The Place is a restaurant in Gangam that serves Italian food but it’s biggest draw is it’s Bomba pizza. Nathalie and I thought it’d be fun to try so we made our way there and ordered a somewhat fancy set.
Our set included vino pops. A popcicle filled with fruits (rapsberries and blueberries) and herbs with a rose wine poured over it. It was really nice, and as a person whose not fond of alchohol I actually really enjoyed it. It was very fruity and sweet. Plus having a popcicle in it was a great way to keep it cold on a hot summer day.
The first thing we got was a salad, their ricotta frutta salad. The fruit seems to vary depending on what’s in season so ours had orange slices and grapefruit. It wasn’t great or bad. But I’m also not a person who loves salads.
The next thing we were brought was pasta. We swapped out the pasta that came with our set for a carbonara pasta. It was my favorite part of our meal. Everything just tasted right. And then came the pièce de résistance the bomba pizza.
We weren’t one hundred percent sure what we were getting. But once they brought out the sides it made a lot more sense. The bomba pizza is a pizza served inside a dome of dough that they set on fire. And the fire lasts for a remarkably short period of time. Thus a lack of photos of the fire.
We were expecting a savory pizza but instead were given a pizza with cranberries, nuts and more ricotta cheese on squid ink dough. It came with dipping sauces of a spicy salsa, honey and ranch. The bits with toppings wasn’t bad, there isn’t any sauce though, not white sauce or tomato sauce just cheese and bread and toppings. You can’t particularly taste anything with the squid ink I think it’s just for color. But the bits without toppings (as you can see all the toppings are towards the center and not near the edges of the pizza) are just horribly bland and then you need the sauces. The salsa was too spicy for me but the honey worked nicely and the ranch gave it a more savory flavor. I think they were suppose to be for the top, the upper shell of dough without anything on it.
We were a bit worried that a set was too much food for us but they actually gave us small portions for reach thing, making it easy to split. However I don’t think the bomba pizza was really worth it. I mean it’s fun getting a fireball brought to your table, but the pizza inside just wasn’t that great. Plus you can’t switch it out for something you may like. There’s only one type. I think their pasta was good and so was the vino pop but I don’t think I’d go back for a bomba pizza, maybe try something different. It’s just not worth the price. (On it’s own the bomba pizza is 21,000 won ~$21).
They do have English menus and English speaking staff so deciding what you do want isn’t too much of a hassle. However unlike most Korean restaurants which are go ahead and grab a seat, wait until a host or hostess sees you and brings you to a table.