Olipepe, Gangnam: wood-fired pizza inside a luxury residence
For a weekend date or a small gathering somewhere with a bit of polish in Gangnam, most people think of fine dining in Cheongdam, Italian in Hannam or the brunch streets of Sinsa. The problem is that Cheongdam and Hannam need bookings weeks ahead, and the area right around Gangnam station is too loud and too crowded for two or three quiet hours.
Driving to a weekend date in Gangnam is its own puzzle, especially in a heat wave or on a rainy weekend, when you end up wanting a building with a garage. A rainy Saturday at Bills in Gangnam had taught me that: park under Arc Place, walk in without an umbrella, sit down. Restaurants inside a proper commercial building suit Gangnam weekends.
This time I had a different reason for going a little south on Gangnam-daero. I follow real estate, and a new high-end residence called Gallery 832 had just been completed and was taking residents. The smallest unit is a duplex of about 24 pyeong, roughly 80 square meters, priced at around four billion won. I wanted to see what that looks like in person. Gallery 832 was planned by Knight Frank, the consultancy behind residences like the Waldorf Astoria in New York and One Barangaroo in Sydney, and it is a different grade from the other luxury residences here. Olipepe, the Italian brand known for its wood-fired pizza in Gwanghwamun, had opened inside it. Two curiosities, one lunch.
Before you go
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Booking | Naver or Catchtable. We booked on Naver and were shown to a window table on Gangnam-daero; walk-ins around us were seated in the hall. There are private rooms with a minimum spend |
| Parking | Self-park on basement floors 3 to 5 of Gallery 832 (B2 is valet only). Parking was free on the day we went. Below B3 there is only one elevator to the retail floors, so you cannot miss it. Going down, two of the three elevators stop at B2, so look for the retail one |
| Getting there | A short walk south from Gangnam station on the Sinbundang line. On foot, take the outdoor escalator on the right side of Gallery 832 and the restaurant is straight ahead |
| Points | Olipepe is part of CJ, so CJ ONE points apply at the till |
| Korean name | 올리페페 강남점 |
A little south of the noise
The location is just below Gangnam station on the Sinbundang line, far enough that the chaos of the crossing is gone and the traffic on Gangnam-daero is merely steady. On a weekend evening it is calm in a way the station never is.
I drove; my wife came by bus and walked. From the street, the outdoor escalator on the right of the building brings you straight to the entrance, with clear signs. I went into the garage and got lost briefly, which is why the parking notes above are so long. Rain or heat, you go from the garage to your table in one elevator ride without touching the weather, and on foot the escalator has a roof.
A wood-fired oven in the middle of the room
Inside, the ceiling opens up. Warm Italian tones, tall space, wooden tables in good materials, and in the center of the room a wood-fired oven with pizzas going in and out. Putting the oven in the middle is the classic Italian signature, and seeing it at this scale inside a city commercial building was the first surprise. A wall of wine along one side suggests the place works as a pairing dinner too; we kept it light this time and noted the list for later.
We had booked on Naver and were shown to a window table, the best seats in the room: Gangnam-daero outside, good daylight. Walk-ins were being seated in the hall, which is not a bad place to sit, because the room is wide and the tables are spaced generously, but the light and the view are clearly different. If you want a quiet table, book.
Table spacing was what had impressed me at Bills too, and Olipepe has it right. The next table’s conversation does not reach you, and the room still hums. Spacing a room this size that loosely means giving up some turnover in favor of how guests feel, and the decision shows in everything.
Staff wore neat uniforms and kept a restrained tone, unobtrusive but attentive, and busy without mistakes. I had expected a quiet weekend in a business district. Instead there was a wait and the room was nearly full: a group of people in their thirties and forties in front of us laughing quietly, a family behind them. High ceilings send the sound upward, so none of it intruded. Date, gathering, family: the room handles all three.
What we ordered
Ordering is on a kiosk; there may have been a paper menu we were not handed. Too many things looked good. We settled on the calamari limone pasta, the rucola and prosciutto pizza, a basil tomato ade and a cola.
Bread first: small cheese-dusted rusks, nutty and good. I had wanted an Aperol but I was driving, so the basil tomato ade stepped in, and it turned out to be the right partner for Italian food, tomato and basil in soda, sharp and clean against the richness.
The calamari limone was excellent. Grilled cuttlefish on pasta with lemon butter: citrus first, then the savory depth of the squid coming up as you chew, the two pulling against each other in a good way. The pasta itself was properly al dente.
The rucola and prosciutto pizza came out of the oven with a crisp base, a slightly charred bottom, that smoky edge and the contrast of crisp outside and soft inside that is the whole point of a wood-fired dough. Prosciutto and rucola is an obvious combination. On a base like this you remember why obvious combinations are loved.
One pasta and one pizza was plenty for two. Next time I would add a starter. The dessert list runs to gelato and tiramisu, there is a steak section, and I left wanting to work through the whole menu with a T-bone and a bottle of wine.
The oven itself was the image I kept: fire glowing inside, in the middle of a room like this.
Two hours in, the room had turned over completely around us and was still full. That kind of turnover a few hundred meters south of the station, not in the middle of it, is the interesting part. If Knight Frank has planted a project like this on Gangnam-daero, other high-end brands may follow along this stretch. If you are curious about real estate, it is worth a look now.
I’d recommend it to couples who want a good-looking, quiet Italian dinner near Gangnam station, to families in their thirties and forties looking for a weekend table, to groups of three or four who want a wide hall where they can hear each other, and to anyone who needs a Gangnam restaurant with easy parking on a rainy or very hot weekend. Fans of the Gwanghwamun branch will find it here too. Next time: a starter, the T-bone and a wine pairing.
My rating: 4.5/5. There are not many Italian rooms in Gangnam where you can sit quietly for two or three hours with someone who matters.