chops with minari, broccoli, and zucchini together, then top a piece of lamb with mint jelly and wasabi for a bite. The stone plate stays hot throughout, so even the last piece was still warm.

Finishing with patbingsu (red bean shaved ice)

Dessert is patbingsu (red bean shaved ice), topped with red beans, soybean powder injeolmi (rice cake), and a slice of peach. Having patbingsu at the end of a Western dining course added a nice Korean touch. The red beans weren't too sweet, just the right amount, so it made for a light, easy finish to the meal.

Was the stone-plate lamb chop dinner worth it?

I loved how the lamb chops picked up butter flavor right on the stone plate, and the doenjang-grilled sablefish stood out especially for its deep flavor. The course flowed in order from bruschetta to patbingsu, making it easy to eat slowly.

Above all, the staff were kind, and each dish's doneness impressed me. Every plate and its plating were pretty to look at, and the overall atmosphere was calm enough for good conversation over the meal.