After wandering around Itaewon for a few minutes, we settled on Indian. For Indian, I'd head to Everest by Dongdaemun, just because of cost for quality, but in Itaewon, Agra seems to be the most popular. It's definitely fancier and pricier than anyone would like, but y'know... special occasions. 
  

Happy 4th of July, folks! Can I tell you guys something? I've never been to a July 4th celebration. Well, I guess it really isn't that hard to believe because 1. I grew up in the Philippines and 2. my family is furthest thing from patriotic. From what I hear, they usually consist of backyard barbecues and fireworks, right? I didn't want to miss out this year so I gathered up a couple of mates took to Manimal Smokehouse 매니멀 스모크하우스, the city's latest barbecue restaurant, for some goooood eatings.

When looking for the restaurant, remember to look up! It's on the second floor and the entrance is tucked away in a little alley so it's easy to miss. Once you see piles of chopped up oak wood, you know you're heading in the right direction.


The restaurant is a lot of smaller than I expected, so I'd be wary of coming with large groups. If you're just a party of two or three, grab a window seat for dinnertime people watching.



We couldn't decide between anything so we just got a bit of everything. An order of brisket, some pulled pork, and the recommended smoked BBQ chicken. You can't leave out the coleslaw (made without mayo!) and a side of green chile mac and cheese. Their cocktail menu looked tempting...but I'll save for another day.


Maybe it was my fault for stopping to take photos beforehand, but our meat was a tad chilled at first bite. That put a downer on my first impression. But visually mouth watering!

The rest of the verdict? The brisket was nice and chunky, but a little dry. The pulled pork was sweet and tangy. It would definitely paired nicely with some sliders but those cost extra here and we didn't think we'd need them at first. The chicken was tender and went great with the side barbecue sauce. I haven't seen smoked BBQ chicken on the menu of any of the other smokehouses in Seoul, so it's a welcome change for those looking for something different.

The owners were home brewers prior to moving to Korea and brought their hobby across the ocean with them. For those of us who internally (and maybe sometimes even externally) cringe at the taste of Korea's finest Cass, Hite, and OB, we are all forever grateful they did. Expect to see pale ale, porter, and copper ale on tap.



Magpie Brewing Company Itaewon 맥파이 이태원 (They have one in Hongdae and Jeju too!)

The Mexican food craze is everywhere in Seoul, but it's funny that none of the trending places are selling actual Mexican food. Instead, we're seeing fusion dishes with kimchi on everything. Yeah, I love Kor-Mex as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just crave a real taco. Then I found out about Little Baja, a project by two guys from LA located in Itaewon.

Minsu and I had already made lunch plans, and it just so happens that the taco cravings were creeping up on us. And for just 3 bucks a pop, they're a total steal!

I've never heard of octopus tacos before, I thought maybe they meant calamari? But it's actually something they threw together when creating the menu when they realized how much Koreans loved 쭈꾸미 (pan fried octopus). I was pumped and ready to order three of each.

But it just wasn't meant to be... They weren't selling tacos on Sunday and instead had a special pop-up kitchen with just one thing on the menu.