Eunsome Burger Cafe in Shin-Nonhyeon/Gangnam

It's been a good EIGHT months of silence.  In that time, I've sent my sister off to Equatorial Guinea, welcomed her back, then said good-bye as she left me for greener pastures in San Francisco.  I've acquired a new cat - a Siamese I so aptly named Orca.  I've upgraded my computer to a plushy, new MacBook Air.  I've traveled to (and ate my way through) six different countries of which the most recent was Sweden.  And that brings me here - hungover and jeering regretfully at McDonald's paraphernalia strewn all over my floor.  So what brought me out of hiding?  Eunsome Burger Cafe's beer can chicken.  So painfully delicious, I had to write about it.

Eunsome Burger Cafe (as its name would suggest) features burgers.  But hiding amongst a variety of burgers (including sous-vide burgers - more on that later), is the real gem of this establishment: been-in-the-butt chicken.  If you don't know what beer can chicken is, it's a whole chicken with a can o' beer shoved up its ass.  At 25,000 won, you get one browned and sexy bird with all the fixins - coleslaw, three dipping sauces, salsa, and a basket of tortilla triangles.  If you're confused, so was I.  Is this how one normally eats beer can chicken?  Well, it's just chicken...you can eat it however you want.  I found Eunsome's accompaniments totally relevant.

Chicken on a throne gets a hand-torching.

This chicken is amazing.  The benefits of using beer in the cavity of the chicken are two-fold.  One, moisture.  Two, the yeast and malt from the beer react with the chicken, particularly the skin, making it thin and crispy while the meat remains juicy.  Think peking duck.  Eunsome chooses to smoke their chicken giving it another depth of flavor.  Yum on my face.

Words: tender, juicy, moist.  Love.

How many can eat one chicken?  If you order a burger or a side of chili cheese fries (so good) in addition to the chicken, I'd say three.  Just the chicken, two...but order the chili cheese fries anyway.  They're fresh, not frozen, and that's pretty hard to come by in Seoul.

So how're the burgers?  I cannot remember because this chicken stole the show (and my heart).  Does this mean the burgers are meh?  Not true.  I don't know any place in Seoul that is capable of sous viding their burgers.  If the chicken would move out of the way in my brain, I remember the burger was juicy and flavorful.  A solid burger....but that CHICKEN...*drool* *drool*.  I've only been to Eunsome twice where on the second visit, I only ordered the chicken because I had been CRAVING it since my previous visit.  I'd like to go back and give their burgers a fair shot.

Some other perks - the owner's son speaks fluent English.  The owner operates a successful catering business, so she really knows her way around food.  It's obvious in the freshness and quality of the food.  Case in point, it's so easy for burger joints to do frozen fries.  Eunsome doesn't, and eating one of their fresh, hand-cut fries reminded me of how much I adore a fresh fry.  Do you have any idea how hard that is?  In order for the fry to come out crispy and tender and not greasy and limp, it needs to be double, even triple, fried in multiple temperatures.  So much friggin' work.  Can I get a slow hand clap for Eunsome's awesome fries?!

Eunsome is a bit hard to find.  Coming out of Shin-Nonhyeon Station, it's a short walk from exit 4.  Veer right out of the exit towards the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (ignore the Burger 'N Shake restaurant; it's gross) and walk straight.  When you see the 7-11, make a right and walk until you see Eunsome on your right.

From Gangnam Station, take exit 11 and walk to Shin-Nonhyeon Station and make a right at the intersection.  You pass exit 4 of Shin-Nonhyeon Station and keep going until the 7-11.  Make a right and continue on until you see Eunsome Burger on the right-hand side.

If my directions make no sense, here's the address: 서울특별시 강남구 역삼동 601-10.  Google it.

I don't know when they open, but they close at 10 pm.  Here's their Facebook page.

Eunsome Burger Cafe can also be found on MangoPlate, a restaurant discovery app available in English and Korean.