Places to eat in Korea

[nahneun]

Hey, I'm in Korea for the summer and I was wondering if there were any places I definitely have to check out in terms of food. I've been here before so I've done most of the touristy stuff, so now I'm looking to get down and personal with Seoul since I'm by myself this time around with family to force me to stay in the countryside for three weeks -_-; Do any of the people in Korea have any recommendations for places to eat? I have a day job near Apkujeong, so it'd be nice if it were near the area, but I'm open to traveling a bit within Seoul. Thanks for the help

 

[Douglas]

Ibdj

 

[moosy]

If you haven't been yet I would recommend Tosokchon (near the Gyeongbokgung subway station) for their Samgyetang.

 

[indesertum]

i liked the restaurant inside 10 corso como. and the bartender made a legit martini. much better than any bars in ithaca

also the big department stores have decent food albeit expensive food upstairs and decent baked goods and small eats in the basement (hyundai, shinsaegae)

-_-; sorry i just thought of more stuff

 

[Eason]

Hmm, everywhere? Have bul dalk, dalk kalbe, dalk gojji on the street, green tea pat bing su at Tom 'n' Tom's...

 

[impolyt_one]

I like the 10 Corso Como Cafe, but their food is fancy looking bad Italian food. Dishes are not well thought out and taste like a Korean person made them, high on presentation and technical specs, low on flavor. It's not too expensive, though.

Since you're out here, you should probably go for good sushi, because obviously there aren't many areas in which the food in Korea shines, but luckily you can get decent sushi here. The Timber Room in the basement of the Park Hyatt has a small sushi set for 45,000W or something, and it's really quite good, all things considered. You can't get sushi this good in America. Just don't drink too many drinks there, because they're twenty bucks a piece plus 20% tax.

You could go to Pierre Gagnaire's for lunch. He does a little bit of local fusion in his otherwise pretty standard tasting menu, stuff like kimchi consomme gelee and things like that. I think the lunch course is about 80,000W plus the hotel vat, so not as expensive as dinner. Maybe good for a one-time splurge while you're out here.

Most of the good Korean places are pretty internet hyped already on both the Korean blogs and the few expat-run food blogs like Seouleats.com, and some deserve it, most don't... because nobody out here has a palate, in my experience.

Samcheong-dong sujebi always has a mile long line out the door, I've never been in though. I have the feeling it's just a bit overrated.

Tosokchon for samgyetang, like the guy above said, is regarded well.

I think you can do pretty well by eating at the taxi driver's restaurants, actually. They each only serve one thing, maybe two things at most, and so they're focused. Namsan Kimchijjigae is very good, it's on the strip between Banpo bridge and Namsan #3 tunnel, around the corner from Itaewon. There's also driver's restaurants scattered throughout Mapo, and on Namsan up the hill near the Seven Luck casino. Speaking of, you should probably go to the casino as well, you get your free drinks and free meal. Probably better to play roulette or something because they're always slow as **** to bring you those little drinks.

Omori kimchijjigae (I think it is?) is good, there's a few branches around. One near Garosu-gil and one down the street from Club Answer in Chungdam, if I recall.

I like eating tonkatsu at Saboten. I really just like their dressing for the cabbage, mainly, but it's pretty solid. It's no Maisen, but it gets the job done for 9,500W. Locations everywhere.

You're gonna get the really authentic, most tasty Korean food in the shadiest places, though. It's like some unspoken rule. There's a naengmyun/bulgogi place near Dongdaemun (at the 4-way intersection naer the old stadium) that looks like a big steel shed, but they have one of those tall rotisserie car parks that is also a big shed, and I swear I see all kinds of sick baller cars coming and going from that place all day, everyday, it's like Bentley Arnages and **** all lined up with chaffeurs outside this tin shed. I figure it must be decent food.
A lot of stuff near Dongdaemun all the way up the street towards Jangcheung Gym (in front of the Shilla), it's where all the workers and the people come in to eat late at night.

 

[nahneun]

Thanks for all the updates! I'll be sure to check them all out

Particularly looking forward to the samgyetang place... I love samgyetang +_+

I went to a sushi place yesterday with my brother-in-laws before the soccer game. It was carousel sushi but the quality of the sushi was SO much better than anything I had in the US. It was great, but I wish they used a bit more rice. The slices of fish were huge, but they didn't use a lot of rice, so the balance was kind of lacking. Regardless, it tasted amazing

Also, they used real wasabi instead of flavored horseradish, which was really nice. Also got to have some fresh ikura. No fishy smell like the ones they use in the US and it literally just broke apart and melted in my mouth. Soooo good +_+

I wonder if Korea also uses bluefin or if they use yellowfin? I haven't had any exposure to bluefin in the US, so I'm not exactly sure how it differs from yellowfin, but the ootoro I had was also really nice. Great marbling and I could just taste the fat enveloping my taste buds. Really good stuff

The chutoro was kind of bland even though it was the same price as the ootoro (surprisingly). I was also disappointed that the chutoro was frozen (but the ootoro wasn't...so I'm kind of confused, hahaha), but it wasn't too big of a deal. I remember reading somewhere that toro was better frozen, but I definitely think it would have tasted better if it were fresh...

 

[dtmt]

The lunch buffet at the DMZ tour had a pretty bitchin mac n cheeze

 

[impolyt_one]

was it Hiroba sushi? That is a kaiten sushi chain that has been popping up all over lately. I agree, they have decent kaiten sushi. Ootoro here is not bad, it's definitely closer to the good stuff than say, Korean beef vs Japanese beef. I also agree with you that even kaiten sushi here makes anything in America look bad. I refuse to eat sushi in America after having lived in Asia for so long.

I went to this place called Modern Babsang on Garosu-gil today, they have a typical Korean food menu. It was pretty good. Dishes are maybe a few dollars more than some kimbap hole in the wall but the interior was nice and it was a relaxing lunch.