I don’t know about you, but I seriously over indulged during the Festive period, and the beginning of January, and my waistline has seriously paid the price so I wanted to get back on the healthy bandwagon. I know a lot of lovely healthy places but I was looking for something new and decided to take a look through the giant list of restaurants I made a note of to visit but never did. On that list was Cheese Flo, a place I was supposed to visit around a year ago but couldn’t find so kinda gave up on. I had always heard good things about it, so went to check out the Instagram and found it would be perfect place to have lunch.
Cheese Flo is actually a restaurant and deli, where they make and sell their own cheese. Cheese making in Korea is still in its infantile stage so it’s great to find a place that is having success doing it, as it’s not the easiest thing to make once you get past the simpler soft cheeses. The restaurant itself is very light and airy, and has a very Scandinavian minimalist style design.
The menu unsurprisingly makes the most of the cheese and after seeing multiple pictures of it on Instagram I couldn’t resist getting the Burrata 17,000. The burrata comes on a large salad style platter with a selection of salads to compliment it. There was a juicy cherry tomato & brown rice salad tossed in a very tasty yuja dressing, a hearty helping of rocket, plus a few slices of bread topped with prosciutto to round out the meal. Unsurprisingly the burrata was the star of the show, it was so creamy and a very generous portion. I loved all the other elements of the dish too they each added something different and it all very clean and healthy without sacrificing taste. It was exactly what I needed.
Our second choice was the Grilled Halloumi with Vegetables 17,000. Again this was really what the doctor ordered. It was such a vibrant dish with plenty of crunchy grilled veggies to make us feel like we were doing our bodies some good. The portion of halloumi was again quite large, although it wasn’t as salty as the store bought varieties. Some might find this preferable but I generally love that extra salty flavour you usually get. Either way it was a lovely dish, and as we were sharing it complimented the buratta perfectly.
We didn’t get anything to drink, but they seemed to have a wide and varied wine list, and a selection of soft drinks and teas etc. Honestly our only complaint would be the service, it just seemed very bizarre and disjointed. There was only one other table occupied when we arrived and the waitress still had to come back and check what we ordered. Plus I felt she tried to trick us by telling us the salads were only appetizer size and not enough to fill us up. Thankfully we disregarded her. Maybe it was just a language barrier but I felt a bit unwelcome, which is odd as I know they did an event with Todd Sample Eats before so should be fairly used to having foreigners. Anyway we didn’t let it spoil our lunch but they could certainly work on this.
Overall I loved the food we ate, it was everything I wanted and more and I honestly couldn’t have picked a better meal for how I was feeling that day. Some might find it a bit pricey for a salad but the place had a lovely ambiance and they featured their own homemade cheeses which I considered worth paying the extra few dollars for. The shop also had a great selection of their cheese if you just want to pass by and pick something up. If you are a cheese lover it is well worth a visit.
Cheese Flo is located at 744-2 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Hangangjin Station (line 6) and come out of exit 1. Walk straight until you reach the third right turn. Take this street and then turn left, walk down this street and you will see Cheese Flo on the right hand side. for more information you can call them on 02-794-7010.