Today, with a friend I just met today, I visited Gran Gusto. She is staying in Korea for summer SAT classes and such. Her family moved to New Jersey about three years ago and she is staying at her uncle's house this summer. Yes, it was time for her to crave something non-Korean. So we walked twenty five minutes under the summer sun, mostly up the hill. We sat down at 11:45AM, waiting for the today's lunch menu to be printed out (the opening time is 12:00PM).
What a shame I forgot to bring my camera. After all, I did not know that I will meet somebody who is willing to spend nearly thirty minutes walking, and a full hour eating, and then another half hour walking back. So I borrowed her camera phone, though I forgot to set up the pixels right; the pictures are very small now. Because the picture taking with the phone makes some noise (protecting privacy), I took minimum number of pictures, very cautiously.
The soup was cream based made with peas, which I had last time. This time, though it looked the same, it tasted much better. It was not bland like last time. I really liked the soup and asked for more bread. The bread was also better this time, served warm.
For the pasta, out of five choices, I chose spaghetti with tomato cream sauce and tenderloin pieces. The pasta was cooked just right, and the sauce was tasty, though I would liked a little bit of spiciness, just a personal preference. It had little pieces of black olive, not something I like but adding a point to the creaminess. The only thing I did not like was that the tenderloin pieces were rather covered by the sauce, not just the appearance but the taste. But overall, I was pretty satisfied with what I had.
My friend ordered spaghetti with cream sauce, green and red peppers, and mushrooms. The green and red peppers made the rather plain look of the cream sauce more vivid, though it may not look very flattering in this picture.
My choice for dessert was caramel gelato with a hazelnut crunch. It was okay, but I liked the yogurt icecream I had last time better. Maybe the hazelnut would have been better with chocolate.
My friend ordered tiramisu, which was also pretty good. So we finished a happy lunch, and I said goodbye to my friend who might possibly late to her next class, about five minutes or even ten. And yet I was happy to hear somebody say, "let's come here once again". I finally found someone to have lunch with! All my other friends are too busy or do not like to spend money on food.So including the 10% VAT, today's bill was 20,900KRW (approx 23USD) each. I only wish I ordered the B course, for I wanted to try the fish with asparagus cream sauce and puff. I think it was red snapper, though my memory may be wrong. Anyway, next time.
