Got recommended a neighbourhood café and wine bar called @snug.bne by @aneeshasaty. They now serve dinner, so I was keen to try it out.
We started with oysters, solid, followed by salted honey bread with garlic butter, topped with the last truffle of the season. The butter stole the show and complemented the bread’s gentle sweetness.
Next up, the yukhoe beef tartare with gochujang, crowned with an egg yolk and sesame. Probably the best tartare I’ve had: a proper flavour bomb with a lovely kick that never overwhelms.
My wife was with me, so I behaved and ordered some greens: oi peppers, baby cucumber, pinenut, gochugaru. A cool, green crunch of sweet, grassy peppers and chilled cucumber, lifted by fruity, gentle gochugaru heat and rounded with a buttery pinenut finish.
For mains, we took the waiter’s recommendation. The spanner crab dup-bap with salmon roe and burdock root was beautiful and full of flavour. The show-stopper, though, was the pork jowl with red pepper relish, marinated for two days. Phenomenal flavour; it melted in the mouth. I’d order it again in a heartbeat.
The staff were warm and proud of their work. It’s clear they care about what they serve, and I can’t wait to return.