Seoul Food | The Beastro

Dinner time with friends! In Hongdae once again, we ran to The Beastro after school. With a pun, they're off to a good start already, and they're serving up big ol' American meals. It's a pretty fancy looking place, really clean and modern in the sort of way I'd want my future kitchen to look. Warm wood tones on white walls and black metal. Simple and clean.

Similarly, the menu is pretty simple. A handful of choices in starters, sides and mains, and yet it still took us an age to decide. It reminded me of Honest Burger at home. They have a small selection, but gosh darnit do they do that selection well.

First things first, drinks. I went with the artfully named "Piss and Vinegar", and, well, it tasted like just that. I kid. It was honey and vinegar and whiskey, and reminded me a lot of the "Witches Brew" my nan used to make for me whenever I had a bad cold when I was little. Pretty tasty and good for sipping at slowly. I was pretty blown away by Nick's choice though. "Pretty in Pink" was a cutesy pastel pink affair in a martini glass, with some lovely lychee flavours. I can't quite remember what was in it, other than this incredible witchcraft jelly. The witchcraft being that there were little pockets of fizzy drink INSIDE the jelly. I don't understand how. But I want more.

Next up, the food pretty much arrived as and when it was ready (which was pretty fast to be honest, so it mostly all came out at the same time). We'd already sampled some baked cheese and some incredibly soft and tasty bread rolls (man I miss bread!), when our mac and cheese arrived. Now, aside from one incredibly generous portion a friend once made for me, I don't think I've ever really had real mac and cheese. At a table of Americans I can imagine this was a little bit like blasphemy, so I'm happy to say I really, really enjoyed this. I don't know if it's just I'm missing little luxuries like bread, cheese, and pasta, or if it's the crispy fried chicken that sat on top (?!), or just that I really need to buy an oven and some tiny metal skillets, but wow.

Hand for scale due to lack of banana

The piece de resistance was this gigantic steak. When ordering, we all decided to just share a main and side between us (for us, this was partly due to financial reasons, but it turned into a simple case of storage reasons.) and were warned that it was only meant to be a portion for one. Yeah, one GIANT. Maybe you're not meant to also have sides (?) or maybe their usual customers have much bigger stomachs, but we struggled to eat everything. It became that tragic case of "I want to keep eating, because it tastes so good, but where will it go?!". Sometimes, I think the Ancient Romans had their priorities right. Quick! To the vomitorium!

Anyway, the steak was soft like butter and full of flavour, and oh wow I've missed gravy? The roast veg actually wasn't much to my taste, but I find that's the case with veg in most restaurants for me. Hey, you try growing up with my nan's veg and then find anything else that tastes better, okay?

I'll also add that the staff's level of English is some of the best I've encountered in Korea so far, so this is probably a really great place to come if you're feeling a bit homesick, haha.

When we were just about ready to burst, we paid up, and waddled out the door. It was an incredible meal, but after so much Korean food and my own cooking, I think it was just too much. Too many carbs and fats and salts and just all the wonderful things that taste incredible but that really my body rejects when I overindulge. I actually had a food hangover the next day. I didn't think that was possible, but I can't think of any other explanation for the excruciating headache that plagued me the following day. It was probably worth it though, as a one off price to pay for that steak alone, hahahaha.