Asiana A359 to Seoul: Bibimbap, Cocktails at Zest, and Nest Hotel Incheon

[yflyer]

My hotel was the Aloft Seoul Gangnam, a business/value hotel which was part of the Marriott Bonvoy group.



The hotel was 1km away from COEX mall in Gangnam, which was a pleasant 15-20 min walk. It was close to bus and subway stations so it was easy to get around from there. All you needed was a T-Money transport stored value card, which could be used for subway/buses etc.

One quirk of map apps in Seoul was that Google Maps could only provide public transport routes and directions, not driving or walking instructions. For those, you had to use Naver or Kakao Maps. I used mainly Google Maps to get around by subway and bus, but Uber was fairly inexpensive by Singapore standards, to if you needed to get somewhere by car, Uber was a reasonable option.

The Aloft brand was marketed as "A Vision of W Hotels"...



...and you could see that in the quirky and colourful interior design, which did remind me of W properties...



The check-in area...



My room was on the 11th floor...



This was a fairly compact room, but nicely styled, and very airy, clean and new.



Small work top, luggage rack and bench...



Minibar and complimentary Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee...



Bathrobe and slippers...



Frosted glass walls between the bedroom and bathroom...



Elegant bathroom with shower stall...



Washlet-equipped WC.



Overall this was a very comfortable and convenient place to stay in Seoul!

[yflyer]

My room was not ready for check-in when I arrived in the early morning, so I left my bags at the reception, changed into PT kit and went out for a long morning run along the Han River.



This was a beautiful, warm, Sunday morning, a great time to be walking or cycling along the river.



Looking towards the east, I spied a tall building in the distance. What was that?



Google told me that this was the Lotte World Tower, at 555m and 123 stories tall. When it opened in 2017, it was the 5th tallest building in the world.

Interesting. Rather than head east, though, I turned towards the west and headed along the river in that direction.



There were great views to be had along the way...



There were many folks up and about this morning...



Dongpo Bridge, one of the many bridges across the Han River, which had an average width of about 1km when it traversed Seoul...

[yflyer]

In the distance Namsan (Literally South Mountain), with N Seoul Tower....



I reached Banpo Bridge, at the 8km mark of my run, then ran about 1km across the Han River on the lower deck of this double decker bridge, then back across again, to make it a total of 10km.



This was a very pleasant route along the Han River. Starting at the Aloft Gangnam Seoul, it was a very pleasant 8km along the path/track along the Han River, to the Banpo Bridge, with an additional 2km added on across the Han River and back again to make it 10km, ending at Banpo Hangang Park.



From there it was a pleasant walk, mainly underground, through an underground shopping mall, to the Express Bus Terminal / Train station.



Inside the underground shopping mall, on the way to the subway station, I walked into the first hole-in-the wall Korean eatery I could find and ordered a bowl of cold, spicy noodles.

I have no idea what this dish is called, I just smiled and pointed at a picture of the dish on the wall.



This was my first meal since getting off the plane, and it really hit the spot!

[yflyer]

From the Express Bus Terminal, I caught the subway to Bongeunsa station and walked over to COEX mall, in the heart of Gangnam.



The famous Gangnam Style sculpture was still a popular photo spot, with tourists all assuming the appropriate pose for their photo.



There was actually a line of people waiting for their turn at this iconic spot...



From there, it was a short walk back to Aloft.

[yflyer]

That evening, I took a walk from the Aloft to Cheongdam...



...to sample the cocktails at Zest, one of the top-rated cocktail bars in Seoul.



The place was packed, with a great vibe inside...



...and super friendly staff...



The cocktails were nothing short of amazing.



I am a cocktail aficionado, and have visited many great bars. I have rarely experienced that combination of wonderful ambience, great staff, and superbly mixed drinks that I did at Zest.



I enjoyed myself so much there that I returned a total of 3 times during the week.



A popular cocktail there was the Custard Sour...



This was made with roasted pistachio and Hojicha Rum, Cognac, Lemon, Apricot and Custard...simply delicious!

The food/snack offerings there were impressive too...



Reservations were essential if you wanted a seat at the bar, or at a table. Every evening I was there, there were lines at the door, and folks waiting to get in.

That said, if you were prepared to stand, there were a few standing spots inside where you could also order drinks, and what's that I did.

A wonderful bar which I would want to return to over and over again.

[yflyer]

Another bar I visited on this trip was Alice...



This place had an Alice-in-Wonderland feel to it...



...and an illustrious history of award-winning bartenders...



The vibe inside was dark and intimate...



...with a cocktail menu that led one down a rabbit hole full of unexpected surprises...



Clearly the team here saw themselves as taking mixology and cocktails right to the limit...



Their take on the martini, the Bordeaux Martini, was unlike any other martini I had ever ordered...



What an experience!



I found it all a little overwhelming, and a bit out of my comfort zone.

Worth a try to experience and decide for yourself!

[yflyer]

One of the lunches I had during the week was at Gowooga, in the basement of the Gangnam Finance Centre Building, which was next to Yeoksam subway station.



This retaurant served Korean cuisine with a modern twist. They had lunch and dinner sets which were remarkably fine, and beaufifully presented.

Truffle cream soup...



Raw scallop...



Noodles...



Beef set, with seaweed soup and rice.



The beef was quite delicious...



Petit fours...



The food here was absolutely delicious. The set I had was the simpler/shorter course. There were more elaborate lunch and dinner sets available with additional courses, and those looked really appetising.

[yflyer]

I had a wonderful dinner at another Korean restaurant, Hanwoori, but that was a formal business dinner so it was not appropriate to take photos. Both Hanwoori and Gowooga were restaurants that I would head to again for meals if the opportunity arose.

[yflyer]

I was in Seoul for a business trip, but on one of the days I found myself in a popular tourist area, in an office building overlooking Gyeongbokgung Palace, built in 1395 during the Joseon Dynasty.



A popular attraction at the palace was the daily re-enactment of the Royal Guard Changing Ceremony, which just happened to be taking place while I was gazing out of the full length office windows.



Later after my meetings were done, I headed for lunch at the famous Tosokchon Samgyetang (Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup) restaurant, which was just 750m away from the office building.

The queues at Tosokchon during lunch hour were really long. The pic below shows the queue at about 12.15pm.



That was a picture I snapped as I left the restaurant after eating. When I went into the restaurant at 11.20am, there was hardly any queue at the entrance.

Inside, the staff led you to one of many dining rooms inside the sprawling restaurant.



Some rooms had traditional Korean-style seating...



...while other dining rooms had conventional Western-style tables and chairs.

Several styles of Samgyetang were available, with either white or black chickens.



I opted for the black chicken soup, which came with a shot of Ginseng liquor.



The black chicken soup soon arrived piping hot...



Delicious. The chicken was stuffed with glutinous rice...



While there were many places where one could get a satisfying bowl of samgyetang in Seoul, I would have to say that Tosokchon's version had great taste, and an intensely flavourful broth, that was hard to beat.



You could also pick up a bottle of their Ginseng Liquor to take home for KRW15,000 a bottle (About SGD15).



Just remember to go early to avoid the queues!

[yflyer]

My niece and her husband just happened to be on holiday in Seoul that week. We arranged to meet for dinner at Doseulbak, a small but popular restaurant in the Apgujeong ward of Gangnam. Apgujeong was a popular shopping and dining area, with many streets full of upscale boutiques and restaurants.



A welcome drink as part of our set...



Canapes...



Dakgomtang (Chicken Broth) set, which came with different cuts of chicken to be cooked in a rich broth...



Very satisfying...



The set also came with grilled chicken neck, sweet & spicy pork, grilled eel, and Korean beef tartar...



I especially enjoyed the beef tartar...



The chicken-flavoured plain deserved special mention as well...



Dessert was Bavarois pudding...



There was also a very tasty and well conceived 3 glass flight of different Korean wines/spirits: First, takju,a cloudy wine (i.e Makgeolli), then hakju, a clear wine, and finally a distilled spirit, such as Gamjasul.



This restaurant was excellent. I asked my nephew-in-law how they managed to find this restaurant, and he said they used the Catchtable app, whose reviews and ratings had been quite reliable for them on their holiday.

[9V-SIA]

Very nice TR.
Is Kantin worth trying?
Aseana use to have the most legroom in Y. Still the case?

[yflyer]

Very nice TR.
Is Kantin worth trying?
Aseana use to have the most legroom in Y. Still the case?

Thanks for reading, 9V-SIA!

Kantin at Jewel was a bit like a theme restaurant, with recipes tweaked for modern/local tastebuds, rather than being 100% authentic, but it was a fun place to dine.

Legroom in Y was pretty good! I didn't notice a huge difference, but Asiana fits 14 rows of Y seats on the window side in the 2nd cabin of the A350, and SQ and TK both have 15 rows, so there might be slightly more pitch on the window side seats. In the middle bank of the 2nd cabin, the number of rows of Y is the same for all 3 carriers (OZ, SQ, TK).

[yflyer]

For my last night in Korea, I moved from the Aloft Seoul Gangnam to the Nest Hotel Incheon, next to Incheon Airport.

Before catching the train from the city to Incheon Airport, I had lunch with an ex-colleague at a very traditional Korean BBQ restaurant in Namdaemun.

Thick cuts of beef rib were grilled over charcoal by the staff...



...then cut into bite sized, perfectly done pieces for us to dine on.



Delicious!

To end, I had a half portion of bibim naengmyeon, a dish of cold, sweet/spicy buckwheat noodles, that I had become a big fan of during my travels to Korea.



After lunch, I caught a bus to nearby Seoul Station, then took the airport train to Incheon Airport T1, and then the complimentary Nest Hotel shuttle bus to the hotel.

[yflyer]

The Nest Hotel Incheon, built in 2014, was a stunning property, located right next to Incheon Airport, on Yeongjongdo Island.



I was not aware of this hotel's existence until recently. The reason I wanted to stay near Incheon Airport was very practical: I was scheduled to be a panelist at a business webinar, which was timed such that I would have no time to travel to the airport from Seoul to catch my Asiana flight home. In order to make my flight, I would need to stay near the airport.

While researching airport hotels near ICN, I was pleasantly surprised to find a unique property like the Nest Hotel located where it was.



In architectural terms, the hotel was built in the modernist/brutalist style, amidst the pine trees and reed fields of Yeongjongdo Island.


This architectural style of the hotel featured exposed concrete, geometric shapes, and clean lines.


I found the design very striking, and yet very natural and elegant -- the opposite of harsh, and cold, despite all that exposed concrete.

[yflyer]

The hotel was a Design Hotels group property, part of Marriott Bonvoy.


Stepping into the hotel, I immediately felt the stresses of the week melt away...



Full length windows in the lobby offered a panoramic view of the water and reed fields surrounding the lobby.



The lobby had a very cool, sophisticated yet relaxed vibe...the perfect antidote for the hustle and bustle of Seoul...



Check-in at 4pm was quick...



I loved the wall lighting in the lobby seating area....



Practically works of art...