Sonamu - a Korean dining experience

This culinary adventure started when I visited the Korean stall at Global Day in AUS about two months ago. My expert throwing skills won me a gift certificate for the chef's special set menu for two at Sonamu in Asiana Hotel, Deira. With the expiry date drawing near (precisely in two days :P), I decided to put the voucher to good use and I took my mum along for the ride. We got all dressed up and prepped our tummies for the lunch.

The restaurant was very pretty (unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of it) with a pleasant ambiance and it was tastefully decorated in shades of brown and orange. Though I liked the wooden floors at the entrance, they made my heels sound VERY noisy! The staff were courteous and helpful. As we started tucking into the courses, little did we know that there would be eight of them!! Note that we are people who eat very little, so we weren't quite prepared for the quantity. As for the taste, I was quite impressed and I enjoyed the meal (what I ate of it, that is).

I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality - we were seated in a rather dark corner.

The first course was tuna with lotus chips, and after that came Korean crepes with mustard sauce. There was a bite to the crepes that I think came from horseradish in the filling.

The third course almost caused me to puke though. It was RAW fish on ice. I don't even do cooked fish (except for the canned variety), so I won't even THINK about uncooked fish. Hence, we had to politely asked the waiters to take it away.

Next came some chicken and scallop satay that were quite delish. This was followed by a seafood noodle dish with mushrooms, which we enjoyed. We actually thought that this was the last course before dessert, but we were wrong!

The sixth course was snow fish, which I politely declined because, as I mentioned before, I am not a fan of fish.

After ALL of this came the main course, finally. It was a beef dish with rice and horseradish soup. My mum even asked if there was anything more to come because we were already stuffed. The waiter seemed quite surprised that we were full!!

The dessert was the dish with which I was least impressed. It was some chewy dough with a brown filling. Nothing much to it.

All in all, the whole experience was quite satisfactory, but if you were to ask me if I would go back there, I would probably say, "Only if I get to choose what I eat!"

This is the outfit I picked for the lunch: a blue waterfall skirt, black blouse and black heels with some gold accessories.

Happy eating!

P.S. If the food in the pictures looks half eaten, it probably is - I usually forget to take photos of it before I start eating :P