Gwangalli pizza restaurant in Busan: half-and-half at Extra Mile

Today I visited Extra Mile, a newly opened pizza spot in Gwangalli, Busan!

I came here for dinner with a friend, and as you would expect from a newly opened place, this Gwangalli Western restaurant was clean and comfortable. The pizza and pasta were unlike anything I had tried elsewhere, with distinctive combinations that made for such new flavors. If you are looking for a Gwangalli Western restaurant with a lovely atmosphere and beautiful plating for a Busan date, I recommend Extra Mile!

Extra Mile in a Gwangalli residential alley

The address is 11 Suyeong-ro 554beonga-gil, Suyeong-gu, Busan, South Korea. It is open daily from 11:00 to 21:00, with last orders at 20:00.

As Gwangalli gets hotter and hotter, atmospheric new restaurants are popping up one by one, so it is fun to seek them out on purpose 😚

So this time, my friend and I decided to do a Gwangalli restaurant tour!

Extra Mile is a newly opened Western restaurant that is popular enough to require reservations, even though it has not been open for long.

Tucked inside a Gwangalli residential alley, it had a quiet, relatively relaxed mood that actually made dining feel easy and comfortable. Before going in, I was wondering, “Is this really the place?” But it was, haha.

It is on the first floor of a white residential building, and through the large windows it almost looks like an atmospheric café 😌 The stylish interior also felt cozy, so I thought it would be a comfortable place for a meal 🤍

What I personally liked was the table layout. It was neither too cramped nor too sparse, so we could keep a suitable distance from neighboring tables and focus on our meal and conversation.

Since it is a popular Gwangalli spot, there seemed to be all kinds of guests: local diners like us, international visitors, couples, and friends having a meal together.

The atmosphere alone was so nice that it felt perfect for a meal with girlfriends, and like a great Gwangalli date restaurant to bring your girlfriend to.

True to its aim of free-spirited, comfortable casual fine dining, the service quality was high while guests could eat in a casual, hip setting 💗

There were already lots of reviews saying the plating, food quality, and flavor were all perfect, so I was excited❣️ The open kitchen also let us watch the cooking process, which inspired confidence.

Coloring while we waited for the food

Waiting for the food was not boring at all, because every table had cute coloring sheets and colored pencils. At first I thought I would just doodle for a moment because they were cute, but before I knew it, I was completely absorbed and concentrating.

Even while chatting with my friend, my hands kept moving... haha. I think it was one of the unexpectedly fun touches. Seeing them put thought into even this little detail, it felt like they had carefully considered what guests might enjoy! 👍🏻✨

Birria taco and potato pizza, chosen half-and-half

It felt like a shame to choose just one, but they told us half-and-half pizza was possible, so we ordered half birria taco pizza and half potato pizza, along with tomato pasta ❤️

At other restaurants, choosing half-and-half often comes with an extra charge, but at Extra Mile it is immediately available as a standard option, which was great.

It looked delicious in photos too, but when I saw the pizza served on the table...

From the generous toppings to the very edge of the crust, everything looked delicious, and I was so excited~ Getting this excited just looking at pizza 😍

The potato pizza combines Duback potatoes from Gangwon-do, rich truffle oil, and salty bacon. The individual flavors and aromas of the ingredients came together so beautifully.

With every bite, the truffle aroma came through subtly and made the pizza feel luxurious... It added another layer of depth, making this feel like an upgraded pizza on a completely different level from ordinary potato pizza. It was absolutely full of flavors you cannot easily find elsewhere!

The other half of the pizza was birria taco pizza! Rich Mexican birria meat was joined by refreshing pico de gallo salsa and smooth sour cream.

When the hearty meat flavor came through, the bright salsa freshened up the mouth and the soft sour cream added its own appeal, so it was delicious without becoming too rich 🤭 It definitely had a different character from the pizza I usually eat, like experiencing a new kind of pizza. If you are looking for unusual Western dishes, these are menus worth trying at least once.

With tacos and truffle dishes combined with pizza, it felt as though a whole new food had been born! Both pizzas were satisfying because the ingredients' own personalities were brought out so well 🔥 Ordering half-and-half was truly the right choice. They say the staff enjoy half-and-half pizza as a staff meal too, and I can see why—it is quality worth making and packing up for yourself! Next time, I want to order half-and-half with pizza varieties I did not get to try today.

Pasta with the lovely natural flavor of tomato

The pasta we ordered with the pizza was beyond expectations too...❤️ They said it uses premium San Marzano tomatoes, and you could taste the freshness of the quality tomatoes, haha.

Rather than a tomato sauce that is simply overpowering, it was impressive how it preserved the tomato's own flavor and drew out the ingredients' natural taste to the fullest. They say every pasta sauce is simmered 100% in-house without a single ready-made product, and that care seemed to melt right into the flavor, making it even more delicious... ✨

The most impressive thing was how they used fresh ingredients as well as less everyday ones—birria meat, pico de gallo, sour cream, Duback potatoes, truffle oil, and stracciatella—and folded them seamlessly into familiar pizza and pasta dishes ✨

Every bite had Extra Mile's own character, and I feel like my mouth still remembers the food.

It was a satisfying, comfortable space despite being a new restaurant. I heard it is already the team behind Free Will Pizza, Pickles, and Upper East Bakery in Jeonpo-dong, Busan, now introducing a space in Gwangalli too! Perhaps that is why it never felt hectic or awkward, even as a new place.

You really cannot ignore that particular vibe that comes from the know-how and guest-service experience built through running several restaurants!

Why I want to return for a Gwangalli dinner

From the stylish interior that made every guest feel at ease, to the distinctive menu, food plating, and kind service! Everything came together so well that I enjoyed the entire meal and felt truly looked after. It was such a satisfying time!

Because it was a new Gwangalli restaurant, I was half excited and half worried, but after finishing the meal, I naturally found myself wanting to come back. It was my friend's first visit too, and after eating, she said it would be nice to know a restaurant like this and that she wanted to return next time 😆🧡 I was even happier because not only I, but my friend who came with me, loved it too.

It is a Gwangalli restaurant that does pizza and pasta well, but I would also recommend it for its unusual yet familiar Western menu and its comfortable, looked-after atmosphere 🫶🏻

Like us, it would make the perfect dinner stop after a walk along Gwangalli Beach or some time at one of the nearby atmospheric Gwangalli cafés!

If you are planning a special dinner with someone precious, I hope you will visit Extra Mile, one of the standout stylish Western restaurants in Gwangalli~!