Real mixed greens and warm smiles at Indigo
Indigo’s mozzarella pesto sandwich.
And to run the risk of writing this restaurant review into ’90s pop culture oblivion, I just have to throw in one more reference: Indigo really is the place “where everybody knows your name.”
At least, that holds true when owner Steve Kang or his wife Cho Yung-soo are around. In the multiple times that I’ve visited the Haebangchon eatery, the two restaurateurs have called just about every customer by name. And I guess they know mine now.
Located right in the middle of the busy main street of Haebangchon, the foreign neighborhood just adjacent to Itaewon and the Yongsan Army Garrison, Kang struck gold in terms of location.
Housed in the same building as The Orange Tree, another Kang-owned hangout (he also owns the new Yellow Submarine, a sandwich shop about a 10-minute walk away), and within a stone’s throw of Phillies, Indigo is a landmark for the neighborhood’s residents. A quick search of online apartment ads for Seoul yields a number that use Indigo as a landmark for their location.
Cajun chicken burrito
I wasn’t especially hungry when I stopped in for dinner around 10:30 p.m., but the mille-feuilles for 12,000 won ($13) caught my eye as I was browsing the menu. While a “mille-feuille” is typically a cream-filled puff pastry, its description on the menu is far from being anything of the sort. But it doesn’t really matter, because it wasn’t the name of the dish but its promise of pork seasoned with thyme and white wine accompanied by tomato and brie that suddenly made me up for a second dinner.
Surprisingly, for such a small restaurant, its presentatation was quite attractive as it arrived on a bed of colorful mixed greens ― yes, real mixed greens, not just some shredded iceberg lettuce ― coated in a deliciously tangy lemon vinaigrette of sorts. In fact, my dining companion, who had her own plate of Indigo’s mozzarella bruschetta in front of her, couldn’t stop nibbling on my salad.
Although the slices of pork comprising the main portion of the dish aren’t particularly thick, not a single square millimeter of it even hinted at dryness. This could be attributed to the loads of sauce that drench the pork, but the combination of white wine, mixed pepper and parsley butter was actually quite delicious as it blended nicely with the tart tomato and slightly salty brie. I cleaned my plate.
The bruschetta, like the mille- feuilles, is also atypical. I’m used to getting a small bowl of cold, pico di gallo-textured condiment on thin slices of crisply toasted bread. But Indigo’s bruschetta is much heavier: On three thick, warm slices of baguette come a mix of chopped olives, tomatoes, onions and garlic coated with a melted layer of mozzarella. It’s not what I expected, but admittedly tasty. But now I’m going to have to show my friend, who is Korean, what real bruschetta is like. Although the menu lists the bruschetta for 6,000 won, the staff member ringing us up insisted it was 5,000 won.
Other dishes that drew high recommendations from nearby diners were the Cajun chicken burrito, which comes with a bit of salsa and a small pot of sour cream and guacamole; the pan-fried chicken with gorgonzola and the smoked salmon starter, which comes with cream cheese and raspberry sauce.
Mozzarella bruschetta. By Hannah Bae
In fact, Indigo’s food, for the most part, is better when eaten in-house. After all, who likes a barely warm bagel? When I got the mozzarella pesto sandwich (7,500 won) to go, after sitting in a bag for a half-hour commute, the olive oil had already soaked through the paper, leaving me with a rather messy ― but delicious ― lunch.
Listed under the “special bread” section of the lunch menu, the sandwich comes on a wheat bun that has a sprinkling of nutty seeds in its dough. Combined with a healthy helping of warm pesto, melted shredded mozzarella, a bit of tomato and white-meat pieces of chicken, the sandwich far outshines those you could get for cheaper at a chain like Joe’s Sandwich and Coffee. But this sandwich is not for light eaters. After gobbling it down around 2 p.m., I had to practically force down my dinner at 7 p.m., when my stomach is usually eating itself from hunger.
About a year after opening, Indigo is set to refresh its menu next week with a new chef.
Kang says customers should expect 70 percent of the menu to change with new Eastern European-style offerings such as meat pie.
Sounds like Indigo is due for a bit of refreshing. Most customers are regulars who have sampled about everything on the menu, including the expansive wine selection.
But some things will no doubt stay the same, namely the friendly atmosphere Kang and his wife create with their warm smiles.
Indigo
English: Spoken
Tel: (02) 749-0508
Address: 46 Yongsan-dong 2-ga
Subway: Noksapyeong Station, line No. 6, exit 2
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, 10 a.m. to midnight on weekends. Kitchen closes at 11 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Dress: Come as you are
By Hannah Bae Contributing Writer [hannahbae@gmail.com]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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