A Delicious Affair: Il Cipriani Bistro

Mom and I had to go to Seoul again today for a doctor's appointment. We took the 8:30 bus to Seoul and arrived in exactly 3 hours. The actual stay at the doctor's office was about 5 minutes, yet we had to make a 6-hour round trip...We had originally planned on staying at grandma's house for the night, but decided against it because we didn't want to leave Dad home alone for the weekend.

We ran some errands, which made the trip more meaningful. We had a late lunch at a pretty fancy Italian restaurant called Il Cipriani. The restaurant was located on the top floor of Hyundai Departmnet Store, an upscale store in a rich neighborhood called Apgu. Because it's extremely expensive to rent a space in his neighborhood, especially on the top floor of the department store, it is safe to assume that all the restaurants here are delicious, albeit not so friendly on the wallet.

Even though we arrived around 2 p.m., a bit late for lunch, we still had to wait about 30 minutes to be seated. After the waiter led us to our seats, we chose two different course menus. I was really craving risotto, so I went with Course A, which came with it a salad, a choice of pasta or risotto, and a drink for about $25. Mom chose Course B, which was a cup of cream soup, salad, pasta, steak or chicken, drink, and dessert ($30).

A bowl of warm, toasted bread and some sweet potato and regular potato was served before the meal. One of the main reasons I like Italian restaurant is the delicious bread it serves before the main meal. Sure, I often become full before the entree, but bread is so good!

The salad was...okay. Actually, I had to ask the server to take this plate back to the kitchen and bring me another plate without the dressing. The chef must have poured a whole cup of dressing on the first plate because it was extremely salty and oily. The second plate, sans dressing, was much better because I could actually taste the bitterness of the green without it being covered by the oily dressing.

This was the "pasta" portion of Mom's lunch. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and the olive oil sauce was neither greasy nor oily, just perfect savory taste. It was seasoned with garlic to add the savoriness.

My amazingly delicious Tomato Scallop Risotto! The rice melted in my mouth and it wasn't nauseating (like all the other creamy risottos I have had before), probably because it had some chili peppers in it. Nom nom nom :)


Mom ordered the steak rare, just the way I like it! I'm not a fan of steak, but I had a bite of this one and it was quite delicious. I especially enjoyed the grilled eggplant.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but it was some grapes, pineapple, and sweet pumpkin pie. Overall, the food was pricey ($55+ for two people), but worth it considering the taste.

We stopped by Grandma's house to pick up some stuff and then took the 4:25 bus to Andong. We had originally bought tickets for the 5 p.m. bus, but barely got on the earlier one because there were just 2 extra seats. What a lucky day. Haha :)