It was my 6th day in Jeju, and on the previous days, I had been going out of my gastronomic comfort zone and eating lots of seafood and unfamiliar dishes. There’s the delicious seafood ramyeon by my favorite abeoji, the bewildering pork innards soup on Chilsimni Food Street, and the overloaded seafood noodle in a tucked-away restaurant.
However, I’ve realized that there really is an endpoint to any new exotic adventure, and you’ll eventually yearn for the simplicity and comfort of the familiar. The things that you’re used to. And this is especially true with food!
Even though I enjoyed all of the food I tried, it’s still a fact that it took me some effort and internal deviance to choose them. (I’m really not a fan of seafood!) By this time, I was already a bit weary from this kind of food-venture, and it was such a relief to stumble upon Ten Pizza at Songaksan.
Ten Pizza offers mainly Italian specialties, like pizza and pasta, with simple coffee drinks—but still with a Korean touch. A gentle Korean auntie apparently runs the place by herself. When I walked in, the place was empty, and I found auntie on a table just fiddling with her phone or some notes. I felt even more determined to dine in.
The café is quite small; it can probably accommodate only less than 20 people at a time. The interior is simple but nice, giving off an industrial vibe with its bare concrete walls and plain rectangular windows minimally accented by little potted plants and rocks. The windows are framing a picturesque view of the ocean and a distant little island.
I ordered baked spaghetti and iced coffee. What fascinated me was that, instead of the usual garlic bread or pastry, the pasta was sided with pickles and pickled radish! See, I did not deviate far from my Korean food trip! Thinking back, I should have used chopsticks instead of a fork to complement the experience.
I’m not a pizza person; that’s why I ordered my personally-biased spaghetti. But as the name implies, Ten Pizza specializes in pizza. Instead of the usual round pizzas, they serve rectangular ones with different toppings. Their pizzas have generally good reviews, so Ten Pizza might be worth a try for pizza lovers. Plus, the ambiance here is really nice and peaceful compared to those at the base of Songaksan.
The address of Ten Pizza is Sangmo-ri, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do. It is right along the coastal road and only takes about 10 minutes by foot from/to the Songaksan trail.
Daybook by Rei 