We’ve been in Seoul for 10 days now and it seems like high time that I post a restaurant report from here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not done with my Bombay reports. I still have quite a few to go, including of a couple of higher end meals than I’ve reported on so far. But from here on out I’m going to alternate reports from the two cities till all the Bombay reports are done. At that point I’ll still have a bunch of Seoul reports left as we’re here for another three weeks. To get things started I may as well give you a quick rundown of our first meal here, eaten just a few hours after we checked into our hotel, at Chon in Insadong.

Not that you’re paying attention but Insadong was my base of operations when I was here by myself last March and it’s also where we are putting up as a family for this much longer stay. Then I was in a small hotel room by myself; now we have a large serviced apartment close to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, and just a few minutes walk from the main tourist drag of Insadong-gil. Many smaller streets, all lined with restaurants and bars, branch off from Insadong-gil. Chon is located in the branch of Insadong 14-gil towards the north end of the main artery. It is an attractive restaurant, done up in a more or less traditional style with lots of dark wood and decor marked by traditional objects.

Not surprisingly, given the look, they also serve traditional Korean food. They have a number of set menu options you can choose from. Though we did not see a menu, and while only a Korean menu is posted outside the restaurant, it’s not unlikely that there may be an English menu if you ask. Why didn’t we see a menu? Well, this was the welcome dinner for my program and a set menu had been organized by our partners handling our logistics here. All we had to do on arrival was head to the rear of the restaurant where a private room had been set up for us. We were divided among three large adjacent tables (we were a group of 28 or so) and quickly got down to business as the food began to show up right away.

First up were a number of small plates, not quite banchan. The stars of this round were some very nice panko-breaded fried shrimp and the gajami yangnyeom-twigim, which is butterflied flatfish that is seasoned, lightly battered and fried and dressed with a sweet-spicy sauce. But everything else on the table was quite tasty too. After these dishes were cleared the banchan proper was set out along with lettuce and seasonings for ssam. Then emerged another fried fish (it resembled and tasted like pomfret but I can’t be positive) and bulgogi. Finally, pots of doenjang jjigae or bean paste stew. All very tasty.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate, click on a pic below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service and the overall meal, and to see what’s coming next.

Service was the usual Korean efficient but distant—the servers set down things while seeming not to notice that you’re there and only engage when asked for something, and then minimally (but promptly). The food was all very tasty even if nothing particularly stood out. There’s probably food of similar quality available at a number of restaurants in Insadong, to say nothing of other parts of Seoul. Price? I can’t tell you how much this meal cost as it was part of a larger package. I can tell you from looking at the Korean menu that it seems likely that in general a meal here—if not exactly this meal—would run 30,000-50,000 won/head or about $22-$38.

Okay, next up, a return to Bombay and to one of those higher-end places I referred to above: The Bombay Canteen. That will be on Thursday. The next Seoul report will go up on Saturday.