I love breakfast. This is easily an understatement and one of the biggest things I miss about Chicago (and the US in general) is probably breakfast. So whenever I’m in Seoul early enough on the weekends I try to go somewhere for breakfast or brunch. A lot of the time though the places that say they serve brunch really just mean they serve sandwiches or don’t really do brunch at all. After some plans got all twisted up I looked up a place open early enough for me to enjoy breakfast and found Ugly Stove, a green natural restaurant that uses fresh ingredients that look “ugly” by supermarket standards. They have several locations in and around Seoul. I went to the one in Gangnam. It was a bit uphill climb on a rainy morning but the restaurant was big with plenty of seating.
Their breakfast (brunch) menu isn’t huge. Mostly egg platters which I’m not a huge fan of, with toast and sides. But they also had “Ugly French Toast” (9,900 won) which sounded like fun. The rest of their menu includes non-brunch items like salads, steak, pasta, pilaf, and their new Mexican inspired items.
The Ugly french toast came in it’s own little cast iron skillet that thankfully wasn’t hot and seemed to be a berry overload with raspberries, blackberries and blueberries along with some almonds, powdered sugar and whipped cream. I also ordered a Fruit tea (8,900 won) which came in a tiny pitcher that had the same berries as my french toast as well as lemon, kiwi and some apple slices.
The one I went to is open from 10:30 am until 10pm. I arrived before any sort of crowd on a quiet Sunday morning. The staff were friendly and I filled out what I wanted on a piece of paper and gave it to a staff member. My drink took longer than the food to arrive. They also offer a variety of other drinks from mojitos and wine to tea and coffee.