Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all our family and friends!

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. Nick picked out a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me and we had a dinner date at a fancy foodie's paradise. The restaurant is called Ahndamiro. We stumbled upon it one day many many months ago. It is a gorgeous (and very very good, which is surprising in Korea) Italian restaurant in Insadong, one of our favorite districts in Seoul. We got all dressed up and had a lovely time. I even went out and bought a new dress - a silver and french blue silk handkerchief dress :). We took a cab into Seoul and walked up the charming stone path that led to the restaurant's doors.


We had five courses of amazing food and enjoyed the immaculately romantic interior design. We took pictures of everything but due to the low lighting the photos are a little dark, so please bear with us. Our table was tucked into a little corner behind the amazing candlelit stairwell. The stairwell had silver butterflies attached to it and the glow from the candles bathed all the amazingly ornate flower arrangements and wrought iron details of the decor in a soft, warm light. It was really beautiful.


We ordered a bottle of wine and nibbled on fresh ciabatta bread, sunflower seed and walnut mixed grain bread, and roasted garlic bread. Then our first course was brought out. It was a delicious pea and pumpkin soup with cracked pepper. It came in these sweet little ceramic pots that kept the soup piping hot down to the last spoonful.


Next came a caprese salad with large slices of fresh tomato and pesto topped mozzarella. There were also thick slices of melon wrapped in thinly sliced proscuitto. The moist and sweet melon was perfectly paired with the salty ham. It was a great insalata.


The third course was the pasta course. We had lobster tails on top of a bed of spaghetti with a garlic tomato cream sauce. Fresh parsley and olive oil were drizzled over the plate. Each course was better than the last! The presentations were beautiful and the blending of flavors were very well done. We REALLY enjoyed the lobster, as you can see from the photo of Nick digging in, hahaha.



Then a very zesty lemon sorbet was brought out to cleanse our palettes before the carne course. Nick LOVED the tartness of the sorbet. For our main dishes, I chose a beef tenderloin with fois gras and roasted rosemary potatoes. The tenderloin was perfectly cooked, grilled to perfection on the outside and warm and pink on the inside. It was smothered in a peppercorn and currant merlot sauce with whole roasted garlic cloves and sauteed mushrooms. I couldn't have asked for a better meal! Nick was also incredibly pleased with his choice - a spiced seared salmon fillet on top of tomato risotto with capers and oven roasted tomatoes in a lemon cream sauce. We have had so much amazing food in Korea but it was nice to go back to "foodie" fare. It reminded us how much we love the fine dining culture of San Francisco and while we have loved eating in our bulgolgi houses there is something equally satisfying about a fancy several course feast.




After we soaked up the last remnants of delicious sauces from our plates our table was cleared and dessert was brought to us. Our dolce indulgence was sweet potato cheesecake with fudge and raspberry sauces adorning the plate. Nick had coffee with his cheesecake, I had black tea with cream. After filling ourselves with tasty cheesecake we sat and savored the rest of our wine as we simply enjoyed each others' company.


After our wonderful evening with each other we took the subway back home. We are very happy not only because we had such a pleasant evening but also because we do not have to go to work tomorrow! As many of you know, it is Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) and our school has a three day weekend. We are looking forward to having the extra day off to relax!


If you'd like to check out the restaurant's website, you can go here: http://www.ahndamiro.com/

It is in both Korean and English and is a truly beautiful website. It also has the restaurant's full menus and some interesting information on the interior design and creators of the restaurant. If you are ever in Seoul and want a fantastic date place, this is our recommendation!