Italian restaurant in Goyang for a shared lunch: Millepollie

An Italian restaurant on Bamridan-gil for four, including an engaged couple

My brother-in-law is getting married, so the four of us—including his fiancée—decided to have a meal together for the first time in ages. We are all usually busy, so actually setting a proper date for all four of us is harder than it sounds. Since we were finally meeting, I wanted somewhere with good food where we could relax and talk.

After wondering where to go, we chose Millepollie (밀레폴리에), an Italian restaurant on Bamridan-gil in Goyang. It has pasta and all sorts of Italian dishes, and above all, the atmosphere was nice. It seemed like a great fit for a family meal after a long time apart like ours, or for couples on a Bamridan-gil date. We settled in for a leisurely dinner with my brother-in-law and his fiancée, enjoying good food and hearing about their wedding plans.

The sky was blue and the weather was absolutely beautiful that day. Sunny but not too hot—perfect for a slow walk around Bamridan-gil! With weather this nice, it somehow felt a shame to simply eat and head home. There are plenty of restaurants and cafés tucked into its lanes, so it was lovely for a stroll before or after the meal.

We found the Millepollie sign peeking through the lush trees and arrived! It had been a while since we had seen my brother-in-law and his fiancée, and the good weather put us in a great mood from the start as we walked in.

An entrance and interior of wood tones and plants

Walking along the lane brings you to Millepollie’s entrance. Its reddish exterior has the restaurant name written large across it, so even first-timers like us could find it easily. There was also a small terrace out front, and the building itself already had that relaxed Bamridan-gil feel.

Rather than being overly decorated, it felt comfortable yet atmospheric, with plants and wood tones blending naturally together. On a beautiful day like this, it had exactly the sort of entrance that makes you want to take a photo before going in. We enjoyed it as a family meal spot, but Millepollie also made a good first impression for couples looking for a date place!

The wood had a naturally lived-in feel rather than looking brand-new and pristine, which suited the exterior well. Even the green-leaf logo added to the overall warm, comfortable feeling. Those little details at the entrance worked nicely with the Bamridan-gil alley atmosphere and made me curious about what it would be like inside. The freestanding sign also lists the opening hours, so check it before heading in!

Inside, the feeling of the exterior continued. Wood furniture and dark tones created a calm, warm space, and the soft lighting made it a good place to linger over a meal and conversation. The wine displayed around the room suited Millepollie perfectly; seeing the wreath hanging to one side, I suddenly thought this place would be really pretty at Christmas.

The tables were not crammed together either, with enough room between them for four people like us to eat and talk comfortably. It was a space for quietly enjoying the atmosphere along with your meal, ideal for family dining and, I think, a date too.

Once we sat down, even the table setting gave off Millepollie’s atmosphere. The neatly arranged tableware, napkins, and menu on the wood table blended naturally with the interior. Some Italian restaurants photograph well even before the food arrives, just from the table alone, and this was exactly one of those places. The soft lights and deep wood tones made it calm even during the day, perfect for a leisurely meal with my brother-in-law’s soon-to-be-married pair.

Adding pasta and gnocchi to the lunch set

Before the food arrived, the four of us sat with the menu open and debated what to eat for ages. This is the most exciting part too, haha. We decided everyone would pick something they wanted and we would order a bit of everything.

The menu ranged from salads and pizza to pasta and steak, with set options for tasting several dishes together. Since there were four of us, we decided against ordering individual mains and added dishes to a set to share. First, we ordered the lunch set for two at ₩57,000, then added white ragù pasta and gnocchi.

With four of us all choosing something we wanted, the table was naturally set to be full. When you visit an Italian restaurant with a group, there is another kind of fun in ordering a variety of dishes and sharing little tastes. Since this was a long-awaited get-together with my brother-in-law and his fiancée, we chose to try many things slowly while we talked instead of quickly finishing one dish and leaving.

Olive bread and our forcibly assigned ades

The first thing to arrive after ordering was the bread course. It came with bread studded with big slices of olive and olive oil for dipping. The olives gave the otherwise simple bread little salty bursts, and dipping it in the oil was a lovely light way to wake up the appetite before the mains. Of course, even though I know I should hold back on bread before a meal, I keep reaching for another piece while waiting and talking. All four of us had ordered a mountain of mains, so we decided to eat a reasonable amount and wait nicely.

For drinks, I ordered the blue lemonade and grapefruit ade. The vivid blue and pink drinks arrived side by side, and the color combination was so pretty that I took a photo before the food even came out.

“Right, today we’re going sexist.”

After declaring that, I forcibly assigned blue lemonade to the men and grapefruit ade to the women, hahaha. My husband and brother-in-law got blue; my future sister-in-law and I got pink. Nobody had a choice. A power-tripping sister-in-law stealing everyone’s right to choose a drink. The colors were so vivid that all four glasses together made the table feel even brighter. We had not gathered as four for a while, so we started the proper meal laughing over something this silly.

Ricotta salad and two kinds of pasta

The first dish out was the ricotta cheese salad. I love ricotta so much that whenever I go to an Italian restaurant, I look for dishes with ricotta first on the menu. Put it in a salad and there is a very high chance I will order it—I am a total ricotta fanatic.

Millepollie’s ricotta salad looked satisfyingly generous, with fresh greens, cherry tomatoes, and ricotta. There was also plenty of grated cheese on top, so I liked the look of it the moment it arrived. Taking a big bite of the soft, nutty ricotta with the greens was, as expected, that delicious combination I know and love. It was great for opening the appetite before the mains arrived in earnest, and it also paired well between bites of the pasta and gnocchi that followed. Once again, my choice to order ricotta at an Italian restaurant did not fail me.

Next came the Emmental gamberi pasta, topped with big shrimp. Thick sauce clung to the wide noodles, with plump whole shrimp sitting on top, so it looked fantastic right away. The broad pasta held plenty of sauce, and the grated cheese gave each bite a rich, full-bodied flavor.

The shrimp were not tiny pieces hidden in the dish; they were big enough to stand out, which made the texture of pasta and shrimp together especially good. Everyone yielded the shrimp to me with the pregnant-woman super pass, so I ate them. Hehehe. Sharing several dishes as a group made even this rich pasta easy to enjoy without feeling too heavy. Starting lightly with salad and then suddenly getting this thick, lush pasta made it feel like we were properly here for Italian food.

Next was the white ragù pasta. To be honest, we did not choose it after looking through the menu—my husband had specifically said since the day before that he wanted white ragù pasta, so we naturally added it. He had been planning to eat it since the previous day; it would have been a shame not to order it.

Wide pasta was mixed with a white ragù sauce full of meat, generously topped with grated cheese, and it looked rich and nutty from the start. The finely minced meat-filled sauce coated the broad noodles well, while cheese and crushed pistachios were sprinkled over the top. I had never seen white ragù with pistachios before, which was quite interesting. The meat’s savory depth came through clearly in the smooth, rich sauce, while the pistachios added a crisp little bite. The sauce alone could have felt a bit one-note, but that extra texture definitely became the highlight of the dish.

Seared Gorgonzola gnocchi and Margherita pizza

We also added the Gorgonzola gnocchi. A shallow layer of cream sauce covered a wide plate, topped with golden-brown seared gnocchi that looked delicious right away. I especially liked the properly browned, crisp parts on the outside. With a bite, the lightly firm seared exterior came first, while the inside was soft and chewy; it went very well coated generously in the cream sauce.

The sauce had the distinct, intense cheese flavor of Gorgonzola. It was more substantial and expressive than ordinary cream gnocchi, so cheese lovers would especially enjoy it. Even divided among four, we kept reaching for individual gnocchi and making sure to coat them well in the sauce.

Finally, the pizza arrived and our whole spread was complete. With two pastas, gnocchi, salad, and pizza filling the table, I was glad we had come as four. If there had only been two of us, we could not have ordered as many things as we wanted, but four people meant we could choose a real variety and share.

For the pizza included in the set, we chose the most basic Margherita. With its simple tomato sauce, cheese, and basil, it paired well with the stronger-flavored dishes that had come before, such as the white ragù and Gorgonzola gnocchi.

Most of all, laid out across one table like this, it made quite an impressive sight. We had a proper lunch with my brother-in-law and his fiancée, whom we had not seen in a while, serving one another dishes and swapping bites. A couple could enjoy the set menu together, of course, but coming in a group like we did and spreading out lots of dishes to share is also a wonderful way to enjoy Millepollie.

Pickles and jalapeños were also provided as standard sides to eat with the food. They were supporting players I picked at without expecting much because the mains were so prominent, but they were unexpectedly well received at our table. After rich dishes such as the white ragù or Gorgonzola gnocchi, a sour pickle or spicy jalapeño cleansed the palate nicely, so we naturally kept reaching for them. The four of us were sharing all sorts of things, yet someone even said, “The pickles here are good,” so these basic sides had a quietly definite presence. We ate them diligently between bites of the mains.

For a relaxed family meal or an evening date

Because this was a meal with my brother-in-law and his fiancée after a long time, I wanted a place where we could eat well and talk at ease. In that respect, Millepollie was a very satisfying choice. Sharing a spread of ricotta salad, pasta, gnocchi, and pizza in such a lovely space was much more fun than choosing just one dish each.

Even though everyone chose according to their own tastes, the dishes went together well and were easy to alternate between. The atmosphere was lovely in the daytime, but the soft lighting and wood-toned interior made me think it would have a different charm at night. Next time, it might be nice to come in the evening with my husband and have a glass of wine. And as I kept going on about Christmas earlier, I would like to return once the year-end atmosphere is in the air... Millepollie was a nice place to try whether you want an unhurried meal with family or friends, or a Bamridan-gil date spot that also has atmosphere.