Choosing a restaurant by scrolling through Instagram reels may not be the best start for a good meal, but Kamyeon caught our eye on social media and we really wanted to try it out..

Situated in an area of town better known for its tourist traps, Kamyeon impressed us with its simple but stylish interior, really lovely waiting staff and absolutely scrumptious Korean comfort food unlike anything we’ve eaten before…

There’s a pedestrianised part of the Saint-Michel neighbourhood that we would generally advise our guests to avoid. It’s full of souvenir shops (Notre-Dame is around the corner) and restaurants with people trying to lure you in with the promise of a free drink (inevitably leading to a very average meal).

However, even here – if you’ve done a little research – you can find some exceptions just a few minutes away from our hotels, like the Korean restaurant Kamyeon which doesn’t necessarily look like much from the outside but actually has very chic and understated interior design (light wooden parquet, cool furniture with muted green fabric, marble tables, copper-coloured cutlery…) hinting that the food will also be carefully curated.

The small room quickly fills up with youngster from the nearby Sorbonne, thanks to the very reasonable prices. Don’t pay attention to the non-stop K-pop coming from the TV over the door, and check out the many unusual and delicious-sounding dishes on the menu…

After ordering a Korean beer and some water, we made our choice.

To start, we decided to share a Kimchi cheese pancake, which actually arrived at the same time as our two main dishes:

— a vegetarian Rabokki (Korean noodles served with a homemade sweet and spicy sauce, a tteokbokki rice cake, Chinese cabbage, soft-boiled egg), and

— a Japchae (sweet potato noodles with vegetables)

The kimchi pancake was a huge success, deliciously greasy and sooo tasty. One of the star dishes of the restaurant.

The Rabokki was a good mix of tastes and textures, but the Japchae (according to our guest) needed a little more seasoning. It wasn’t bad, just not as exceptional as we were expecting.

Luckily, the whole experience was elevated by our lovely waiter, and everything was served super quickly – two very positive points!

If you want to end your meal with a great desserts, we might as well be honest – Kamyeon may not excite you.

We decided to order a slice of black sesame cake, which arrived simply plonked on a plate (albeit quite a nice plate) and tastes rather neutral, plus some hotteok, which are usually pancakes but here were more like little dumplings made from red azuki beans, a very popular delicacy in South Korea.

For us though, despite looking very interesting, they were too dense and dry (and there were so many of them!) You may prefer to skip dessert and find a nearby ice cream parlour instead.

In conclusion, even if the desserts weren’t as great as we might have liked, our dinner at Kamyeon was on the whole a very positive experience – new tastes, a really great starter, and confidently created mains.

If you’re looking for a meal that doesn’t break the bank, with smiley service and unusual dishes, this would be a great choice!

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Kamyeon (here) is open for lunch only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and lunch and dinner from Thursday-Saturday

Online booking here

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