Cuisine: Buddhist temple cuisine
Reservations: Recommended
Suggested Items: Set menu, Ju-Jeon-Boori, Omija-Tangsu
Other Amenities: English menu
Phone:02.2031.2081
Website: http://www.baru.or.kr
Location
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I ate here for the first time this past Monday evening (Sept 27). I had the 12 course menu. The food was definitely quite imaginative and for the most part quite flavorful & presented beautifully. As noted above, the dried thin slices of fruits and vegetables were amazing. I would have loved to have a bag of those oranges to take with me.
The service was a bit uneven. When I arrived, there appeared to be only one person on the wait staff that spoke English. While she was serving my food (for the first 5 courses), she spent time to explain each item that was served, and answered my questions. Unfortunately, as the restaurant filled up, she got diverted or reassigned to other tables (particularly a large group of 10 that arrived shortly after me), and the other people serving my food literally just placed it in front of me, and walked away without saying a word. I likely wouldn't have minded this, had I not noticed that this large 10 person group was given a card detailing what they were being served, while I received nothing. It wasn't a big deal, but it did detract a bit from the experience, and for what they charge (nearly US$40), I'd expect better service.
$40 is quite expensive for a poor service.
Went back for the 2nd time tonight. Service was much better than the last time. They actually gave me a sheet of paper describing each course. The food was uniformly excellent once again.