Drake’s in Seoul: Lunch at Chez Maum

One of the joys of eating in Seoul is that it’s a place that makes the most of the space around it. You’ll find a wine bar on the 10th floor of an apartment block, karaoke rooms hidden under shopping centres and rows of barbecue restaurants jostling up against one another inside of a meat market. When it comes to creating a space to come together and eat and drink, few are more resourceful than the Koreans. 

While not quite as dramatically located as other restaurants in the city, Chez Maum in Yongsan, a district just off the Han river, the original entry point into Seoul and the birthplace of its spectacular wave of modern regeneration, is still a surprise. A simple facade on a quiet street, down the road from a school and a handful of barbecue spots and family-owned shops, it’s the kind of place you’d be happy to find in New York or London.

Run by Urimaeum Hwang, with help from his wife Jiwoo Roh, the project was born from the couple’s shared love of European wine. After years spent in fashion manufacturing, Hwang became enamoured with Picchioni, a simple and delicious red from Lombardy.

“After that everything changed,” he says, after we’d sat down to a long lunch, the upstairs space filling with afternoon sunshine. Pasta, sea urchin, a little bit of beef (this is Korea after all), and tiramisu dusted with green matcha. “I guess I became known in Korea as someone with some knowledge on wine, and then I decided to create somewhere for people to enjoy.”

Starting out in the kitchen, Hwang has migrated towards more of a good time ownership and recipe development role, overseeing the day-to-day and ensuring that his vision of unusual and, in this part of the world, difficult-to-source wines and dishes that combine a love of travel with ingredients native to his home country are fully realised. 

“I find this wine,” he says, pointing to a bottle of Picchioni, “and I open this restaurant! It changed my life.”