Restaurants in Seoul
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BSD Dubu House
Over 20 varieties of spicy sundubu are on offer in this neat and clean basement restaurant decorated with collectables, but the traditional beef one is hard to beat. Add a raw egg to the sundubu, empty the rice into a bowl and add boiling water to the remaining rice to make burnt-rice tea. Side dishes include freshly fried fish.
reviewed
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Dolkemaeul Tofu House
The star here is the excellent sundubu (uncurdled tofu) cooked in a stone pot and served with hotpot rice, soup, fish and side dishes. Add an egg to the tofu, spoon the rice into a bowl and pour hot water from the kettle into the rice hotpot to make burnt-rice tea that takes away the spiciness.
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Pulhyanggi
Sit on chairs or floor cushions at this long-running, 2nd-storey restaurant where the popular attraction is the dozen or more items served up in the set meals. The mainly vegetarian sets offer traditional food such as sweet-and-sour mushrooms, sesame soup, acorn jelly, rice cakes and special teas.
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Le Saint-Ex
The blackboard menu at this very French bistro with consistently good food and service is always tempting. A heater and even blankets are available for the outside patio. The W17,600 lunch sets are excellent, and in a sneaky move the irresistible desserts are always on display.
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Mad for Garlic
The bare brick walls, the wine glass and wine bottle decor and the open-plan kitchen make this a top spot for atmosphere and couples. The Italian menu doesn’t disappoint, nor does the Dracula Killer starter. Bottles of wine start from W30,000.
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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.
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Gamrodang
Chef Youn Hie-hong offers a series of small but wonderfully original vegetarian dishes that are bulging with healthy ingredients such as hamcho, a salty green herb that grows near the sea, and deodeok. Loosely based on Buddhist temple food, the carefully prepared items are full of varied and subtle flavours. Every course is special – the salad with a seven-herb dressing, the fragrant rice wrapped in lotus leaf, the pink cactus juice kimchi, the fried mushrooms in citron juice, the tofu sandwich, and the pink bamboo salt. The children’s menu is W12,000. Don’t be put off by the tatty exterior.
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Boso
Gastronomic adventurer? Come to Boso for a more-than-you-can-eat banquet. Tourists don’t frequent the place, and the food is uncompromisingly Korean, including raw fish, raw prawns, eel and ray. There’s also galbi, a whole pumpkin cooked with sticky rice, nuts and a sweet sauce inside, japchae, soup, porridge, salad, vegetables, stuffed peppers, octopus, fruit, tea… Oh yes and steamed egg, dubu jjigae, mini- pajeon, mul kimchi… The helpful owner speaks English.
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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.
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Sanchon
The atmosphere created by the Buddhist artworks, music and lanterns makes this a very special restaurant. In addition, the owner, Kim Yun-sik – an ex-monk – is an expert on Korean Buddhist temple food, and the vegetarian marinades, glazes and seasonings are unique. The same meal of 20 small courses is served at both lunch and dinner. The prices may not be very Buddhist, but the food and atmosphere are heavenly. Dancers and drummers perform nightly at 8pm.
reviewed
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Noryangjin Fish Market Restaurants
Up on the 2nd floor of the fish market are half a dozen traditional-style restaurants, selling the freshest fish and seafood. They specialise in raw fish, but also serve spicy soups with octopus, blue crab or fish plus steamed crab, grilled prawns or clams, or jeonbokjuk (abalone rice porridge). All come with side dishes such as grilled fish, quail eggs, acorn jelly, beans and tofu. Beware of sannakji, which is live baby octopus.
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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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Osegyehang
A clean, modern vegetarian restaurant run by members of a Taiwanese religious sect. The food combines all sorts of mixtures and flavours, and is proving to be popular. The pumpkin slices garnished with cinnamon and nuts tastes much better than it sounds, and the barbecue-meat-substitute dish is flavoursome. The food is original and worth trying – although noodles in red-bean soup could be a step too far. Non-alcoholic beer and wine is served.
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Zelen
A couple of young Bulgarian guys have done a great job setting up this restaurant. Warm and welcoming, with candles and a mermaid water feature, the Bulgarian food is original and very good. Meat lovers have plenty of options, and there are wines, too. Meals like kiufte meatballs are served on a big white platter, while the giuvedje stew is smaller but packed with meats. It’s best to book if you want to come on the weekend.
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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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Busan Ilbeonji
Generous super-fresh fish and crab meals are a bargain at Mrs Moon’s restaurant up on the 2nd floor of the Noryangjin fish market. Match the hangeul above to the sign to find it, or maybe just ask someone. Saengseon-gui is W5000 and kkotge (a crab in a spicy or mild soup) is W10,000 and includes great side dishes such as garnished tofu, sweet red beans, pumpkin, raw fish salad and shredded jellyfish.
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Samarkand
Within the vast Dongdaemun market is Samarkand, a laid-back, family-run, home-cooking Uzbekistan restaurant. Sitting in the armchairs with Uzbeki pop DVDs on the TV is like eating in someone’s living room. The soups ( shurpa has meat, solid vegetables and chickpeas in a tasty broth) and kebabs ( shashlik is minced meat served on a huge skewer) are great, and lepeshka bread goes well with the meal.
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Fresh House
A great spread at a great price has ensured the popularity of this new buffet restaurant at Olympic Park. The cooks are constantly bringing in appetising, mainly Asian food. With the accent on freshness, this buffet is proving to be a hit with meat lovers, sushi lovers, salad lovers, dessert lovers – everyone is catered for. Tip: if daege (king crab) is on the buffet, grab a seat as close to it as possible.
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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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Mindeulleyeongto
Perhaps the world’s largest café, with masses of different zones and hideaway spots, each with their own decor and furniture. Spread over five floors, the top floor is candlelit at night. A friendly dog guards the doorway and workers have their own special wave. Walt Disney would have loved it, including the name (which is something to do with dandelions). Mindeulleyeongto 2 is just down the road.
reviewed
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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.
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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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Salam
One of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in Seoul, this authentic Turkish one is hidden away next to the mosque. Pide (thin pizza), kebabs, hummus, baklava and lots of other options are freshly made in the open-plan kitchen. The restaurant has neat tables and Turkish décor and music. Finish the very reasonable try-everything nine-course meal with a puff on a sheesha.
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O’Kim’s Brauhaus
More Deutschland than Ireland, this huge but convivial barn of a restaurant/bar has an Oktoberfest atmosphere and live music at 8pm except on Sunday. O’Kim’s serves up big platters of steak, ribs, sausages and seafood along with its own brewed-on-the-premises light or dark German-style beer (W4800 a glass). It’s near the COEX exhibition halls, not in the mall.
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