Brunch, Vecchia e Nuovo, Seoul

Imagine. A beautiful saturday morning (I am always happier on Saturday morning). You wake up lesuirely around 10am. You have nothing pressing on your schedules. You have a quick invigorating shower and head out to brunch with your dear friend.
Nestled comfortably in a sofa chair, you order a cup of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, an egg benedict with Scottish smoked salmon and perfect hollandaise sauce, a cup of Americano and share a banana & ricotta cheese french toast with your friend as a grand finale to your meal.

Now let's get back to reality. OK, that is my idea of a perfect weekend but it does not happen as often as I want them to. Yesterday (not Saturday but Sunday) was one of the rare occasions that I got to enjoy brunch. Moi and my brother decided to eat before hitting the gym. We figured, that we would be able to burn off fat, hence feel less guilty.

Vecchia e Nuovo is located on LG1 in The Westin Chosun Hotel, the oldest hotel in Korea,(Marylin Monroe once was a guest there, while visiting the US troops during the Korean War) was recently rennovated. It used to be devided into a restaurant serving sit-in menus and a deli selling cakes, coffees, bread and sandwiches to be eaten on premise or to take away. Now it is more of an open space bar/cafe. V e C now serves less Italian menu and concentrates on cafe operation.

I ordered 2 eggs with bacon or sausage with hashbrown, (I opted for poached eggs and bacon) and my brother ordered beef taco with salsa,guacamole and a dollop of sour cream. Curiously, sweet chili sauce commonly served with spring roll in Chinese take-away was served, too. My brother ordered a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice and I ordered an Americano.


What I love about VeC is their sanwiches. (I dare say the best in Korea) They begun to serve brunch menu so I decided to give them a go.

However, what I ordered was disappointing. On the plate were 2 poached eggs on slices of toast, a heap of bacons and hasbrown. Not only was it nondescript at best, the food got cold very quickly. I hated it. I really miss English breakfast complete with thick lashes of English bacon, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and buttered toast. Hashbrown was like chewing on cardbox.

I stole a taco from my brother's plate. It was better than what I ordered.

We were given a plate of complimentary tomatoe and fresh mozzarella salad in pesto sauce because taco was taking some time to be prepared. I think it would have been a lot better with more salt. - I don't like my food to be salty, but it was just too bland-.

After our meal, we hit the gym to burn off calories.

We did burn out fat but we headed back to the restaurant to eat.

For some reason, we were just so so hungry.

We decided to order a Belgian waffle and my brother wanted a burger. We ordered them both.

Belgian waffle turned out to be Brussels variety, not chewy and dense Liège waffle. The waffle was served with red and black currant compote, cream and powdered sugar. It was quite nice, although I will not order it again given the price for what it is. The burger was good. It is served in a butter toasted buns, (I think it was butter), topped with bacon, grilled red onion, tomatoes, and melted gruyère cheese.

The waffle. It was soft and nice but I don't want to spend 12000KRW for this. Really.

We ordered our burger medium to avoid tough burger pattie. Halved salty pickles (perhaps a jewish variety?) on the side were nice complement. Crinkly cut chips on the side were as plain as it could be, but I did not complain. I don't think Korean potatoes make nice cripsy-but soft-on-the-inside chips, so I will have to do with these.

Americano: 6000KRW

Orange juice: 11000KRW

Eggs, bacons, hashbrown: 12000KRW

Beef taco: 15000KRW
waffle: 12000KRW

Hamburger: 22000KRW

+ VAT

OMG. Typing the prices makes me realize that it is very expensive for what it is. I will continue to eat sandwiches and burger but nothing else.

베키아 에 누오보

웨스틴 조선호텔

서울시 중구 소공동 87

02)317-0022

Vecchia e Nuovo

The Westin Chosun Hotel

87, Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea (100-070)

02)317-0022

http://www.echosunhotel.com/