Tasting Room

Tasting Room is a creative restaurant born of an architect husband, who studied cooking on the side, and a lighting designer wife, who studied wine as a hobby. Though it has been six years since it opened, it is still a “hot” place, popular enough that bookings on weekends cannot be guaranteed. The space, which was completed by renovating a 40 year-old Cheongdam-dong residential house, has the fingerprints of its creative owners. The ceiling was built high and it boasts magnificent lighting, and the existing brickwork has been lightly painted over. The food is a blend of South American and Mediterranean home-style dishes. Dishes that bring a “witty and playful aspect on tip of the tongue” draw one’s attention. The owner, who wished to make pasta out of “Noguri” ramen noodles, instead uses twisted fusilli lunghi to replicate the look and feel of curly ramen. Instead of the more traditional round pizza, they make a square shaped pizza topped with heaps of fresh spinach. The wine selection is by no means ordinary. Rather than the more traditional European wines, the majority of the stock is cult wine from the US, more experimental and with strong characteristics. Their concept has been such a success, the owner of Tasting Room recently opened a second restaurant called “Melting Shop” near Dosan Park, scoring big yet again.