Songdo International Western Restaurant

A Famous Restaurant Imbued with the Reminiscence and Nostalgia of Koreans

For Koreans in the 1970s and 1980s, port cutlet was the most luxurious outdoor dining menu. Eating pork cutlet using knives at a western-style restaurant was a symbol of wealth. The sense of happiness brought when putting a mouthful of soft meat seasoned with sweet sauces was beyond expression. In those days, people visited Western restaurants only on special occasions such as for graduation ceremonies or birthdays. ‘Songdo International Western Restaurant (Songdo Gukje Gyeonyangsik)’ carries on this special Korean reminiscence and nostalgia.

Writer Lee Hyun-joo Photographer Jeong Dong-myeon

Holding fast to a 40-year tradition

The restaurant’s owner Choi Dong-shin began to learn about Western cooking in 1972. He learned how to make hamburgers, sandwiches, and pies under the cooks of an officers’ restaurant on the US military base. Choi’s 17-year-old body is now 58 and he carries with him 35 years of experience in Western cooking, yet still refuses to call himself a ‘chef’.

“A chef is someone who takes care of many aspects of a restaurant, from its interior design to sales and the health of its employees. But I only think about cooking. Nowadays, no one hesitates to add the title chef to a young cook. It is incorrect in some respect,” says Choi. For himself, he says that he is satisfied handling the whole cooking process, from the baking bread to plating the dishes.

The main menu at this restaurant features tenderloin steak and pork cutlet. For the pork cutlet, he never uses frozen meat, only first-grade chilled meat. Instead of typical base seasoning, it is seasoned with seasoned bread crumbs he developed. Pork cutlet eaten with fluffy hot-rolls and a soup made from meat broth produced by his recipe give it a distinct taste.

As I cut the tenderloin steak and put it into my mouth, the juice of moist lean beef fills up my mouth. The secret to keeping it moist, a feeling hardly encountered at large steakhouses, is not using the oven. The ‘onion sauce’ topped on the tenderloin steak is the secret sauce developed by Choi.

“Preventing the loss of water is the key to Western cooking. For steak dishes, we do not use the oven, which dehydrates the meat. We roast it in a frying pan throughout the whole process.”

Turning the clock back to analog in the digital era.

“Our restaurant is sought out by three generations. Grandfathers, fathers, and grandchildren all come, no one forgetting fond memories. If we changed our taste to a more sophisticated manner, it is the same as taking away their most precious memories. We are not going to look away, and will win the heart of customers with the same taste.” The owner’s wife Yeong-Ju Gang expresses her wish to preserve the restaurant as one that sells memories.

When raw ingredients are delivered to the restaurant, they are all processed in the kitchen into final dishes ready to be served to customer tables. Mincing and pounding meat are all strictly done without using machines. From bread crumbs to pickled radishes, all basic items are produced at the restaurant itself. Although their dishes do not offer the overbearing tastes inside the mouth of most dishes today, they pursue subtly permeating tastes. As if proving the renown of a restaurant sought out by three generations, Chang-Yeong Choi, the son of the onwer Choi, has been instructed in the secrets of his father so as to follow in his footsteps after studying hotel management at university. In winters that make you long for white snow, there is a place in Songdo, where you can share warm soups and soft bread with someone to reminisce.