2023.10.20 Hotel Events

Four Seasons Hotel Seoul's modern Japanese restaurant Akira Back, located in Jongno District, central Seoul, offers a gaiseki dinner course that showcases seasonal autumn ingredients.

Four Seasons Hotel Seoul

Through Nov. 30: Four Seasons Hotel Seoul's modern Japanese restaurant Akira Back, located in Jongno District, central Seoul, offers a gaiseki (a high-end Japanese course meal featuring various dishes served sequentially in small portions) dinner course that showcases seasonal autumn ingredients, primarily focusing on the precious natural pine mushrooms. This special menu is available until Nov. 30.

Pine mushrooms, often referred to as an "autumn treasure" due to their profile rich in protein, minerals, vitamins, dietary fiber, and their unique flavor, are a rare ingredient. Notably, pine mushrooms are highly esteemed among edible mushrooms for their distinct aroma and taste, which are unlike any other mushroom. To elevate the overall taste and flavors of the course, they have incorporated rare ingredients from both land and sea, such as hanwoo (Korean beef), sea urchin roe, caviar, tuna and abalone.

This seven-course dinner begins with zensai, which is a traditional Japanese appetizer comprised of one-bite delicacies using four different cooking techniques. It includes dishes like sweet potato tofu with Osetra caviar, roasted scallops with matsutake mushrooms and sea urchin roe, and soft abalone cooked for four hours with a rich yolk sauce. The meal continues with a premium sashimi platter, including honmaguro (tuna), followed by grilled eggplant and lobster served with a special oil sauce.

The tender hanwoo beef, grilled to enhance its natural flavors, is served with a miso sauce that includes lightly grilled pine mushrooms and yuzu, creating a delectable combination of taste and texture. The meal features two different styles of dishes: the first is a delicate pine mushroom goto udon with thin and chewy udon noodles, and the second is crab and salmon roe rice, made by mixing crab meat and salmon roe into the rice, and is available with additional caviar topping for 20,000 won ($15). Finally, the dining experience concludes with Akira Back's signature dessert, harumaki, along with a choice of tea or coffee.

The seven-course dinner is priced at 250,000 won per person.

Additionally, there's an extensive wine list featuring the 2019 Château La Ponchonière from France, available by the glass or bottle, to perfectly complement the course. There is also a variety of other options, including Japanese or domestic sake, cocktails, spirits, beer and wine.

Akira Back, the signature restaurant of the globally acclaimed star chef of the same name, operates in various locations worldwide, with the only one in Korea being at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. The restaurant presents a diverse menu, including signature dishes like tuna pizza, AB hanwoo taco and matsutake mushroom croquette, as well as sushi, sashimi, udon, soba and other dishes incorporating local ingredients.

(02) 6388-5000 www.fourseasons.com/seoul JW Marriott Hotel Seoul

Announcement: MOBO Bar, the contemporary cocktail bar on JW Marriott Hotel Seoul’s seventh floor, mixes uniquely creative cocktails from rare liquors sourced in the hotel wine cellar and natural ingredients grown in the bar’s greenhouse. Created before your eyes from home-grown herbs and other homemade ingredients, each cocktail inspires and embodies the MOBO philosophy: MOdern + BOtanical. This season, MOBO Bar presents two cocktail promotions.

For October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, MOBO Bar is proud to take part in the Pink Ribbon Campaign once again. Boasting a 21-year tradition, the Pink Ribbon Campaign works in collaboration with Estée Lauder Companies to help raise awareness of breast cancer and work towards its eradication. In solidarity with the aims of the campaign, MOBO Bar presents the Pink Cloud, a mocktail featuring sweet-sour sparkling pomegranate aromas topped with a layer of milky cream in the signature color of the Pink Ribbon Campaign. The Pink Cloud is available until Oct. 31, the last day of the campaign, symbolizing MOBO Bar’s solidarity with the global fight against breast cancer.

A trio of signature cocktails created in collaboration with Japanese craft gin Ki No Bi takes a deeper dive into the colorful world of botanicals. Ki No Bi, meaning “beauty of the seasons,” uses 11 handpicked botanical ingredients, separated for distillation into six “elements,” then blended with pure groundwater sourced from the famous sake-brewing district of Fushimi. Inspired by Ki No Bi’s six elements, MOBO Bar presents three new cocktails focusing on the “Herbal” element in accordance with MOBO’s brand identity. The maesil cocktail is a sparkling blend of maesil (East Asian apricot) cordial and shiso bitters on a base of Ki No Bi gin. The garden smash features salted peppermint syrup, lemon juice and bergamot topped with fragrant basil, while the herb elixir reveals an invigorating combination of herbal liquor and lemon.

Guests choosing a promotional Ki No Bi cocktail are offered a complimentary sensorial kit, which gives an in-depth exploration of each of the brand’s six aromatic elements, and a miniature bottle of Ki No Bi Herb fragrance. Ki No Bi collaborative cocktails are priced at 30,000 won each and are available until Feb. 29, 2024. (02) 6282-6262 www.marriott.co.kr/hotels/travel/seljw-jw-marriott-hotel-seoul