Esmero Spanish Restaurant Seoul

We went to Esmero Spanish Restaurant for lunch to take a break from Korean food. The modern Spanish tapas bar and bistro is also conveniently located walking distance from Seongsu Station and the Haus Nowhere Store which we visited shortly before lunch.

Haus Nowhere Store Seoul

Haus Nowhere Store is a new building that opened at the fringe of Seongsu, a popular retail and lifestyle area.  The new Haus Nowhere store houses eyewear brand Gentle Monster, fragrance house Tamburins, Nudake cafe, headwear label Atiissu and Nuflaat, a new tableware and cutlery brand.

I know nothing about these brands. The main reason to visit was to admire the unique architecture of the building and see the beautiful displays that these brands are known for. The famous mouse seemed to be the theme at the main exhibition areas.

It was also cherry blossom season which made walking between locations a pleasant activity.

Esmero Spanish Restaurant Seoul

The restaurant is located on the 9th floor of a building. The high floor gave it access to lots of natural sunlight which the designers wisely harnessed by having small balconies on one side of the restaurant and a large terrace on another side.

The folks running the Esmero Spanish restaurant obviously like plants and these can be found at different parts of the restaurant, creating a very pleasant dining atmosphere. We had the option of a table at the terrace or the main dining area. We chose the latter.

Esmero Spanish Restaurant Menu

The Esmero menu was simple and contained some familiar tapas items such as patatas bravas, jalapeño peppers and jamon ham. This being our first time at Esmero Spanish Restaurant Seoul, we picked a few items from different parts of the menu.

Spanish Lunch in Seoul

Our Spanish lunch in Seongsu Seoul started with some sparkling wine, suitable for a sunny day in the capital city. A suitable accompaniment was the pulled pork and sweet potato tapas (KRW18,000 – approx S$16).

The crisp sweet potato slices were presented like a flower arrangement. They blended well with the pulled pork at the centre of the “flower”. The next dish to arrive was patatas bravas (KRW14,000).

It had been a while since we ate patatas bravas. One of the places was Gaig Restaurant on Stanley Street Singapore (now closed). Chunks of potato coated with a mild spicy sauce taste great and was a welcome dish to have while waiting for the main course to arrive.

Seafood Dishes

Our final dishes were Esmero Gambas with Prawn Bisque (picture above, KRW23,000) and the fish of the day which was grilled rock fish (KRW38,000). The grilled prawns were very good – fresh with their heads firmly on even after the cooking and plating. Their use of prawn bisque to season the prawns added to the concentrated seafood flavour.

The rock fish was an interesting dish as we don’t remember eating this type of fish before. It was rather meaty but unfortunately fish bones seemed to appear in unpredictable places. This was our least favourite dish of the day. We did not have dessert that day as we were eyeing an interesting cafe on one of the lower floors. We will write about that in a subsequent post.

Esmero Spanish Restaurant Seoul
9th floor 36 Ttukseom-ro 13-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Republic of Korea

Esmero Catchtable Reservation