Jung-gu Asian buffet restaurant with eel and steak: Hotel Kukdo Patio

Kukdo Theater, which once stood in Euljiro 4-ga, was a single-screen cinema that showed landmark Korean films such as Again My Love, Hometown of the Stars, and Winter Woman. It was demolished at the end of 1999, and Hotel Kukdo (Kukdo Tourism Development Co., Ltd.) is now operating on the site.

Patio, the restaurant at Hotel Kukdo in Euljiro 4-ga, is a buffet restaurant, and its weekday lunch buffet is quite good. You choose between the beef flat iron steak and the chef's special pasta as your main course, with the Asian buffet included. It felt like good value for a downtown lunch, and I loved that it was not crowded and had such a quiet atmosphere.

Hotel Kukdo Patio weekday lunch details

This is the Asian buffet banner outside the first floor of Hotel Kukdo. The Asian food buffet lunch costs ₩29,800 and runs on weekdays, Monday through Friday, from 11:30 to 14:00, with last orders at 13:30.

On the first floor of Hotel Kukdo, there is an Asian buffet banner in front of the escalator leading up to the second floor.

Patio Restaurant is on the second floor of Hotel Kukdo. Asian buffet + steak or pasta = ₩29,800. There was buta kakuni (braised pork), butter-grilled shrimp and abalone, grilled eel, kushikatsu, stir-fried udon, udon, oden, Japanese ramen, a seasonal item of soba or pho, futomaki, teriyaki chicken, fresh vegetable salad, fruit, Korean traditional rice cakes, two kinds of juice, coffee, iced or hot matcha, and unlimited sake. The Asian buffet offerings listed on the sign at the entrance looked promising.

Inside Hotel Kukdo Patio Restaurant. The ceiling was quite high, and the large windows gave the space an airy, open feel.

There were not many diners at Hotel Kukdo's Asian lunch buffet in Euljiro 4-ga, so it was uncrowded and quiet. The atmosphere was really nice.

Choose a main course, then enjoy the buffet

Once I was shown to my table and sat down, I had to choose between two main courses: flat iron steak (180g of Australian beef) or seafood tomato pasta, a spicy seafood tomato spaghetti with clams, shrimp, squid, and garlic. After ordering the main, I headed straight to the buffet.

The salad and drink station was on the right, while the hot Asian buffet dishes were on the left.

There was steamed rice in an electric rice cooker, along with seasoned seaweed, kimchi, gosari stems, dried radish strips, and seasoned pepper leaves as side dishes. There was no separate soup, but there were oden, soba, and udon.

The stir-fried udon was yaki udon made with thick udon noodles. There was also butter-grilled abalone and shrimp.

The buta kakuni was braised pork, and it suddenly reminded me of dongpo pork.

Teriyaki chicken. It was tender teriyaki chicken with great savory flavor.

Mulgmegi (soft-shelled black cod). It was unfamiliar, so I hesitated to try it, but the texture was remarkably tender once I did.

Kushikatsu (deep-fried skewers). There were several ingredients inside the batter, but I just picked up whichever skewers came to hand without sorting them out. The six varieties were tara (cod), jagaimo (potato), surimi (fish cake), white fish, ika (squid), and ingen (green beans).

Grilled eel. I ate lots of the soy sauce-glazed grilled eel ^^

Futomaki: thick gimbap (seaweed rice roll) packed with fried shrimp and sausage.

Salads, drinks, and sake

The salad corner. From the right were green salad, mushroom salad, grapefruit, oranges, and dango. There were also mandarin juice and apple juice, Dongseo brown-rice green tea bags, and Twinings Earl Grey tea bags.

At the coffee machine, you could choose espresso, Americano, café latte, and more.

Chilled bottled water.

At Hotel Kukdo Patio's Asian lunch buffet, sake is unlimited. It came by the glass, and the glasses were small enough to drink in one or two goes, so going back and forth for refills was a bit inconvenient and naturally kept me from drinking too much. They do not serve the sake in a carafe or large cup. Since it is lunchtime, one or two glasses of sake is probably just right anyway—no overdoing it.

The complimentary sake was SEN. It is said to have subtle grain and fruit aromas, a clean sweetness, and a refreshing finish. Its alcohol content is 13.5%.

For green tea, matcha was available both cold and hot. A notice said they use Betty Nardi organic matcha. I became curious about the Betty Nardi brand and looked it up; it is a German black tea brand.

Soba, oden, and Japanese ramen corner

For dishes with broth, there were soba, oden, udon, and Japanese instant ramen. There were no soups such as seaweed soup, yukgaejang, or sweet pumpkin soup.

Soba noodles and tsuyu dipping sauce. Soba seemed to be a seasonal menu item in summer, while pho is served in winter.

Square oden skewers. There were udon and various toppings as well. A Hangang ramen machine let you cook the Japanese instant ramen yourself. The three choices were miso ramen, shio ramen (salt), and shoyu ramen (soy sauce).

The flat iron steak was better than expected

When I returned to my table with my first buffet plate, the flat iron steak had arrived.

Since the buffet price was not high, I did not expect much from the flat iron steak. But the steak was really quite good.

The beef flat iron steak was very tender and delicious. It was so good that it was not even comparable to Outback Steakhouse. This is when you can feel the standard of hotel food. The steak alone was enough to make the buffet price worthwhile.

The food I put on my first buffet plate.

Grilled eel, butter-grilled abalone, kushikatsu, buta kakuni (braised pork), and the end piece of a futomaki roll. Everything I brought back made a great drinking snack, so I had a glass of sake. And an Americano, which is indispensable at a buffet.

The mushroom salad with small king oyster mushrooms and broccoli looked delicious, so I made mushroom salad the focus of my second buffet plate~

Mushroom salad, mulgmegi, butter-grilled shrimp and abalone, and kushikatsu. After trying the kushikatsu, I found white fish, green beans, squid, and more inside. Plus warm oden.

After the steak and two buffet plates, I debated whether to have Japanese ramen. Then I decided to, since Japanese ramen has a smaller portion than Korean ramen. Of the miso, shio, and shoyu flavors, I chose shio.

The ramen was ready in four minutes with the Hangang ramen machine: Japanese shio ramen. Four more kushikatsu, too~ For dessert, orange and dango, café latte, and hot matcha.

A good lunch choice in Euljiro 4-ga

No matter how many buffet dishes there are, you ultimately choose only a few and keep eating the foods you like. In that sense, Hotel Kukdo Patio's Asian lunch buffet was a very good choice. Rather than lots of random dishes, it had excellent options such as grilled eel, grilled abalone and shrimp, and buta kakuni. Above all, the good-quality flat iron steak made it a particularly good lunch choice in downtown Euljiro 4-ga.

Hotel Kukdo Patio's breakfast buffet runs daily from 07:00 to 09:30 and costs ₩34,000. The weekday lunch buffet runs from 11:30 to 14:00 and costs ₩29,800, with no separate children's rate. It is a three-minute walk from Euljiro 4-ga Station Exit 10, and Hotel Kukdo parking is available.