Excellent 14 course hanwoo beef omakase at Tanhwa, near Sinsa Station
Excellent 14 course hanwoo beef omakase at Tanhwa, near Sinsa Station
by lareinemauve
2 Comments
lareinemauve
I went to Tanhwa, a hanwoo beef omakase restaurant near Sinsa station that’s been open for about six months. The price is 160,000 (~120 USD) per person, not including the price of drinks. There’s a very extensive wine list, sake list, and other assorted stuff. They also have a special Tanhwa makgeolli that they created in partnership with a brewery in Yeonnamdong, which is what I got.
1. Oxhead soup with morels, rolled mandu, and abalone: rich, beefy broth while still being impressively clean. Morels work well and the abalone lends a slight taste of the ocean to the soup; the rolled mandu was filled with diced beef, mushrooms, and shrimp, but felt a bit clumsy
2. Eye of round yukhoe with caviar, uni, dressed in perilla oil: can’t go wrong with these ingredients. Very lightly dressed, although of course you don’t want to overwhelm the tastes here. The dry ice steam bullshit was dumb but I still thought it was fun
3. Buckwheat roll with minced short ribs, burdock, and cucumber: good! Short rib was pleasantly but not cloyingly sweet, and the crunch of the burdock and cucumber offset the plushness of the meat and the buckwheat wrapped nicely. The sauce was a vinegar based foam, but I felt it was a bit too sharp
4. Cappellini with olive oil, pepper sauce, and dashima, with tenderloin: really interesting stuff; tenderloin is perfectly cooked, pasta is nice and the slices of dashima add a nicely salty textural contrast. Sauce on the pasta is piquant, perhaps a bit too much so
5. Sirloin, mustard sauce, white kimchi: aggressively meaty, and the white kimchi cuts through it nicely. Not a fan of the mustard sauce; would have preferred it to be sharper but was instead a bit too sweet
Doenjang soup for a mid meal broth
6. Ribeye cap, yuzukosho, garlic and wasabi leaf muchim: fatty, juicy. Again a great sear despite the piece itself being rather thin. Accompaniments are great; really cuts through the richness of the meat
7. Chuck flap tail, salt, yuzu: I kind of hate grated yuzu zest but there wasn’t an offensive amount. Cook was perfect, and of course being chuck flap tail it retained a nice bite
8. Brisket (chadol), grilled and basted with a light soy sauce-based sauce, with steamed black woodear mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, kabocha (pyeonbaekjjim): normally the meat is steamed along with the veg, but I liked the twist; the smoky char and the caramelized sugars in the sauce accompanied the delicate flavors and textures of the steamed veg really well.
9. Ribeye gyukatsu, summer radish and wasabi, whole grain mustard, truffle in oil: one of the signatures here but just fine, I think. Cook was good but crust was a bit weak – still very crunchy but fell off the meat a bit too easily. Ignored the mustard, truffle was probably the jarred stuff (some prior reviews showed the fresh stuff being grated, but alas). The summer radish and wasabi was really excellent though; crunchy and fresh while still having that wasabi bite.
10. Yuzu sorbet, lime-shiso-chamhwe syrup: clean, refreshing. Bit too sweet for me. Good palate cleanser
11. Upjinsal, onsen egg, fried and diced shishito, sweetened soy sauce: I have no idea how to translate upjinsal into english; I think it’s probably one of the ends of the brisket. Sauce is pleasantly sweet, egg is nicely runny without being too underdone, shishito adds a textural contrast as well and a nice kick. I think the pepper would have been better grilled
A wine club was sitting next to me for a meet up and at this point one of them knocked over a glass of champagne and half of it got on me. That’s okay, there are worse things to smell like
12. Somen, mung bean sprouts, mix of basil-steeped broth usinf hanwoo sagol and pork sagol: wow, really the absolute standout of the night – mind blowing stuff. The broth was the most intense, thick bone broth that I’ve ever had, with the steeped basil adding a wonderful fragrance at the start and ending with a peppery aftertaste. I’ll be thinking about this broth for a long time
13. Melon and candied pecans (walnuts?): good
Overall, I was really impressed. I think a lot of hanwoo omakase (really, most hanwoo omakase places) are kind of scummy and low quality, and just aping the trend of omakase, but you can really tell that the chef here is someone who cares about his work and puts effort into designing the menu; the creative twists and the well thought out accompaniments to the meat really show that. (And of course I was very full after the meal, and I am not a small eater) Talked with the chef a bit after the meal; he’s very much involved in his craft and also has a passion for wine and whisky. The food and the experience was certainly worth the money and I suspect I’ll come again.
2 Comments
I went to Tanhwa, a hanwoo beef omakase restaurant near Sinsa station that’s been open for about six months. The price is 160,000 (~120 USD) per person, not including the price of drinks. There’s a very extensive wine list, sake list, and other assorted stuff. They also have a special Tanhwa makgeolli that they created in partnership with a brewery in Yeonnamdong, which is what I got.
1. Oxhead soup with morels, rolled mandu, and abalone: rich, beefy broth while still being impressively clean. Morels work well and the abalone lends a slight taste of the ocean to the soup; the rolled mandu was filled with diced beef, mushrooms, and shrimp, but felt a bit clumsy
2. Eye of round yukhoe with caviar, uni, dressed in perilla oil: can’t go wrong with these ingredients. Very lightly dressed, although of course you don’t want to overwhelm the tastes here. The dry ice steam bullshit was dumb but I still thought it was fun
3. Buckwheat roll with minced short ribs, burdock, and cucumber: good! Short rib was pleasantly but not cloyingly sweet, and the crunch of the burdock and cucumber offset the plushness of the meat and the buckwheat wrapped nicely. The sauce was a vinegar based foam, but I felt it was a bit too sharp
4. Cappellini with olive oil, pepper sauce, and dashima, with tenderloin: really interesting stuff; tenderloin is perfectly cooked, pasta is nice and the slices of dashima add a nicely salty textural contrast. Sauce on the pasta is piquant, perhaps a bit too much so
5. Sirloin, mustard sauce, white kimchi: aggressively meaty, and the white kimchi cuts through it nicely. Not a fan of the mustard sauce; would have preferred it to be sharper but was instead a bit too sweet
Doenjang soup for a mid meal broth
6. Ribeye cap, yuzukosho, garlic and wasabi leaf muchim: fatty, juicy. Again a great sear despite the piece itself being rather thin. Accompaniments are great; really cuts through the richness of the meat
7. Chuck flap tail, salt, yuzu: I kind of hate grated yuzu zest but there wasn’t an offensive amount. Cook was perfect, and of course being chuck flap tail it retained a nice bite
8. Brisket (chadol), grilled and basted with a light soy sauce-based sauce, with steamed black woodear mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, kabocha (pyeonbaekjjim): normally the meat is steamed along with the veg, but I liked the twist; the smoky char and the caramelized sugars in the sauce accompanied the delicate flavors and textures of the steamed veg really well.
9. Ribeye gyukatsu, summer radish and wasabi, whole grain mustard, truffle in oil: one of the signatures here but just fine, I think. Cook was good but crust was a bit weak – still very crunchy but fell off the meat a bit too easily. Ignored the mustard, truffle was probably the jarred stuff (some prior reviews showed the fresh stuff being grated, but alas). The summer radish and wasabi was really excellent though; crunchy and fresh while still having that wasabi bite.
10. Yuzu sorbet, lime-shiso-chamhwe syrup: clean, refreshing. Bit too sweet for me. Good palate cleanser
11. Upjinsal, onsen egg, fried and diced shishito, sweetened soy sauce: I have no idea how to translate upjinsal into english; I think it’s probably one of the ends of the brisket. Sauce is pleasantly sweet, egg is nicely runny without being too underdone, shishito adds a textural contrast as well and a nice kick. I think the pepper would have been better grilled
A wine club was sitting next to me for a meet up and at this point one of them knocked over a glass of champagne and half of it got on me. That’s okay, there are worse things to smell like
12. Somen, mung bean sprouts, mix of basil-steeped broth usinf hanwoo sagol and pork sagol: wow, really the absolute standout of the night – mind blowing stuff. The broth was the most intense, thick bone broth that I’ve ever had, with the steeped basil adding a wonderful fragrance at the start and ending with a peppery aftertaste. I’ll be thinking about this broth for a long time
13. Melon and candied pecans (walnuts?): good
Overall, I was really impressed. I think a lot of hanwoo omakase (really, most hanwoo omakase places) are kind of scummy and low quality, and just aping the trend of omakase, but you can really tell that the chef here is someone who cares about his work and puts effort into designing the menu; the creative twists and the well thought out accompaniments to the meat really show that. (And of course I was very full after the meal, and I am not a small eater) Talked with the chef a bit after the meal; he’s very much involved in his craft and also has a passion for wine and whisky. The food and the experience was certainly worth the money and I suspect I’ll come again.
A tasting menu in korea?! That’s amazing