This is brilliant. I was just scanning the CNN homepage and saw a feature on some restaurant that is attracting Korean women and upon clicking on it I immediately recognized the place. My friend’s and I went to Mie’s Container here in Daegu last week for a friend’s birthday and it’s definitely an interesting spot. My two cents whenever someone asks about it is I want to like it… so much.
The interior is really neat and the staff is ridiculously friendly but the food was just awful! After reading the article it seems the staff are intentionally over the top friendly to woo female customers into coming back (this business model reminds me a lot of a drama I am watching right now, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop), so I feel a lot less compelled to WANT to like it anymore… but back when I thought the place was just some really cool spot with a bunch of nice employees I really did WANT to like it.
Out of curiosity a lot of us ordered the “pan cheese”, which this article calls pizza but there is no pizza on the menu there. Pan cheese is exactly what it sounds like; a pan of cheese. More specifically it is a pan wit a tin layer of some sort of sweet dough (not bread, though), completely covered in a thick layer of sweet cheese that I think is mixed with honey. I ordered the bacon garlic which was sprinkled with sweet bacon and crispy slices of garlic that were fried in honey. In case you didn’t get the hint… it was SWEET. Did I forget to mention that it comes with a side of honey for dipping? I could barely eat it, and I barely did.
We shared the sweet chili nachos which were alright… but they take the word sweet seriously at this place. Everything we ordered was sweet and I can’t say I really enjoyed any of it. Even the nice side of fries we shared came with a sweet garlic sauce. Bleh.
Anyway, it seems this place is getting pretty popular in Korea and after tasting the food I wouldn’t understand why without the help of this article to point out the ogling factor. I guess I do understand the appeal to Koreans as well who seem to have a high tolerance for sweet food. The concept is really well done, and I really want to like it, but I can’t see myself ever willingly eating there again.
