Korean restaurants in Asia
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Cocohana
This place is one of a kind: a Korean café in a converted old Japanese house. Dishes here include bibimbap (a Korean rice dish) and kimchi (Korean pickles). A full range of coffee and tea is also available. It’s a woody, rustic place with both table and tatami seating. There is no English menu but the friendly young staff will help with ordering. This makes a great stop while exploring southeastern Kyoto.
reviewed
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Bonjuk
Big bowls of tasty and healthy rice porridge feature in this chain of small, neat restaurants - try ginseng and chicken, mushroom and oyster, seafood, sweet pumpkin, or red bean.
reviewed
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Pungmi Chueotang
This scruffy-looking restaurant draws people from great distances for the chueotang (추어탕; loach soup). Made from ground loach and leafy cabbage, the dark green soup has a mild taste. If it's too mild, dip into the plastic tubs of seasoning, which includes sancho (산초), a brown spice that adds a rich, earthy flavour when used sparingly.
With a self-serve counter of unlimited side dishes like baked fish and seaweed, it's an outstanding meal and one of the city's best deals. Getting here is not easy, though. Take a taxi from Seomyeon or Sports Complex station, Exit 11, and go to the main gate of Children's Park. Walk along the road to the right of the park entrance…
reviewed
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Pyongyang Restaurant
Owned by the same people as the Phnom Penh restaurant of the same name, this Pyongyang is even more surreal. Waitresses direct from North Korea, trained to sing and dance since childhood, will take your order one minute and step up to the microphone the next to perform perfectly choreographed dance routines and/or play electric guitar and drums (it starts about 7.30pm). It’s a complete trip. Don’t, however, let them order for you, as you’ll be served only the most expensive dishes on what is a relatively pricey menu. There is no obvious sign; look for ‘Korean Restaurant’ on the window.
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Hankook Sarang
Currently our favourite Asian food fix, the Hankook is that rare combination of authentic taste and good value. Korean staples like bibambap and bulgogi (barbecued beef cooked at your table and eaten with lettuce) come with crunchy kimchi, salad, soup, dried fish, sweet beans and green tea. Bibambap is rice and vegetables in a stone pot, to which you add the egg and sweet chilli sauce and mix it all together. The service is excellent and there’s a pleasant alfresco garden. It’s down a courtyard near Tamas Lounge.
reviewed
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Beomtae Sonjjajang
Here's a sterling example of a successful restaurant owner who won't update, modernise or even clean up the shop interior. According to superstition, the good fortune a successful shop enjoys could be lost if the interior were changed. Consequently, some shoddy-looking restaurants, like this one, serve great food. The jjambbong (짬뽕; spicy seafood soup), gunmandu (군만두; fried mandu) and tangsuyuk (탕수육; sweet-and-sour fried pork) are all excellent.
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Nabi
There seems to be yakiniku on every corner in Tokyo these days, but this contemporary spot concentrates on home-style Korean cooking: dak-hanmali (whole chicken in broth; ¥4200), bibimbap (rice and marinated vegetables), sundubu jiggae (spicy tofu stew) and samgyeupsal (pork belly), which you can wrap in ssam (leaves of sesame and lettuce). Bonus: it’s organic. The biggest problem is finding it. From Meiji-dori, head into the alley left of the Diesel shop.
reviewed
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Podo Cheong
It's not the best sutbul galbi (숯불갈비; charcoal-fired barbecue) restaurant but it is very good. The main draw of this busy restaurant is the backyard barbecue feel in the outdoor patio. Lean moksal (목살; pork chop) tastes great though most Koreans choose samgyeopsal (삼겹살; bacon). Unless you're hoping to accelerate the likelihood of a heart attack, avoid this cut, which is essentially a slab of fat with a hint of pork.
reviewed
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Geumsu Bokguk
Do you remember the Simpson's episode when Homer ate blowfish and was told he had 24 hours to live? This restaurant serves that fish. A worthwhile restaurant for anyone who wants to experience a seafood delicacy and earn bragging rights: I ate poisonous fish and survived. Stay on the 1st floor for relatively inexpensive dishes. Head upstairs and join the Japanese tourists who have a strong yen for the pricey sets. Located on a small lane across the street from the Paradise Hotel in Hae·undae.
reviewed
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Tobang
A white sign with two Chinese characters above a doorway leads the way to this small nine-table traditional restaurant, where you sit on floor cushions under paper lanterns. Order the sundubu jjigae or doenjang jjigae for some Korean home-cooking flavour and excellent side dishes that include bean sprouts, fish, cuttlefish and raw crab in red-pepper sauce, plus a minimalist soup, rice and lettuce wraps. Authentic home cooking for W4000 – no wonder queues build up at lunchtime.
reviewed
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Kkwong Memil Guksu
A tiny five-table eatery near the bus terminal, it has one staff member and two items on the menu: the kkwong-gui (꿩구이) is simple and highly recommended - half a pheasant is grilled at your table. Order rice to go with it as the side dishes are nothing to write home about. The other option is kkwong memil guksu (꿩메밀국수) - pheasant pieces share a soup with homemade noodles wide enough to drive along.
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Sakura Café
This unbelievably raucous place has gone from subdued and relaxed to utterly rè nào (hot and noisy, the way Chinese like it) in half a decade. It is actually one of several other 'Sakura Cafés' also found along this lane; perfectly located to draw in tourists, they absolutely swell with customers at night. You'll hardly hear yourself think at times, but the Korean bimbab set meal is still outrageously good.
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Tosokchon Samgyetang
Despite the crowds, the samgyetang arrives fast and still bubbling. Tip some salt and pepper together into a small saucer and use it as a dip. This 30-year-old icon is housed in a sprawling hanok (traditional house), and for many locals – and even ex-presidents – it’s the best in Seoul. Black chicken samgyetang is W19,000. Walk straight for 100m from Exit 2, turn left at the GS25 convenience store and it’s on your left.
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Tosokmaeul
Are you ready for full-on, full-flavoured Korean peasant fodder? Gamjatang is served up in this cluttered diner. Pick out the chillies to make it less spicy. The uncompromising side dishes are salty-and-fishy-as-hell shrimps, radish and cabbage kimchi drenched in gochujang, raw onions and raw chillies. Thankfully the rice is plain, and there are plenty of paper tissues to deal with runny noses and sweaty brows.
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Grandmother Lee's Raw Fish House
Stop by for raw fish and you might end up partying until sunrise. It's a small restaurant with ground-floor fish tanks and space for groups upstairs. The affable Mr. Lee speaks English well and takes the time to explain the features of each fish. Walk to the eastern end of Hae·undae beach, turn left at the first street past the Mipo ferry terminal and then a quick right turn. It's the first restaurant on your right.
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Chilgapsan
This convivial, sit-on-floor-cushions restaurant’s specialty is excellent neobiani ( 너비아니 ), a beef patty the size of a small pizza. Meant for sharing, it comes with a dressed green salad. The barley and rice bibimbap is original – you mix in doenjang jjigae rather than gochujang. Look for a building with a white frontage covered with ivy.
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Gio
The ladies in this shack serve up unique cheap food. There is no need to order as they only do two dishes that are both cooked at your table. First is a bowl of mushrooms and homemade noodles, which are the widest in Seoul. Remove some of the red pepper sauce if you want to make it less fiery and cook for 15 minutes. Next up is the pre-cooked rice, dried seaweed and herbs, which is mixed together in the same pot.
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Nolboojip
Down the steps in front of Pizza Hut is this special restaurant that serves a reasonably priced banquet to the sound of live traditional music, played throughout the day. Sit on floor cushions in the large eating arena and order sangcharim (minimum two people), which includes 20 dishes including steamed egg, fish, chicken, octopus, japchae, galbi, soup, quail's eggs and burnt-rice tea.
reviewed
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Minsokchon
A popular barnlike but attractive and cheery restaurant that echoes to beef (소갈비; so galbi) and pork (돼지갈비; dwaeji galbi) sizzling on table barbecues. The galbitang (갈비탕) is excellent with chunky lean meat and 'wellbeing' additions. If this restaurant has a long queue outside, try its branch in Gwangsan·gil.
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Sadongmyeonok
This bright and breezy eatery is hidden away, but is usually busy and has a long menu. It’s famous for manduguk – because the dumplings are the largest you’ll see (three make a meal). Also famous is the platter of haemul pajeon (seafood pancake), known for its size, crispiness and the big chunks of octopus. Use the onion and soy sauce side dish as a dip for both.
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Haenggungjeongwon
A popular lunch is galbitang – meaty bones in a meaty broth served with rice and side dishes (it’s the best in the world). Opposite Haenggung’s information centre, the restaurant is easy to spot – three storeys high with large balconies. For a drink try the refreshing cheongha – Japanese sake -style rice wine. Free self-serve coffee.
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Yakiniku Toraji International
Although it originates from the humble Korean dish known as bulgogi, yakiniku (grilled meat) at this Roppongi Hills establishment is anything but ordinary. Choose from a variety of immaculate cuts of meat, and then slow roast them over charcoals. Next, dip your perfectly cooked slices of meat in a variety of sauces before popping them into your mouth - delicious!
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Pyeongandochapssal Sundae
Squeeze yourself into this popular mouthful of a restaurant to take up the sundae challenge. We’re not talking fruit sundae, but Korean sundae, which is a black noodle sausage. It looks worse than it tastes – the flavour is bland although the skin is chewy. Order pyeongando jeongsik for a spicy soup and a plate of sundae and pork hocks (W9000).
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