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The best Italian in Itaewon, this openplan, stylish-but-casual affair offers a wide range of pastas and wood ovenbaked pizzas. The Napoletana, diable and quatro staggione are recommended. The Hollywood Bar upstairs and the La Cigale/Montmarte Brasserie downstairs are under the same management. It’s very popular with the foreign community, so reserve a table or be prepared to wait.
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An extremely exclusive little place, hidden away up a tiny back alley, this French restaurant is run by a cordon bleu-trained chef and his wife. Decor is minimal but refined, so all attention is focused on the food. Menus are set and, unlike much haute cuisine, the portions here are as generous as the quality is high.
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Should you tire of rice, noodles and kimchi and crave some real meat-andpotatoes cookery, this small restaurant next to Gecko’s Terrace is the place. Owned and managed by an infamously doleful German chef and his Korean wife, presentation is evidently not a priority. But great attention is paid to the authentic, hearty German fare: sausages, schnitzel, steak tartare, all washed down with a great range of German beers.
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The Millennium Hilton’s flagship restaurant is often considered the most exclusive Western eatery in town. Award-winning chef Park Hyo-nam’s creations are beautifully presented modern French with a dash of fusion and he especially likes to include seasonal Korean ingredients. There are often special tasting menus available. This place is almost a home-away-from-home for Seoul’s elite Chaine de Rotisseurs gourmet dining club.
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Run by a French expat, this pretty little brasserie offers a different, reasonably priced blackboard menu every day as well as a fully laden dessert trolley. A table or two is set up on the tiny verandah outside in good weather. It turns into a wine bar in the evenings. It’s colonised by Seoul’s French community, and very small, so reservations are a must.
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