Here finally is my last report on our high-end dining adventures in Seoul in February and March. It’s not my last Seoul report from the trip—I have one more report on some far more informal eating to come—but it’s my last high-end report. And it’s of the last of those high-end meals. You may recall that our first was lunch at Mingles in late February. In early March we had lunch with a friend at Soul Dining. In mid-March, just a few days before we left Seoul, the missus and I had lunch at Kwonsooksoo. We’d come close to cancelling the reservation—the end of the program I was leading had left me rather drained and I wasn’t sure I was up for another long meal. In the end we decided to stick with our plan and I’m very glad we did: this was one of our very best meals, not just in Seoul but anywhere so far this year. Here are some details.

This was the third of our meals on the Seoul Michelin trail. I’ve noted before that the Michelin-starred restaurants in Seoul aren’t exactly dominated by restaurants that serve Korean cuisine. We very deliberately sought out ones that did. The first two we ate at, Mingles (which has two stars) and Soul Dining (which has one star), are very much restaurants in a recognizable contemporary global idiom. Their food is Korean but Korean ingredients and Korean techniques are used and fused there to produce dishes that aren’t  necessarily/always easily tied to traditional versions. Kwonsooksoo (which also has two stars) is quite different in this regard. Chef Kwon Woo-Joong comes from a family of chefs and in his own cooking is very much in conversation with Korean culinary traditions, both high and vernacular.

One of the first signs of this as you enter the modern dining room (which in many ways is reminiscent of Mingles) and make your way to your table is that your table will have on it a small gyojasang or elevated wooden platform. All the food, which emerges in the form of a tasting menu, is served on this platform. And while much of that food is plated in the contemporary high-end style common all over the globe, no one would have any difficulty in recognizing most of it as Korean food even before taking a bite of any of it.

At dinner the cost of eating at Kwonsooksoo’s is identical to that of Mingles. Both places charge 340,000 won ($245) for an elaborate tasting menu. Both places serve a slightly edited version of that dinner menu at lunch. But whereas at Mingles that lunch starts at 280,000 won ($201) before supplements, at Kwonsooksoo we paid “only” 190,000 ($136) per head for lunch in March. The difference in price is almost equal to the cost of lunch at Soul Dining. It is for this reason that I’d said earlier that if your main interest in eating at the high end in Seoul is to try places at different ends of the Korean gourmet spectrum then you might be best off eating at Kwonsooksoo and Soul Dining and saving the Mingles money for other things. Since then the price of lunch at Kwonsooksoo has gone up but it’s still a far more reasonable proffer than Mingles at 210,000 won ($150).

Okay, now that we’ve sorted out the question of cost, what did we eat?

The meal began with a welcome drink with small appetizers. This welcome drink was potato-rice wine and was very good. The assortment of small appetizers—which together amounted quite a lot of food—included a wonderful warm chestnut porridge/soup and then a number of small bites: parboiled and marinated octopus, whelk in gochujang, deep-fried sunchoke, dried mullet roe and a terrine-like presentation of galbi etc. Oh yes, there was also a pumpkin pancake on the side. All very tasty and a very nice range of flavours and textures that set the tone for the rest of the meal.

Next, a small covered bowl was set down on each platform. This was uncovered to reveal an excellent porridge of glutinous rice topped with a healthy portion of snow crab and pine nuts. The snow crab had chamnamul, a somewhat esoteric Korean green, mixed in. This was one of my favourite courses. But it had close competition from the next course which featured various raw seafood piled atop laver and topped with green. A light broth featuring doenjang was poured over and we were instructed to mix it all up to eat. Delicately flavoured and rather lovely.

A change of texture for the next course which featured an “omelette” with lobster, korean beef and duruep or fatsia sprouts. The omelette was topped with angelica shoots. Very nicely done. This was followed by a course centered on steamed geumtae or golden pollack. The fish was “stuffed” with Korean beef and wild mushroom. A sauce was poured over—I think it may have contained some ancient soy sauce in it. Anyway, it was rather good as well. The next course featured a white kimchi roll, inside which were abalone, shrimp and more Korean beef. Lovely on its own and a great way to reset the palate before the final and largest savoury course.

This featured a choice of goat’s beard pot rice with banchan or marinated lamb with doenjang and basil kimchi. There was also the option of wet-aged Korean beef striploin for a 20,000 won supplement but we demurred. The missus got the rice and I got the lamb. The rice was an elaborate presentation (along with the banchan there was a light soup with mugwort). More to the point it was cooked perfectly and the aroma and taste with the goat’s beard (another Korean green) were both wonderful. My lamb was very nice too but I had rice envy.

And so to sweet things. Dessert proper featured burdock ice cream with various things. I would never have expected to eat burdock ice cream, leave alone to like it but I did. Then an elaborate petit fours trolley rolled up and we were given one of everything on it along with a choice of tea or coffee. And then we were done.

For a look at the restaurant and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and the whole experience and to see what’s coming next.

Service was very polished and solicitous. Our server did his best to describe every dish to us. Again, my presence meant he would only speak to us in English and this once again meant I couldn’t catch every detail of ingredient or preparation. (It’s not that I speak Korean but that in Korean he could have explained things more clearly to the missus than came across in English.)

An excellent meal from top to bottom. We might have enjoyed the Mingles lunch a bit more, on the whole, but the price difference might make up for that. Both restaurants present seasonal menus and it is going to be difficult not to try them again when my program will return to Seoul in 2026 (next time we’ll be there in May). I would certainly recommend Kwonsooksoo highly to anyone looking to see what contemporary high-end Korean food tastes like whose Korean character has not been abstracted out of it at all.

Alright, only one more Seoul report to come from this trip. That will be posted next weekend. Before that I’ll have a report on a recent dinner at 112 Eatery (that’ll be on Tuesday) and then my last report from New York in May—of dinner at Foxface Natural (that’ll be on Thursday). And, of course, a booze review tomorrow.