Gwangju Suwan Italian restaurant, three new dishes: Bueokgan Suwan

I recently went back to Bueokgan, an Italian restaurant in Gwangju's Suwan district! The atmosphere is lovely and everything on the menu tastes great, so it's one of the Gwangju Italian spots I really love haha. This time I was in Gwangju for a weekend outing and stopped by for a date — the food and the vibe were exactly as good as I remembered, so it was a very satisfying meal ❣️

Where is Bueokgan Suwan Branch, and what are the hours and parking?

Bueokgan Suwan Branch is at 1st floor, 37 Suwan-ro 106beon-gil, Suwan-dong 1340, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. It's open 11:30 - 21:00, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00.

• Hours 11:30 - 21:00
• Break time 15:00 - 17:00
• Lunch last order 14:30 / Dinner last order 20:20
• No parking ❌ — roadside or alley parking nearby

Red brick exterior: a European-looking alley in Suwan

Here's the outside of the restaurant! With the red brick and all the green plants, it really gave off European vibes haha.

Tucked away in an alley, it has that pretty, cozy Italian-restaurant feel — a great atmosphere for a relaxed, unhurried meal~!

I really loved the warm feeling of this place haha.

Inside Bueokgan Suwan Branch: floor-to-ceiling windows and plants

The interior had a great atmosphere too! Soft sunlight coming through the big windows with lush green plants visible outside — such a pretty restaurant haha.

Maybe because of the warm, pretty vibe, it was full of families, friend groups, and couples on dates! I'm a sucker for this kind of cozy feeling too, so it made me like the place even more ☺️

We came in around 1pm and luckily one table had just opened up, so we got seated right away haha.

There's also a bar table set up, which looked great for enjoying a relaxed solo meal! I'll have to come back for a solo dining trip sometime haha.

There are men's and women's restrooms inside, and baby chairs are available too 👍

The Bueokgan Suwan Branch menu and what we ordered this time

Bueokgan Suwan Branch has set menus along with a wide range of Italian dishes haha. You can order everything from salads to pasta, risotto, steak, and pizza~

This time we decided to try only dishes we'd never had before!! So we ordered the cabbage Caesar salad, shrimp anchovy oil pasta, and truffle mushroom pizza!

They set out clean, sleek tableware and drinks first! Since we planned to eat a lot, I conscientiously ordered a zero-sugar cola — though I'll whisper that the ade here is also great (shh).

Cabbage Caesar salad: served as a whole head of napa cabbage

The first dish was the cabbage Caesar salad! It comes with a whole head of alba cabbage (a sweet, small napa-type cabbage)!!!

They give you scissors, so you just cut it into bite-sized pieces as you eat~

The sweet-and-tangy sauce was so good, and the bacon you bite into here and there was a genuine highlight 👍 The slightly charred parts of the cabbage especially had this salty, delicious flavor!!

The crunchy texture really held up too, so if you love cabbage, this dish will be an instant favorite ❣️

My friend tried it and said it was so good that the two of us finished it before the mains even arrived haha.

Finally the pasta and pizza we ordered arrived haha. They looked so good 😆

Shrimp anchovy oil pasta: thick noodles and deep savory flavor

The shrimp anchovy oil pasta was loaded with big chunks of tomato and shrimp!

The shrimp were plump and springy, and well-seasoned throughout — really tasty 😋

And the pasta here uses slightly thick noodles! Even though they're thick, the texture was just right and well-seasoned throughout — so good 🤤 Why can I never get it to taste this good when I make it at home lol 😂

It felt like the textbook version of an oil pasta, and the anchovies added an extra layer of umami that made it addictive without getting tiring ❣️

Truffle mushroom pizza: made for mushroom lovers

The last dish was the truffle mushroom pizza haha. True to its name, it was absolutely piled with mushrooms! As a mushroom lover, this dish was totally my thing 😍

The truffle mushroom pizza has a tomato base, and the moment you take a bite, the mushroom aroma and flavor fill your mouth — it was like eating charcoal-grilled king oyster mushrooms, so full of mushroom juiciness 🤤 It was piled high with my favorite oyster mushrooms, and the chewy texture was the best haha.

On top of that, the savory, stretchy cheese combined with the chewy dough made it impossible not to love 💛 Thanks to that (?), we ate all the way to the crust lol.

Bueokgan is a pizza place you can always trust, and the one we picked this time was another huge win ⭐️ Looking at the pizza photos while writing this post is making me want it again 🤤

Who should visit Bueokgan Suwan Branch, and when

It had been a while since I'd been out in Gwangju for a date, and getting to have lunch at an Italian restaurant I love made for a really enjoyable day ☺️ Spending time with good food in a warm, cozy space like this is happiness itself ❣️

It's the restaurant I always visit whenever I need to shake off a bad mood, so I really, really recommend Bueokgan Suwan Branch!!!