Seoul, Korea: Sandeulhae / 산들해

Visit this locals-only restaurant, Sandeulhae, that serves hanjeongsik - a traditional Korean full-course meal consisting of so many dishes it will be sure to blow your mind.

The set up

When you walk into the restaurant, you get an immediate sense that it is a long-standing establishment within the local community. The restaurant is spacious and unassuming. Long wooden tables and sturdy benches fill the hall, and seem marked by years of serving returning customers. What stood out to me was the fact that there were no tourists around, most diners were above the age of 40. Any diner below that age came with their parents who are of that age or two decades older.

Dining at Sandeulhae seems like a family affair, or a regular practice between life-long friends.

Stumbling in as a tourist and clocking this atmosphere, I feel like I've just hit jackpot.

Another noteworthy point is the sheer number of dishes that all diners at this restaurant have ordered. Not that I was judging, in fact, I was jealous! What a beautiful feast each table had, with dishes covering every inch of the table.

We were led to a booth and sat down. The server walked off after confirming that we were a table of two and my friend set about taking out cutlery and napkins from the side drawer tucked just underneath the table. Turns out, Sanduelhae is a restaurant that does table d'hôte ('table of the host') where standard courses are served at a set price, i.e. all guests are served the same menu. This meant that all those dishes I noticed on other tables, will also be on mine! Dreamy.

Let the feast slide (literally) towards you!

Whilst I waited for my impending feast, I scanned the restaurant to try and get a better glimpse of what dinner would entail. I turned to catch a server clearing a table of empty plates. Beside him was a large steel trolley, and in one practiced movement, he slid the entire table top of dishes onto the trolley... What I witnessed is the ingenuity of this hanjeongsik restaurant.

As a table full of food - a distinct feature of this style of cuisine - would take quite some time to set up, the tables are designed in a way that it would allow a table topper to be slid on and off dining tables. This table topper finds itself first in the kitchens where it is covered with all sorts of side dishes, mains, rice and soup. Once filled, it is pushed out on a large steel trolley towards its destined diners and the entire topper is then slid expertly onto the table of waiting guests. This sliding mechanism makes serving and clearing tables a rapid one, or at least it does from a customer's perspective.

It gets better

Finally, the main star of the show - the food. Between the two of us, we were served 22 dishes, excluding the large stone pot rice we each received.

That's 24 items on a table...

The only time I've had so many food items in one sitting was at a buffet, and they definitely weren't placed so delicately in front of me. Mind-blown is a crude but accurate way to describe my shock (and pure joy). Just when I thought my dinner couldn't get any better, my friend told me in the most nonchalant manner,

"If there is any dish that you like and we run out of mid-meal, we can ask for refills - it is unlimited here..."

If this isn't every foodie's happy place, I don't know what is.

The food

Thinking about it now, it is a little hard to recall the precise flavours of various dishes because firstly there were 22, and secondly, I was so happily overwhelmed, I simply ate without much thought and with plenty of enjoyment. So here is what I recall.

Lotus root (yeongeun) side dish: crunchy and lathered in a nutty black sesame sauce, it was a refreshing starter and solid palate cleanser. I kept going back to this one. And yes, I asked a refill for this one.

Let's not miss out on the classic Korean dishes: japchae, bossam, pajeon, ganjang gejang...

• sweet and savoury glass noodles with sautéed vegetables,

• thinly sliced boiled pork belly served with spicy pickled radish,

• crispy spring onion pancakes,

• soy sauce-cured raw crab (which pairs perfectly with a scoop of hot white rice),

in that order.

There was also pan-seared fish, pickled vegetables of all sorts, freshly fire-roasted seaweed, and a couple stews too. Other than the flavours being a blur of brilliance, I do remember the meal being hearty, homey, and very very tasty.

Sandeulhae

Of the three branches of Sandeulhae south of the Han River, I visited the Banpo branch in Seocho. Sharing this address for likeminded individuals who search for local gems when they travel. Hope you pin this one on your Seoul map.