Pan Out in Hoehyeon (Near Myeongdong Station)
Yesterday, B and I both managed to work through lunch and ended up very hungry at an awkward time. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to avoid both the lunch and dinner crowds and try a place out near Myeongdong. Pan Out was featured in a couple of magazines in the winter, but given my working hours this year and how not interested I was in rushing out to one of the most crowded areas of Seoul during the weekend, I hadn’t gotten around to checking it out yet.
What piqued my interest in Pan Out was that they seemed to offer a unique kind of fusion food — Korean ingredients served up in Western dishes, and slightly foreignized versions of Korean classics. That’s not exactly what was on offer, but they do make heavy use of samgyeopsal (pork belly), which I am always down with. The interior is nice and dimly lit, so I can imagine it’s a popular choice for a bite to eat and a few drinks in the evenings, although it was completely empty when we were there (which was the point of us going at the time we did, to be honest).
The dishes are a bit pricey for the amount of food you get, but they have some interesting options. We waffled over trying the BBQ plate, but ultimately decided to go with some other options. I wish we had trusted our guts and gone with the barbecue, though, which I’ll get into in more detail below. Instead, we ordered the chili pulled pork sandwich, the pork belly quesadilla and the mushroom cheese fries (out of curiosity).
The bread on the sandwich was much softer than it looked, which actually worked well to keep things from getting too messy. The sauce had a nice balance to it — not too sweet, and not smothered on too thick — just enough to give the sandwich a nice kick. The meat, though, was really surprising. Being from Texas, I know the siren song of well smoked meat when I hear it, and that was what we had here. I didn’t expect actual pulled pork, and to be fair, it wasn’t pulled in the way you may be used to. It wasn’t that lovely stringy pulled apart mess they serve back home — it was sliced, which is fair enough I guess, because I’ve heard Koreans (and people from other countries) complain about the stringy texture of pulled pork before. But while the texture may have been off, the flavor was dead on.
Next up was the pork belly quesadilla. Now, if you’re thinking what I though when I first saw that bowl of sour cream, you’re right. I don’t know what it is with Koreans and sour cream. I don’t know a single foreigner who doesn’t recoil when something that appears to be sour cream is brought to a table in Seoul. We’ve all been fooled too many times before. You know what I’m talking about — that big mound of cheesy nachos, topped with a visually deceptive dollop of sweet whipped cream.
This was at least not sweet. If I was forced to venture a guess, I’d say it was unsweetened whipped cream and vinegar. I tasted it with my fork first, obviously, having been down this road too many times before, and tried to discreetly motion to B not to dip his quesadilla in it, but he missed the cue and, for what it’s worth, continued to happily smother it on his food for the duration of the meal.
That having been said, the quesadilla was in every other way a real quesadilla (and I’m from Texas, so you can trust me on this one). The meat, again, had that lovely smoky flavor, the tortilla was grilled evenly and the rest of the fillings were well balanced.
Finally, the mushroom cheese fries — what it says on the label, basically. They weren’t the gluttony that other topped fries in Seoul tend to be, which is nice, depending on how you look at it. Definitely mushroomy, definitely cheesy. They were alright.
What was really nice about this place is that they had two Paulaner beers on offer, which, having just returned from Germany, I found nice. I ordered a Paulaner Salvator, which is an unfiltered Doppelbock. I haven’t seen it anywhere else in Seoul, but then again, I haven’t been looking (Berlin and Prague served as somewhat of a beerpiphany for me — I really only got crazy about Belgian beers before).
All in all, I wish we had ordered the BBQ plate, because the best part about this meal was by far the meat. We may even get back over there to give it a try. If you make it out there and try it first, be sure to let me know how it is.
Pan Out
서울 중구 소공로 38-12
Sogongro 38-12, Junggu, Seoul
Monday-Sunday 10am-10pm
