Hanilkwan, established in 1939, is one of Seoul’s oldest and most-storied restaurants. They are credited with bringing aspects of Korean royal cuisine into the mainstream and also for inventing or at least popularizing Seoul-style bulgogi—in which the thinly-sliced beef is cooked in a hot domed pan with the juices/broth pooling along the sides. Originally founded as Hwaseonok, they adopted the current name—which literally means “Korea’s Best Restaurant”—after WW2 when Japanese colonialism ended. Their original location was then destroyed during the Korean war, during which time the restaurant had relocated to Busan. After their return to Seoul they built a new location in Jongno and enjoyed a long heyday as one of the city’s premier restaurants, opening several branches. That new main location too eventually fell, to redevelopment this time, and now their main branch is located in tony Apgujeong, with a few more scattered around the city. The Gwanghwamun branch is located just a brief walk from where we were putting up and it is there that we repaired to for a nice Mother’s Day meal.

Though it’s a long way from its heyday, Hanilkwan is still a well-regarded restaurant. Family operated by the fourth generation, they’ve been awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin in the past. However, they don’t currently have that recognition. For that reason, perhaps, despite the Gwanghwamun location being situated right next to some of the city’s biggest tourist spots, the restaurant doesn’t seem to have a big tourist clientele. Or at least at the time of our visit, our table was the only one with any non-Koreans at it. Nor were they very full—we didn’t have to wait. I’d guess that being located in a large office building, they are much busier at lunch on weekdays.

It is not a massive restaurant but it’s not small either. There appear to be several private rooms as you enter the place and there’s also a large dining room, which is where we were seated. The menu, which is in both Korean and English, has a number of set course options as well as the option to order a la carte. We considered the two more expensive set courses but decided finally to go for their lunch special. This too has two sub-options: if you get it with galbi it’s 43,000 won/head and if you get it with bulgogi it’s 35,000 won/head. Each option comes with a salad, mung bean jelly, jellyfish salad, mung bean pancake and then again a choice between various soup, rice or noodle options as the “main” dish. Finally, a cup of sujjeongwa, a sweet iced cinnamon drink that plays the role of dessert in the lunch special course.

We decided to get two bulgogi and two galbi courses to share for the meats. For the second large dish we had one each of the bibim and mul naengmyeons and two of the goldongban, which is a refined version of bibimbap. The food came out quite quickly. The salad, mung bean jelly and jellyfish were served first and then the meats were set out. The bulgogi was brothy but not their historically famous version. No complaints though. Despite my love of mulnaengmyeon, my favourite dish was actually the jellyfish salad; and I also really liked the marinated octopus in the small banchan selection.

I wouldn’t make very large claims for the meal but it was all done well and we enjoyed it. If you’re touristing in the area, I’d recommend it for lunch for sure.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see what’s coming next.

I failed to save the receipt but you can work out the price from the menu. At $23-29 for the two lunch special options, it’s a fairly priced meal for what you get.

Okay, one more report to come this weekend and it might be from the missus and my brief trip to New York in October. Next week will bring another whisky review to start and then backlog-clearing restaurant reports from Bombay, the Twin Cities, Seoul and New York/New Jersey.