Okay, I’ve never done a restaurant review here before, or ever, but this restaurant was too good to keep hidden in my phone’s photo gallery. As we transition from one location to another, my family is staying at a local hotel until we move into our new place. After a while, eating the same old hotel food gets boring so we branch out and try different restaurants.
Since this is also our last week in Seoul we decided to explore places we previously hadn’t gotten around to. Running through the center of Seoul from East to West is the Hangang river, a river we frequently crossed during our travels and sometimes day-to-day running around. Well one day my mother noticed these floating buildings that looked really cool and she has always wanted to visit and maybe eat dinner there. Fortunately she and my father were able to go there for their wedding anniversary about a week ago. Apparently it was really nice and she wanted to take us kids there too (and by kids I mean my siblings because, pshh, I’m no kid).
Our hotel booked us a reservation at The A in Fradia and yesterday we drove on over. To clarify, this was not the same restaurant my parents dined at so we basically went in there blind, but hopeful. My final verdict would be: a little hard to find, yet totally worth it in the end.
| The Location
To reach the restaurant you have to go to the Banpo Hangang Park which is a park that stretches along the bank of the river. Like most places in Seoul you can choose to drive, take a taxi, or hop on the subway. In actuality The A is closer to the Hannam Bridge. Us being the family we are, meant that we parked at the beginning of the park and had to walk more than ten minutes to get there, when we could have asked for clear directions in the first place. Why are we like this? I don’t know 🤷🏾♀️.
| The Price* $$$
Not terribly expensive and, unlike some restaurants, the dish sizes weren’t cute but actually filling. I would definitely save a visit here for special occasions. One thing I noticed is that they tended to list dishes from lowest to highest price which I thought was convenient.
| The Service
| The Food
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| Perfectly grilled scallops topped with bacon? Yes, please! |
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| This salad boasts moist chicken and hearty salad leaves. |
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| Wonton wrapper salad bowl 👌🏾 |
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| That sauce was amazing🤩 |
I don’t consider myself a food snob and I generally enjoy everything that is placed in front of me, but there are some food on a superior level than the rest, e.g. every dish we tried at The A. Now I didn’t try everything on the menu, but my family did sample dishes from different categories and we all tried some of each other’s meals.
Collectively we had the grilled scallops and the chicken salad. One thing that I hate is when scallops and chicken are overcooked and rubbery. Neither of these dishes were anywhere near overcooked and the whole dish complemented itself from the seasoning to the toppings. There was also a lobster soup, but I forgot to take a picture of that. Oh, well!
For my personal meal I chose the Canadian Lobster with American Sauce and vegetables. At first glance it appeared to be on the small side, but I quickly realized that this was not so. By using a large plate it created the illusion of a small delicacy which I found genius. The vegetables were grilled to perfections and the zucchini and squash were filled. I am not a fan of anything from the squash family if it isn’t sweet, like pumpkin, I was, however, pleasantly surprised by them. The sauce + lobster + crust combination was delicious. Although I didn’t know when I ordered, my meal also came with a small, green salad as a starter. Unlike the typical iceberg lettuce (yuk!) this salad had kale leaves and radish sprouts. As a drink I had the Strawberry Dream mocktail, it was basically a strawberry smoothie. Would I recommend as a must try, no, not really.
