Dining Out: North Korean Restaurant
Yesterday was the birthday of two of my colleagues. They both decided to take all office staff out for lunch, and since one of them comes from North Korea, we went to a North Korean restaurant, which I think is called Pyongyang, but I’m not entirely sure.
The restaurant, which is located in Gandaria area, was not very impressive in terms of atmosphere. It looked very much like a normal residence, only with many dining tables. It was quite interesting (and odd) to see that they actually recruited or brought waitresses all the way from North Korea (or so it seems, from their appearance and the language in which they spoke with my colleague). They did not speak English (or so it seems, because whenever my friends and I spoke in English to them, they did not react), but to my surprise they did speak some Indonesian. The male waiters, however, were all Indonesian (which somehow added to the oddness).
In terms of food… well it was not bad although I wouldn’t go there again. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Korean food (although before this dining experience I only tasted South Korean food), but I found that there just wasn’t anything particularly special that would make me come back for more. At least not to this restaurant, because if I wanted to have some Korean food, there are plenty other Korean restaurants in areas closer to the office or home, which I may add, has much better atmosphere. Pictured here are the food served: some fried vegetables (similar to tempura), stir-fried bean sprouts, tofu in chilli sauce, kimchi, deep fried calamari (which someone claimed to be chicken and I therefore took one and instantly regretted it), and some unidentified gum-like sweets that tasted similar like mochi (an Indonesian snack made of corn-flour and will usually have sweet beans in it).