My honest, paid-with-my-own-money review of the Han River view hotel restaurant dinner course at Embers, Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole.
For our wedding anniversary, we booked dinner at this hotel restaurant:
Embers at Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole
This was my first time visiting Pullman Eastpole,
and it’s directly connected by skybridge
from Exit 3 of Guui Station on Seoul Subway Line 2.
The hotel parking garage has three levels available,
and restaurant guests get 3 hours of free parking.
Basic Information
24F, 410 Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea
02-3450-6100
Hours: Breakfast 6:30–10:30 / Lunch 11:30–14:30 / Dinner 18:00–21:30
Group dining available, professional sommelier, 3 hours free parking, baby chairs and high chairs available
Embers is located on the 24th floor of the hotel building.
We reserved the dinner course,
but since dinner service starts at 6 p.m.,
we got there a little early, browsed around NC Mall, and then headed up.
When you get off the elevator, Embers is on the left,
and on the right you’ll find Bublex Bar and The Hub Tea Café.
Embers is an open-kitchen grill restaurant!
Right at the entrance, you can see cuts of meat aging.
Han River View Restaurant
One entire side of the restaurant is lined with floor-to-ceiling windows,
so you get a sweeping view of the Han River below.
Unfortunately, the day we visited had absolutely terrible fine dust levels,
so the view wasn’t at its best.
The night view is supposed to be even prettier, but once the sun went down,
we had to rush through dinner because our sitter needed to head home,
so I didn’t even get any nighttime photos ^_^
The interior feels modern and polished, with smart color combinations
and eye-catching tiled accent walls.
It’s a great date-night spot,
and the high ceilings plus huge windows make it feel especially open and airy.
If you book ahead, you can request a window seat with a Han River view.
There are actually quite a lot of window tables.
I also heard there’s a private Han River view room farther inside,
which looked like it would be great for a first-birthday party or family celebration.
My whiskey-loving husband was especially into
the Mortlach display zone.
It looked like they were running a Mortlach whiskey promotion at the time.
We were shown to a table with both a Han River view
and a view toward the Gwangjin-gu Office.
The photos make it look a little different, but in person you can actually see the Han River really well!
Ever since having a baby, it’s been hard for the two of us to visit a polished hotel restaurant like this,
so this honestly felt like such a long-overdue night out.
Neither of us is obsessed with steak,
so I don’t even remember the last time we went to a steak restaurant.
Pullman Eastpole Embers Menu
For a special-occasion restaurant, Embers has a pretty wide range of options,
from à la carte dishes
to full courses and even sharing set menus for 3 to 5 people,
so you can choose based on the kind of visit you’re planning.
The menu focuses on charcoal-grilled steak and seafood,
and there are more specialized options too, like dry-aged steak
and a signature tea list,
which makes it a nice pick for a special occasion.
We chose the 7-course dinner priced at 180,000 KRW, about $135 per person.
Accor Plus discounts can be applied here too.
Embers 7-Course Dinner
The welcome drink was an omija sparkling wine.
I was told it was specially made just for Embers
by Mungyeong Omijarose.
Since it’s made with omija, or Korean five-flavor berry, the color was absolutely gorgeous.
It tasted lightly sweet and bright, which I really liked.
The amuse-bouche was tuna and caviar, I think(?)
It was fresh and citrusy, and I finished it in one bite.
Next came the house bread,
served with three different spreads.
There was a spicy cream cheese,
a Gongju chestnut spread spooned out right in front of us,
and a 30-year-aged balsamic olive oil sauce.
I loved that the bread could be enjoyed in so many different ways.
The bread itself had been warmed in the oven, so it was crisp outside and soft inside,
and even though the flavor was subtle, it was so good that
we ended up finishing all of it.
Even knowing there were plenty of courses still to come,
I could not stop reaching for more bread.
We also ordered a glass of Mortlach whiskey.
It was my husband’s, so I just took photos and had a quick sniff.
After that came a lobster tail dish topped with salmon roe.
The citrus salsa made it taste bright and clean,
and the lobster had that perfect springy bite.
Next was the soup,
a charcoal-grilled mushroom velouté, basically a creamy mushroom soup.
It was topped with thick-cut bacon too, which made it even better.
I honestly don’t remember every detail of the flavor now,
but the seasoning was spot on, and by this point I was already thinking,
okay wow, this place really knows what it’s doing.
Then came a charcoal-grilled seafood course.
That white cream-like topping on top was actually asparagus,
plus a tiny bit of caviar.
I think it included baby octopus or octopus, along with scallop and abalone.
Looks like the meat course is finally coming out?
Our server asked us to choose whichever Laguiole knife we liked best.
We picked red and navy.
Such pretty, sleek Laguiole knives.
The three sauces came out in a shareable setup:
chimichurri, a wine-based steak sauce,
and whole peppercorns to refresh your palate.
The garnishes were served separately,
with roasted kabocha squash and mashed potatoes.
You just spoon them onto your plate like this
and eat them with the steak.
For the main, we ordered the T-bone steak,
and when we first placed the order, we asked for it medium-rare.
For the main course, you can choose Korean 1++ hanwoo tenderloin, ribeye cap, or striploin,
or go with the U.S. T-bone steak.
Since it had been a while, we decided to go for the T-bone.
It arrived piping hot, with steam rising off the plate,
and I think the serving plate held heat for a long time,
because if you left the steak sitting there, it kept cooking really fast;
when the steak came out, our server had actually warned us that
if we didn’t want it to cook further, we should move it onto our plates quickly.
Of course I forgot,
left it there, and a few pieces ended up well-done.
The T-bone portion was seriously huge.
The second I saw it, I was like… maybe we should’ve just picked the hanwoo after all.
Since it’s a T-bone, you get to try both tenderloin and strip steak
in one order.
The tenderloin was exactly what you’d expect—soft and clean-tasting—
while the strip side had a better chew and more texture.
The portion was so big that even though we really tried,
we still left quite a bit behind, and one of the staff members actually asked midway through
whether it wasn’t to our taste..
And this was the after-main dish.
When ordering, you can ask for it after the main,
or have it served together with the main course.
We asked to have it with the main,
and it was perilla oil bibim noodles topped with sweet shrimp and white kimchi,
so it worked perfectly as a palate cleanser while eating the steak.
Really tasty too.
At this point we were done with the savory courses, and it was time for dessert.
You can choose between Tavalon tea or coffee,
and decaf coffee is available too.
We went with hot decaf Americano and rooibos vanilla tea.
And because we left a note that it was our wedding anniversary,
they brought out this beautiful dessert with lettering on the plate.
It was yogurt glacé with strawberries and cream espuma. The name sounds fancy, but to me it basically ate like a delicious yogurt ice cream with airy foam-like cream.
The only problem was… this wasn’t our 2nd anniversary.
It was our 3rd, and we laughed so hard.
It wasn’t Embers’ mistake, though.
My husband had accidentally written “2nd anniversary”
when he made the request in the first place..^^
Anyway, the steak was a little less impressive than I’d hoped,
but every course before and after it was delicious,
the service was great, and I loved the location and the atmosphere.
I’d absolutely come back.
If you’re looking for a hotel restaurant in Seoul, South Korea with a romantic atmosphere
for an anniversary dinner or date night, I’d definitely recommend it.