Le Phare in Hapjeong: Great Wine Bar with Amazing Service

2017-12-25 · Updated: 2026-08-11 · Original (Korean)

This article was translated from the original Korean post with AI assistance. Read the original Korean post →

It was Christmas Eve, so we went near Seongsu Station (in eastern Seoul) for a family gathering. As everyone knows, Christmas Eve is the absolute peak season where you can wander around for 30 minutes and still not get a seat anywhere if you haven't made a reservation. After walking around and around, I spotted a menu board in front of a small wine bar in an alley. I peeked at it carefully, wondering if they only sold wine, but they had steak! They sell steak!! When I carefully opened the door, there seemed to be plenty of seats. Still, I couldn't let my guard down. Every other place we had stopped by was only half full, yet we couldn't park our butts and eat anywhere.

(Slightly worried) "Do you happen to have a table?"

"Would you mind sitting at the bar?"

'Why not? I'd be incredibly grateful just to get some steak,' I thought as we settled in at "Le Phare." ~~I don't know why they wrote it as one word in Korean.~~

I looked it up and it means "lighthouse," and the proper pronunciation is apparently closer to "Le Pha~". Well, none of that has anything to do with eating, so I'll just get straight to the menu and food photos.

Exterior of a wine bar with an illuminated English sign reading Le Phare on a green outer wall.

Menu board with side dish items and prices written on green paper clipped to a clipboard. — Considering it's the absolute peak season, the prices are pretty normal(?).

Green menu listing sparkling and white wines. — There are a couple more pages to the wine list, but I was feeling lazy, so I just took a picture of the first page to compare prices. I don't know what makes a good wine, but the only one I recognize, Veuve Clicquot, is 140,000 KRW. That's about twice the price at Costco. Prices vary by vintage, but among the few restaurants I've been to, this is on the cheaper side.

Interior of a wine bar with wine glasses hanging upside down and a wooden bar table. — Except for us, every seat was reserved and taken by couples.

Interior of the shop with customers sitting at the bar table and wine glasses hanging from the ceiling. — This is a photo taken without a filter, but to my eyes, the filtered photo above looks closer to the actual colors in the restaurant. The halogen lighting gives off a warm vibe.

A hand-drawn Christmas card is attached to a shelf with liquor bottles, along with a scuba diver-shaped decoration. — Finally, the meat!

Steak served on a white plate with sauce and garnishes like grilled pineapple, mushrooms, and onions.

A plate of steak and grilled vegetables, along with a fork and knife, placed on a wooden table. — I used a filter, but it looks a bit weird, right?

Grilled steak, pineapple, tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions plated on a white dish. — I was so hungry that it was pure chaos—eating, getting our wine poured, and taking pictures all at once. In the midst of it all, I took a crooked picture of the wine. Editing it is... too much work...

Behind the plate of steak, a glass of red wine and a shelf displaying various liquor bottles are visible.

A bottle of La Merce Crianza red wine sits next to a partially eaten plate of steak. — Since it was a family gathering and I went with my mom, the owner recommended this wine, saying it was related to mothers. I looked it up when I got home, and it was named to honor the winemaker's mother, "Merce." A round of applause for the owner's great taste.

Close-up of a wine bottle label featuring a grapevine illustration and the text La Merce Crianza 2013. — We had the steak, but we still had some wine left and felt a bit hungry, so we ordered some oysters. The owner said they were specially ordered from Tongyeong (a southern coastal city) today, and wow—they were incredibly fresh with absolutely no fishy smell. Plus, they gave us so many lemons that we could squeeze as much as we wanted and still have some left over, so we ate very well.

Raw oysters topped with red onions and lemon wedges abundantly arranged on a round tray.

A tray filled with raw oysters garnished with minced onions and lemon wedges.

Close-up view of raw oysters on the half shell topped with finely chopped red onions. — The "I didn't know which filter would be best, so I prepared them all" version. I should have taken a brighter photo to show how fresh the oysters were, but eating was my top priority. Fork in one hand, camera in the other.

Close-up of a single raw oyster generously topped with finely minced red onions.

A small Christmas tree placed by the window and a white car seen outside.

Restaurants these days are all so good at cooking, and my palate isn't exactly high-standard enough to nitpick every little thing, so food of this quality is top-tier to me. I especially dislike oysters if they have even the slightest fishy smell, but I really enjoyed the ones I had today. On top of that, they gave us a generous portion that made the price completely worth it.

The food was great, but the service was truly excellent. Perhaps feeling sorry for seating us at the bar, the owner took meticulous care of us, from taking our order to guiding us to the restroom and pouring our water. Saying "we had a wonderful time thanks to the owner" sounds very cliché, but it perfectly conveys how I felt today. Especially on a day like today, recommending a wine related to mothers was just the best. I've received many recommendations while going out for wine, but I think this might be the first time someone recommended a bottle with such a perfect reason.

People probably mostly go there with their partners, but it also seems like a great place for a quiet family dinner. The space isn't huge, and the lighting is arranged so you can focus on the person in front of you, making it a great fit for small gatherings like a family party. Of course, it would also be a fantastic spot for a company dinner, but I highly doubt my coworkers—who complain that even Bangbang Intersection (in Gangnam) is too far—would ever come all the way out here to drink wine.

LA VINA DE LA MERCE Description

A wine made to honor Peter's late mother, Merce. It seems like a great wine to gift on Parents' Day or a parent's birthday.

#GoodEats #FamilyGathering #WineBar #HapjeongEats #HapjeongWineBar