Gomawo Korean Grill & Restaurant

 

Another new diner recently opened at Pantai Indah Kapuk and I was quite excited waiting it to open for public since the day I saw the signage "Korean grill & restaurant". Why? well, two things mainly. First, Hubs & I love Korean food, and most of the times we were too lazy to drive to South where most of the Korean diners located. Second, I am pretty sick of the one common thing easily spot on bunch of the new eateries at PIK, diners with "cafe" type of food where the owners seem to care more on the design concept than the food itself. Sounds familiar?

So, last night we went for dinner at Gomawo. Thursday at almost 9pm, and the place was full house. Promising or just a typical thing for a recently opened restaurant?

I like how they put line of display menu in the mirror cabinet in front of the waiting seats. Dummy one, of course, but good enough to make me drool a bit. 

Outdoor area

As we stepped inside, I was surprised to see the place was not as spacious as I thought it would be from the outside. The place was surely different from most of the authentic Korean diners at South. This one gives you all the modern vibes the moment you walk in with the loud K-pop music played and no tatami seating. The place was clean, with natural brick walls and Korean paintings on one of the side wall. 

We looked at the menu, and my eyes directly went to the word Bulgogi, unfortunately they were ran out of it. So, these what we ordered, Hang jeong sal (pork cheek) 80k, Gochujang samgyeopsal (pork belly marinated in red pepper sauce) 80k, Dolsot bibimbab (53k) with additional octopus (12k), Ojing oh bokkum (stir fried spicy squid) 65k, and a plate of Japchae (88k).

The banchan was disappointing. 7 plates of very small portions, I understand that they were refillable, and we can always ask for more, but as an appetizer, I expect something that can drool me up like what the dummy menu displays did. Luckily, the rest of the entree were good enough to satisfy us.

Oh by the way, have you look at the grill they use on the picture above? Quite fancy huh? I love it when the whisked eggs are poured into the hot buttered pan, and it slowly sizzling into these soft cooked eggs. We actually can opt to have the meat grilled in the table or in their kitchen if we want to avoid the hot smoke, but personally we like to see the raw meats slowly turned brownish while we wait impatiently, so we opted to have it grilled in front of us.

The Japchae came in generous toppings, love the springiness but a bit lack of seasoning. The same goes to the bibimbab, we both felt it was a bit bland, though I appreciate the fact they were being generous on the toppings. The pork cheek and spicy squid were good! Tender and perfect seasoning. But our favorite of the night went to the super tender pork belly. Love it! Super delicious, tender and juicy.

Soft scrambled eggs

Pork belly in red pepper sauce

Pork Cheek

Stir Spicy Squid

Dolsot bibimbab

Jap Chae

The service was flawless, seeing how they were still on the soft opening stage but the waiter who served our table that night surely well trained, and I love the freshness of their super tender meats. Though personally, I still prefer the authentic one at South, but we had a good dinner last night and I thank Gomawo to open at PIK, to add a good variety of food choices in the neighborhood and not just some pretty fancy diner. 

Btw, do you know Gomawo is one way of saying thank you in Korean? Is it right if I say, gomawo, Gomawo? *errr... well u know what I mean. 

Signing off...

Gomawo Korean Grill & Restaurant  

Rukan Crown Golf Blok B No. 32a - 33 

Pantai Indah Kapuk

North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 29525757

Opening hours: 6pm - 11.30pm