Mongonae (CLOSED)

Mongonae takes its name from its owner's cheerful nickname, Mongo. Though the name and atmosphere inside recall down-to-earth homestyle Italian cooking, their ingredients are actually more fine dining than home cooking. For example, their signature dishes are horse meat tartare and pine nut pasta. The pine nut pasta uses fresh truffle noodles shipped in by air from the Piedmont region of Italy. This pasta is topped with a pine nut puree made with top grade pine nuts, which were personally cultivated by the owner’s mother. The roe pasta is also popular. It uses master Kwang Ja Kim’s croaker and master Choi Tae Keun’s gray mullet as its main ingredients. An extensive list of 50 types of wines are all from Italy. These wines were carefully selected from the owner's travels around wineries in Italy. Half of the restaurant is an open kitchen, and it can hold around 20 customers at a time. Since it is always packed, making a reservation ahead of time would be an excellent idea.