Mad for Garlic is an Italian restaurant chain in Korea, that (as you might probably have told already) specializes in garlic-related dishes. Their pastas, pizzas, salads, risottos all have some variation of garlic which might seem repelling at first, but is surprisingly super delicious and not at all strong or overbearing in scent. It's not ridiculously expensive, but it's not on the cheap side either. I had a coupon to use, and three special occasions coming up: my aunt's birthday on the 9th, mom's birthday on the 13th, and brother's birthday on the 17th. I told them I'd just take them all out to one big lunch since the dates were so close to each other.
We went to the one in Gwanghuamun which is closest to where I live. I had made a reservation for 4 the day before, but it turned out to be unnecessary since there weren't a lot of people on Friday even though it was a holiday.
Not sure if you can notice, but there are cloves of garlic lined up across the ceiling. Cute.
Jumping right into the food:
For starters we ordered the seafood salad, which really had a lot of seafood. It was a combination I hadn't really tried before; I usually order my salads with chicken or something meaty. I noticed tiny squids still intact in form and looking depressingly cute... I felt sorry for a millisecond before devouring the salad. We were all quite hungry since we hadn't eaten breakfast, and the salad, along with every other menu we ordered, was cleared off within minutes.
The Garlic Snowing Pizza was seriously good. The toppings include baked garlic chips, shrimp, pineapple, and cheese that the waiter shreds for you on the spot. It was sweet and savory and garlicky and just pure goodness. But it was also very thin and not filling enough.
"Dancing Salsa Rice with Beef." This is basically just fried rice and beef, with some vegetables and eggs and a slightly spicy sauce. In my opinion, it could have used some more flavoring, but my mom and aunt were busy praising how this place didn't make their foods too spicy and salty and all that. So I kept my mouth shut. It wasn't my favorite, but I tucked away a large portion anyway because no meal is complete without rice. It's just the Korean in me.
"Garlic Carbonara." I thought the pasta and sauce didn't mix together very well; it generally tasted very floury. The sauce itself was good, although it obviously isn't like what carbonara is supposed to be like.
"Spicy Chicken Steak Ssam." Ssam in Korean means "wrap" which is what that puffy bread thingy (feels like tortilla/naan) was for. You rip off a piece, fill it with some chicken and veggies and garlic/onion sauce, and munch away. The chicken tasted a lot like tandoori chicken, and the rest of the veggies were seasoned quite nicely. However, we were four people, and after one chicken piece there was nothing left.
The portions in general were not that big, and although we'd ordered more than average we still felt like we could eat more. So we ordered another pizza. :D
"Pumpkin Spicy Cream Pizza." Definitely not what you would expect to see on a pizza, but it was alright. I like sweet pumpkin regardless of what it's on. It helps if you just don't think of it as pizza; just some new dish you've never heard of. Then it's easier to accept the taste as it is.
And then of course, you need to leave room for dessert. "White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake." Very sweet, nothing special. All together, including dessert, 4 cups of black coffee and three glasses of beer, the bill came out to 165,000. Which was a little more than I had originally intended to spend, but then we did end up ordering quite a lot of food. Anyway, my favorite was the garlic snowing pizza. I'd definitely come back for that one. >_<
We went to the one in Gwanghuamun which is closest to where I live. I had made a reservation for 4 the day before, but it turned out to be unnecessary since there weren't a lot of people on Friday even though it was a holiday.
Not sure if you can notice, but there are cloves of garlic lined up across the ceiling. Cute.
Jumping right into the food:
For starters we ordered the seafood salad, which really had a lot of seafood. It was a combination I hadn't really tried before; I usually order my salads with chicken or something meaty. I noticed tiny squids still intact in form and looking depressingly cute... I felt sorry for a millisecond before devouring the salad. We were all quite hungry since we hadn't eaten breakfast, and the salad, along with every other menu we ordered, was cleared off within minutes.
The Garlic Snowing Pizza was seriously good. The toppings include baked garlic chips, shrimp, pineapple, and cheese that the waiter shreds for you on the spot. It was sweet and savory and garlicky and just pure goodness. But it was also very thin and not filling enough.
"Dancing Salsa Rice with Beef." This is basically just fried rice and beef, with some vegetables and eggs and a slightly spicy sauce. In my opinion, it could have used some more flavoring, but my mom and aunt were busy praising how this place didn't make their foods too spicy and salty and all that. So I kept my mouth shut. It wasn't my favorite, but I tucked away a large portion anyway because no meal is complete without rice. It's just the Korean in me.
"Garlic Carbonara." I thought the pasta and sauce didn't mix together very well; it generally tasted very floury. The sauce itself was good, although it obviously isn't like what carbonara is supposed to be like.
"Spicy Chicken Steak Ssam." Ssam in Korean means "wrap" which is what that puffy bread thingy (feels like tortilla/naan) was for. You rip off a piece, fill it with some chicken and veggies and garlic/onion sauce, and munch away. The chicken tasted a lot like tandoori chicken, and the rest of the veggies were seasoned quite nicely. However, we were four people, and after one chicken piece there was nothing left.
The portions in general were not that big, and although we'd ordered more than average we still felt like we could eat more. So we ordered another pizza. :D
"Pumpkin Spicy Cream Pizza." Definitely not what you would expect to see on a pizza, but it was alright. I like sweet pumpkin regardless of what it's on. It helps if you just don't think of it as pizza; just some new dish you've never heard of. Then it's easier to accept the taste as it is.
And then of course, you need to leave room for dessert. "White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake." Very sweet, nothing special. All together, including dessert, 4 cups of black coffee and three glasses of beer, the bill came out to 165,000. Which was a little more than I had originally intended to spend, but then we did end up ordering quite a lot of food. Anyway, my favorite was the garlic snowing pizza. I'd definitely come back for that one. >_<
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