Born & Bred in Seoul - Thokohmakan food reviews

Born and Bred in Seoul

[Non-halal] We’ve eaten the best beef ever at Born and Bred in Seoul.

This Michelin-listed restaurant specialises in Hanwoo beef – which quality rivals the best of Wagyu. Hanwoo beef is hard to find beyond South Korea as it is rarely exported overseas due to limited supply and strong domestic demand.

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While you can find Hanwoo beef at numerous K-BBQ spots in Seoul, Born and Bred is one of the best restaurants to enjoy these exquisite beef cuts.

Born and Bred in Majang-dong

We first acquainted ourselves with Hanwoo beef when we visited the Majang meat market in 2022 (see our post here).

Majang Meat Market, Seoul

Our first experience with Hanwoo was a special one. The appeal of “beef shopping” at the market is choosing your own cuts of beef at the different stalls, and finally cooking the beef at the third floor for a truly local atmosphere.

While we really enjoyed that experience, we made it a point to enjoy Hanwoo beef cooked by the experts during this latest Seoul trip.

Born and Bred in the alleys of Majang market

While the interiors of Born and Bred speckle and sparkle with grandeur fit for fine dining, the restaurant has its roots in the alleys of Majang meat market.

In 2015, proprietor Jung Sang-won expanded the family butchery business when he launched a one-table private restaurant within the market. This garnered the attention of both local and foreign epicureans.

Due to its popularity, Born and Bred soon opened a four-storey outlet at its current location – which offers three different dining concepts including a special omakase beef course in the basement.

We made reservations for the Casual Dining Course (KRW165,000 or USD120 per pax) in advance.

Casual Dining Course at Born and Bred

The Casual Dining Course is one of the best (if not the best) beef-based dining experiences we had.

We started the course with the Raw Beef “Yukhoe” which is a seasoned raw beef dish that’s not unlike tartare.

The lunch was off to a good start as the Yukhoe was perfectly salted, and embellished with pear, spring onion and sesame oil to whet our appetite for what’s to come.

For sides aka banchan, the highlight had to be the White Kimchi which is a fermented cabbage that’s been fermented for one year and steamed before it is served. This kimchi was unlike anything we’ve tried.

The other side dishes were delicious too.

The meat platter

We then moved on to the main attraction – which is an assorted platter of Hanwoo beef cuts.

The platter consists of six cuts – tenderloin, sirloin, skirt, short plate, hanger steak and flat iron.

Here at Born and Bred, every piece is meticulously cooked and seasoned by the staff to yield the optimal texture and taste.

The four condiments served here with the meat are salt, gochujang, doenjang and soy sauce.

We started with the Tenderloin – cooked medium rare. We enjoyed this cut with the salt and gochujang, in our view.

Hanwoo vs. Wagyu

Born and Bred here only serves the top-tiered Hanwoo beef, which has a grading of 1+++, which is the equivalent of A5 Wagyu.

However, we do prefer Hanwoo as it has less fat percentage of 60%, vs. 70% for a similar Wagyu grade. Hence, you’ll get a good balance of beefy flavours and fattiness in a Hanwoo beef.

The marbling on these cuts was apparent – beautiful lush red colour with streaks of fat lines.

As the Sirloin is more fatty than the tenderloin, it was cooked medium well. The piece was succulent, juicy and bursting with flavours.

This cut was best enjoyed with the soy sauce and wrapped in garlic leaves.

Skirt, short plate and hanger

We could write about each cut here – but we’d rather spare the details and let you experience each cut for yourself.

In a short summary – the Skirt was prepared medium rare. It is more chewy compared to the other cuts but it was still bursting with fatty flavours .

The Short Plate (fattiest cut of this course) was cooked well done and we enjoyed it with the garlic leaves.

Hanger steak was done medium rare and the simplest seasoning of salt is preferred to allow the beefy flavours to shine.

Flat iron was cooked medium rare, and it has an intrinsic juiciness and sweetness, which only required salt and pepper to bring out the flavours.

Our personal favourite cuts were the flat iron and sirloin.

Brisket Hot Pot Rice

If you think you’re done after that whole platter of meat, you’re wrong.

The brisket is featured in the next dish, which is the Brisket Hot Pot Rice.

We like that Born and Bred is not just good with protein, as the rice is subtly flavoured and mixed with delicious brisket.

A side of doenjang soup helped to wash the rice down.

Signature Pho

Born and Bred’s excellent carb streak continues with its Signature Pho.

We didn’t really have any high expectations for this – but it was really good!

Beef pho in a Korean beef restaurant sounds a bit strange but the broth was really savoury with hits of onions, cilantro and chilli.

There was still tender meat in the broth with fat that melted in the mouth.

We finally ended the meal with Vanilla and Chocolate Ice-Cream.

Summary

If you want an exceptional experience of Hanwoo beef, cooked and prepared at the optimal level – Born and Bred is the spot to go!

We’ve visited a few high-end restaurants, but few have provided a memorable experience like this. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Born & Bred
Address: 1 Majang-ro 42-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Hours: 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10.15pm Daily (Closed on Tuesdays)
Phone: +82 2-2294-5005

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