Pork dinner course in Gangseo, Seoul: Don Tamguso

As darkness begins to settle over the streets of Magok, I came looking for a place said to serve casually yet deeply reinterpreted pork dishes.

Amid the city lights, a place with the bold name of exploring pork not simply as grilled meat but as a field of study catches my eye. “Golden pig.....?”

Don Tamguso in Magok: location and first impressions

Today’s destination is Don Tamguso (돈탐구소; DON.TAM).

The dinner-course lineup is neatly written on the chalkboard by the entrance. It gets my mouth watering before I even step inside.

A delicious-looking pig welcomes us.

Let’s go in.

Window counter seats and an open kitchen

The restaurant is made up almost entirely of counter seats, and with full-height windows behind them, it feels wonderfully open. The kitchen is open too—a layout only possible with real confidence, since you can watch the cooking and check the cleanliness.

Further inside, there are restrooms and table seating as well.

Don Tamguso course menu and prices

Settling in, I open the cleanly printed menu. “The prelude to gastronomy, huh...”

The day’s course is briefly listed. Oh, and lunch is ₩26,000, while dinner is ₩58,000. This pork omakase-style course has a considerable price advantage. “Still, you never know until you eat...”

The chefs are bustling about right in front of us. They’re all handsome. (The chef asked me to write that.)

The drinks range from something light to enjoy casually, to highball and wine pairings for a slightly more substantial experience. The pairings are good value too. We decided on one highball each. They were nicely refreshing.

The seven-course dinner begins

A lavish seven stages, moving from soup to salad, lasagna, grilled mains, a chosen meal, and dessert. “It begins.”

Velouté soup and seasonal fruit salad

The first course: velouté soup. Button mushrooms, chestnuts, heavy cream, bacon (?). The moment it enters my mouth, the aromas of chestnut and mushroom spread, followed by the rich nuttiness of cream, coating the throat with something weighty yet smooth. “Mmm... so this announces the beginning...” It looked like the menu board above had not quite been updated. Still, the chef explained it from the front, so it was no big deal.

The second dish: seasonal fruit salad. Dried persimmon, apple, pear, and prosciutto came with a sauce made from persimmon vinegar and apple. Tangy, sweet, and salty. Take a generous spoonful with the foam sauce and bright flavors burst diversely in the mouth. Here and there, the texture of dried persimmon makes things fun, while the fruits’ crunch seems to dance softly in the foam. Personally, the salad was my favorite dish. Its layers of flavor came through most clearly, and since I love tangy food anyway, it had so many different lively notes and genuinely awakened my appetite. Today’s No. 1 dish.

Shiitake mushroom lasagna

The third dish: shiitake mushroom lasagna. Shiitake, white ragù, mozzarella, tomato, and house-made BBQ sauce.

Unlike regular lasagna, shiitake rather than pasta released a powerful aroma in the mouth. From its texture to its savoriness, it was lovely—a dish that felt fresh.

Shio-koji pork tenderloin

The fourth dish: shio-koji pork tenderloin. Fermented rice-malt salt, tenderloin, truffle oil, and dried tomato. Today’s No. 2. Can you see those juices spilling out? Shio-koji—fermented rice-malt salt—was what Cooking Monster used when grilling asparagus on Culinary Class Wars 2 recently. I keep some at home myself; it has wonderful umami and is remarkably versatile.

It looks dry in the photo, but this tenderloin was insanely tender. Aged with fermented rice-malt salt, its umami and aroma were so, so impressive. The altari radish pickle served alongside was perfect for cleansing the palate.

From the pink-hued meat to the shiitake garnish and dried tomato, this main was perfect right down to its accompaniments. “Excellent... pork tenderloin can be this neat and elegant...”

Peking duck-style pork belly

The fifth dish: Peking duck-style pork belly. Pork belly, minari (water dropwort) salad, Sichuan pepper, and cumin. The pork belly has the color of Peking duck. With skin attached, it seems more like five-layer pork belly.

One bite wrapped with minari. “Oh...? This place..?” I take another bite. Sure enough, I wasn’t wrong. The chewy pork belly inspired by Peking duck, eaten with Korean-style minari salad, creates bliss in the mouth that feels like a samba. I remember the chef amusingly explaining that they had happened upon it. A dish with an extremely memorable, exotic flavor.

Don Tam handmade burger and abalone risotto

The sixth dish: the Don Tam handmade burger. For the meal course, you can choose burger or risotto. I chose the burger after reading in advance that it was especially appealing.

A burger about the size of an adult woman’s palm. Burgers should be eaten with your hands. The house patty somehow felt like house-made jambon?? The crunchy carrot râpée throughout and the butter-roll-like bun gave it a slightly brunch-like feeling. This one was decent.

The risotto was abalone risotto: bangpung namul (coastal hogfennel), Wando abalone, and barley. The abalone risotto chosen by my dining partner was their No. 1 pick. Crispy fried bangpung namul, nutty barley risotto, and chewy abalone together created an explosion of flavor in the mouth. I thought the risotto was tastier too.

Coconut mochi and panna cotta

The final dish: coconut mochi and panna cotta. The chef says dessert changes day by day according to what they feel like putting out.

The aroma of coconut and a chewy mochi ball. It felt like eating an incredibly soft mochiri dofu (mochi tofu). Delicious.

Panna cotta with house-made peach compote. Perhaps because vanilla bean or vanilla essence had been added, the panna cotta tasted like Japanese egg pudding, while the peach compote was delicious without being overly sweet. It may have been the best panna cotta I’ve had recently. “Even the finish is so refreshing...”

A date-night course that makes pork elegant

Of the omakase meals I’ve had recently, this was No. 1 for value. It is an excellent course that elevates the familiar ingredient of pork through varied, original cooking. You could truly see the care the chefs put into every dish, and with so many interesting preparations and clear layers of flavor, I found myself thinking several times, “Isn’t this price far too kind...?”

The portions are neither too small nor too large—just right—so it seems like an ideal date course for couples who have not been together very long. Personally, the tenderloin and foam salad are dishes I want to eat again even as I write this post. Highball and wine pairings are not overly burdensome in price either, so if you want something that feels a little fancy while still keeping an eye on value, come straight to Don Tamguso. Recommended rating: ★★★★

A culinary laboratory for the most elegant and refined dishes pork can become