Dr. Robbin: A Diet Food Bistro in Seoul

Last Weekend, after watching X-Men : First Class in Myeongdong, a friend and I went hunting for a new, potentially good eat in NOON Square. NOON Square is my current favorite mall in Myeongdong. Why? It’s relatively small but it has H&M, Steve Madden, Mango, ZARA, Billabong, Jessica Simpson, Adidas Originals plus stalls of hard to find Korean Cosmetics ~ Elisha Coy, Skin79, Pure Minerals. At the basement is a bookstore with a reading area and a little Cold Stone Creamery outlet. On the fifth floor are small indie clothing brands with reasonable prices. i.e, brands started by young Korean entrepreneurs.

The food section on the sixth has a dimsum place, an American diner, A Japanese Buffet resto, and a traditional Korean Restaurant. In the end, we went to Dr. Robbin.

Dr. Robbin promises the following: No Sugar Added, No MSG, Reduced Oil, No Butter, ½ Cream, ½ Oil. When a restaurant promises you great food with the fewest calories possible, wouldn’t you be hooked too?

A check on their one page paper menu showed reasonable prices with entrees running at an average of 10000 won (about 450 pesos). Not bad for Seoul.

The restaurant has a nice ambience and even has an al fresco dining area which is great since it is on the 6th floor, so you get a good view of Myeongdong’s busy shopping streets. But it is summer in Seoul, so we stayed indoors and enjoyed the A/C comfort and funky prints on the resto’s walls.

THE FOOD

The requisite free appetizer: pickled pink cucumber and green peppers.

Chicken and Tofu Salad. First let me say that it is incredibly hard to find good and reasonably-priced western style salads in Seoul. You know, those with good greens and nice dressings. It might be because, the usual Korean meal is already replete with a lot of veggies~ in the soup, in the kimchi, and in their numerous banchans (appetizers).
This Salad is pretty good, the serving hefty enough for sharing. The Chicken part is actually steamed chicken breast slices, the tofu is simply steamed and doused with a sweetish, soy and sesame oil- based sauce. The greens are crunchy fresh and goes well with the sweet and salty sauce.

Aglio Olio Pasta. While good, I still pledge my allegiance to the Aglio Olio Pasta of Pizza Pamilya in Davao City. Dr. Robbin’s version is dotted with a lot of parsley and is ironically not spicy enough for my taste. More pepper flakes please!

Oreo Brownie. By far the best tasting, fudgiest, richest brownie I've tried in Seoul. And this is supposed to be sugar-free? Hmmmm. Addicting, though a bit expensive at 4000 won (about 180 pesos).

We spent about 22000 won (900 pesos) for this meal. Certainly not cheap, but for the ambience and considering it is supposedly “good” food, it’s a reasonable enough.


NOON SQUARE
Myeongdong Station Exit#6
Seoul, S. Korea