(Images from Cafe Unikon)

By Kwon Mee-yoo, Korea Times
Staff Reporter

A bistro with a yellow signboard and blue door, located in an alley near Hongik University, attracts hungry passers-by. With a sign saying “75015,” this French bistro features genuine French taste and bistro culture.

The name of the restaurant comes from the postal code of a region in Paris, France where Le Cordon Bleu is located. Le Cordon Bleu is a famed cooking school where the chef of 75015 learned the culinary art.

There are 15 kinds of dishes on 75015’s menu. Four types of galette and four selections of quiche on the “plat” (meal) menu plus three choices of crepe, tart and one of pudding in the desert section. A special desert chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream is also available.

We ordered chicken galette and salmon quiche from the meal section. Galette is a kind of buckwheat French crepe garnished with fillings and quiche is a baked dish with egg and milk filling in a pastry crust.

The chicken galette (10,500 won) was garnished with chicken breast, onion, mushroom and cream sauce on buckwheat crepe. Though the chicken breast was a little tough, it went well with the crepe and sauce. Salad, potato and garlic bread are served with the galette. Other than chicken galette, the bistro serves galettes with ingredients such as potato, ham, cheese, egg and more.

Salmon quiche (10,800 won) is a savory treat. The salmon was tasty with a touch of onion and spinach, while the crust enclosing the quiche was crunchy and the egg filling was soft and creamy. Seafood, mushroom and bacon quiche are also available.

For dessert, we chose apple crepe (7,500 won) and chocolate fondant (6,000 won) to satisfy our “sweet tooth.”

Three pieces of thin crepes were served with caramelized apple, raisins and vanilla ice cream. Unlike the galette, this crepe with sweet filling was enough for sugar craving desert lovers.

The chocolate fondant was also satisfactory. The fondant cake has a moist texture and rich chocolate flavor. Two scoops of vanilla ice cream are served with the cake.

Tart is another specialty of 75015. Pumpkin tart, blueberry tart and other seasonal fruit tarts sit in a showcase and tempt visitors to the bistro.

A variety of coffees and Mariage Freres tea’s are also available, as well as refreshing sodas and juices.

Prices for meals range from 8,500-10,800 won and deserts cost from 4,500-7,500 won. During brunch hour, or from 12-2 p.m., a cup of coffee or a piece of tart is free with an order of dishes like galette or quiche.

The restaurant is located in Hongdae (Hongik University) area, near exit 4 of Hongik University station on subway line 2. Call (02) 333-1113 for detailed information.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr

I remember going to Casa Maya (까사마야) years ago when they were in Apgujeong. Great memories of margaritas on a patio. I don’t recall the food, off-hand, but this was the only Mexican place near me, when living in Seoul (Casa Loca’s former Apgujeong location hadn’t opened by that time, nor was Dos Tacos‘ in Gangnam), so my atttitude on the food was ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. That’s not to suggest it wasn’t good, it’s just that I was happy enough to be having it. I’ll have to defer to Ines Cho’s more candid review in the Joongang, when she visited Casa Maya’s new location in Hongdae after they closed the one south of the river.

Edit: What’s with Apgujeong being kryptonite for Mexican places? First Casa Maya moves, then Casa Loca’s place in Apgu and King Taco bow out. I’m still reeling from the loss of Shwing, even though that had nothing to do with Mexican. Dos Tacos is still in that area, though. But who knows for how long.

From iivory’s blog.

From MoneyToday review.

Keeping with the steady-eddy Mexican places that are well-managed and are likely to still be around whenever you stumble across this blog post, Dos Tacos (도스타코스) deserves mention for being among the best. They started out in, what I thought at the time, was a tough location to survive in. Just down from Kyobo building near Gangnam Station. But tucked away in a side street with zero frontage on the main strip. Just only relying on a well-placed sign surrounded by other restaurant signs and hoping word-of-mouth takes care of the rest. Well, it worked, as their Gangnam location always seems busy and they’ve also gone ahead and opened locations in Apgujeong and Hongdae. Hannah Bae of Joongang Ilbo reviews better than me, so I’ll let her vouch for the place:

Whoa, gyopo overload.
That was my first thought upon walking up to Gangnam’s Dos Tacos. The couple playing ping-pong outside had been speaking English, and when I got inside the tiny, crowded restaurant, I heard an endless chatter of English.
Because I live and work north of the Han River, I don’t frequent the south, especially the area around Gangnam Station. I guess I never realized how many Korean-Americans congregated there.
But considering the high hagwon concentration in the area, it’s no wonder this is where the better-off foreigners live.
This is also probably why the food at Dos Tacos is so good. I’m willing to bet that the Gangnam crowd knows what real ― er, American-style ― Mexican food tastes like.
My friend and I managed to snag a table, which luckily vacated a minute after we sat at the bar. After giving the menu a look, we were faced with a dilemma: Holler “yeogiyo” (“Here, please!”) as if we were at a Korean restaurant, or politely make eye contact with the waitress? It’s hard to say whether American ettiquette for dining out applies in gyopo wonderland.

I’m still not quite sure which is de rigueur at Dos Tacos, but we were pressed for time so I opted for the holler. I ordered our chili fries (“Chili fries aren’t even Mexican, are they?” my friend pointed out), Cokes, a beef and avocado burrito, a chicken soft taco and a shrimp fajita ― only to be cut off by our waitress.
“This is for the two of you?” she asked in Korea, looking from me to my friend.
“Yes,” I answered. “It’s O.K.”
While I must admit I ordered more food than I normally would have for the sake of this review, I certainly hadn’t expected to be questioned about it. But I suppose that in ever weight-conscious Korea, it’s practically unheard of for petite women like my friend and me to pig out.
And did we ever.
The chili fries (7,500 won, $7.92) came first, with a healthy scoop of chili on top and hot, crispy steak fries on the bottom, salted to perfection. I didn’t care if they were “Mexican” or not ― they were good.
The fajita (5,500 won), while preassembled (the best part of fajitas, in my opinion, is putting them together yourself), was delicious. I didn’t get any shrimp in my first couple bites, but I found a substantial serving in the rest. There were some colorful grilled peppers inside, as well as a nice dose of spice. The flour tortilla, as on the taco and burrito, came nicely toasted.
The flavorful chicken in the taco (3,500 won) was marinated and came stuffed with nice, crisp greens. The beef and avocado burrito (8,000 won) was my favorite.
I miss my chipotle burritos from back home, which weigh about as much as a newborn baby. No one would mistake Dos Tacos’ burrito for an infant (that’s a good thing), but it’s certainly substantial.

With little pieces of steak in every bite, smooth, buttery avocado and more leafy greens, the burrito was the best I’ve had on this side of the Pacific. That’s saying a lot, too, considering that I have a pretty good Mexican joint, Chili Chili Taco, right by my house.
But I do have to mention the slightly messy process of paying our bill. With such low prices, I had no problem forking over the cash. But I had to ask the waitress several times for a takeout box for the excess food, which, as I learned in the end, she had misheard as “pastor.” The taco al pastor, which Dos Tacos serves, is a flat, open-face tortilla with all the fixings on top.
When I clarified what I’d actually meant at the register, the waitress let slip an expletive. And just like everyone else in the restaurant, she verbalized her thoughts in English.

From jjininimms’s blog.

From jiny00824’s blog.

Last night was my last Saturday night in Daegu, so I went out with some friends for dinner and to Billibow. Very fitting to have Galbijjim at the very first place that I tried it, in east Samdeok, near Kyungpook Hospital. This was the same restaurant that inspired the name of the site, as at that time, Galbijjim embodied my love affair of Korean food, which embodied my love affair of Korea, as a whole.

The site was going to be a community portal with a slant on food and restaurants, but it since has grown from that. Only now, after we’ve added thousands of articles, forums, job site, blogs, etc…have I began to return to the grassroots with a renewed focus on restaurants and food.

While I was in the east Samdeok area, I took the time to walk amongst the streets that I first called home upon arriving in Korea. Walking past my first hagwon, my first apartment building. Looking inside the windows of the restaurants that I used to frequent, to notice that the same mom-and-pop owners are still cooking day in and day out. Daegu doesn’t change much, for the most part, and I’m grateful for that. It always instills a sense of comfort that even in a huge, growing city of 3 million+ people, you can always come back and feel just as at home as you did 6 years ago. Seoul, on the other hand, is quite different. Last month, I walked through Apgujeong and realized that our restaurant articles for the area are outdated, as many places have closed. Sinchon, Hongdae, and Itaewon are no different. Really hard to stay on top of everything.

Daegu will always be underrated, as one can find almost all of what you would ever need as you would if in Seoul, but things don’t change at the breakneck speed of the northern metropolis.

368 is the amount of profiles I now need to write wiki profiles for, covering the areas of Itaewon, Haebangchon, Hongdae, Sinchon, and Edae. I just spent 8 hours yesterday going through places that I missed in my first sweep through Edae, Hongdae, and Sinchon, and finishing up Itaewon and Haebangchon. Big fat blister on my foot ensued, as well as chafing from pants on my inner thighs to the point of nearly bleeding. At least I can now heal my body in front of computer for awhile, uploading images and prepping content templates. But I suspect that it’s take me no less than a few months of getting all profiles written up. And will likely take the rest of the year to follow up with the owners of each establishment for them to supplement with more content and their own images. And I bet my blisters that when I do another thorough walk-thru of the areas again after coming back from Canada in a year, that 30-40% of the establishments will be closed, given the frenetic turnover rate in these areas.

One thing that I’m currently doing now and will continue to do, is SEO optimization for Galbijim and MyESLJob. An area of focus of late has been developing more content for Sinchon and Hongdae, and I’ll be in Itaewon and Haebangchon this weekend, to gather more on that area.

But for now, I’m taking a time out to see how we are ranking in certain areas:

Hongdae. (Our wiki is ranked #3 for ‘Hongdae’ on Google; #1 on Yahoo)
Hongdae bars. (#19 on Google; #5 on Yahoo)
Hongdae clubs. (#10 on Google; #1 on Yahoo)
Hongdae restaurants. (#4 on Google; #1 on Yahoo)

Of course, there are a lot more keywords that I can run for Hongdae, but this shows a good start, considering we haven’t done much serious work yet on Hongdae and have done no SEO or link-building. Same as Itaewon.

Itaewon. (#7 on Google; #2 on Yahoo)
Itaewon bars. (#5 on Google; #2 on Yahoo)
Itaewon clubs. (#7 on Google; #14 on Yahoo)
Itaewon restaurants. (#4 on Google; #7 on Yahoo)

Sinchon. (#13 on Google; #8 on Yahoo)
Sinchon bars. (#1 on Google; #2 on Yahoo)
Sinchon clubs. (#3 on Google; #5 on Yahoo)
Sinchon restaurants. (#4 on Google; #2 on Yahoo)

Haebangchon. (#6 on Google; #1 on Yahoo)
Haebangchon bars. (#2 on Google; #1 on Yahoo)
Haebangchon clubs. (#12 on Google; #2 on Yahoo)
Haebangchon restaurants. (#1 on Google; #1 on Yahoo)

Today, I went to Hongdae and covered the area. About 65 profiles and images to upload. There are still some streets closer to Seongsu Stn that I didn’t have time to get to, so I plan to go back on Sunday and finish everything there. There are also some places in Sinchon that I couldn’t find in my first wave and I also want to cover more 하숙 locations. And I need to do the East side of Edae. Once that’s all done, the whole area from Hongdae to Sinchon to Edae will be documented with over 150 profiles on restaurants, bars, DVD bangs, board game cafes, and movie theaters. If I add 하숙 and 고시원, then it could easily go over 200, but I doubt I’ll have much time for that, as I need to move on to covering other nightlife areas before heading back to Canada. I’m going to need all my free time next week to cover Itaewon, Haebangchon, and Hannam.