Steak and Salad Bar at VIPS

I can't seem to avoid buffet in Seoul because Koreans love the concept of all-you-can-eat so much. I had a late afternoon lunch with a girl whom I met during the summer through the Harvard-Ewha program. We wandered around for a place to eat and decided to go to VIPS, a steak and salad bar restaurant.

VIPS specializes in steak and all-you-can-eat salad bar. We ordered a steak to share and enjoyed the salad bar.

Vegetables are really expensive in Korea, so I was glad to see a wide variety of greens, cucumber, corns, tomatoes, celery, etc.

The make-your-own pho bar, bibimbop with roe egg, hot dog, and burrito. I was too busy checking out the items in the salad bar that I didn't attempt these two types of food.

The salad bar had lots of pre-made cold salad. I had way too much of that yellow sweet potato and squash salad. The squash wasn't sweet or mushy enough for my liking.

The persimmon in the persimmon salad at the bottom tasted a bit bland. It's interesting that Koreans make salad made primarily with fruits. The spicy Thai salad looked too red, almost as though they added red food coloring.

The black noodle pasta got its color from the squid ink. The pasta was mixed with shrimp and squid in creamy sauce. The pasta was slightly overcooked because it lacked a chewable texture.

The chicken lentil salad with green beans and tomatoes. When I took a bite of the green beans, the sauce oozed out into my mouth. The chicken was too dry.

This is one of my favorite menu--mango salad. I love that the mango is slightly frozen to preserve the cold taste. At other VIPS I have been to, they used way too much slices of almond or yogurt sauce, but I loved that this place minimized extra garnishment and focused on the mango.

The hot food corner had, from top to bottom, pepperoni pizza, French fries smothered in sweet honey sauce, and fried chicken. I only had a little bit of the French, which they named "Mega Crunch." It was pretty crunchy, indeed, and had a good combination of salty and sweet--just like Pretzel, except sweeter and crunchier.

The rice in the fried rice (with green peas, squids, mushroom) was slightly undercook.

The spicy mussel stew that I didn't try. The broth looked too...bubbly?

My very orange plate. Hey, at least I got some green and a little bit of black in there, too. I just hope my skin won't turn orange ;)

The alfredo pasta that was cooked to order wasn't as creamy or nauseating as other cream-sauce pasta because it was made with soy cream. I wish there had been sprinkles of basil or other spices on top for visual presentation because the pasta, as served, didn't look appealing. The sauce hardened rather quickly...that is the inevitable fate of cream-based pasta.

The smoked salmon and shrimp. I didn't eat these, but you can't really go wrong with the shrimpt (unless, of course, you serve really dry ones).

While enjoying the food from the salad bar, the waiter served us the ribeye steak, cooked medium. I like my steak rare, but the girl didn't like blood. It was served with a side of potatoes, tomatoes, and brocoli, as well as with sweet teriyaki-like sauce with pepper.

The steak had beautiful grill mark on the surface. We accidentally cut it non-linearly so the meat looked very jerky. But the visual is often conceiving! It was rather tender and juicy, probably because it had lots of fatty tissue throughout.

I really wanted to see the marbled steak before it was cooked. The steak was a bit too thin and fatty. We asked for it to be cooked medium, but it was closer to medium rare, which I liked because the meat wasn't too tough.

The fruit bar had pineapple, banana, lychee, and oranges.

The bakery/pastry dessert section with yogurt cake and brownies with walnuts.

The cheesecake was probably 1:1 cake and cheese cream. I didn't eat it. The brownie looked extremely dry and coarse.

I don't really understand why they named it the "yogurt cake." I assume it's because of the frosting? The vanilla cake was too dry, but the frosting was soft and a bit sour. The raspberry sauce on the side made the cake slightly more moist.

Frozen yogurt is the bane of my life. The plain yogurt flavor on the left was slightly sour and very refreshing, while the green tea flavor had an odd bitter aftertaste.

My friend made afogato (frozen yogurt with a shot of espresso). The combination of warm, bitter espresso and cold, sweet frozen yogurt goes really well together. We also brought peach-flavored jello with pomegranate and mango.

I love pomegranate because it reminds me of the Davis High XC team because we would always run to a pomegranate tree at a park and eat one after the run!