Here, finally, almost four and a half months after our brief visit to Seoul ended in July, is my last meal report from the trip. This was not our last meal in the city and there was nothing particularly special about the food but I’ve saved it for the end as it was eaten at a neighbourhood restaurant just a few minutes away from where we were putting up: Yongsan Wonjo Gamjatang. It’s the kind of restaurant, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, that together with others of its type makes up the heart and soul of food obsessed cities like Seoul (or Tokyo or Los Angeles or New York). Restaurants like these are never going to get any recognition from international guides or tv shows or have long lines of influencers or influencer-persuaded people outside their doors; but they serve good, tasty food to a lot of people every day. As Yongsan Wonjo Gamjatang’s name indicates, the food they mostly serve is gamjatang or potato and pork neck/backbone stew, a dish that spells comfort at any time of year. We walked past it every day on our way to and from the subway lines in Seoul Station and finally made it in a couple of nights before we left. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Category Archives: Seoul
Ikseondong Mokjang (Seoul, July 2025)
Here is my penultimate report from our week in Seoul in July. One of the first meals we’d eaten on the trip featured barbecue. That was at Hwapo Sikdang near Namdaemun Market, and that meal was centered on pork. The boys had asked to eat a beef barbecue meal as well and that is what we did at Iksundong Mokjang on our penultimate night in Seoul. We were going to be in Jongno-gu in the early evening and looking around for a well-reviewed bbq restaurant, I happened on Ikseondong Mokjang (or Iksundong Farm in their English signage). All signs pointed to a good meal and so it turned out to be. Here is a quick look. Continue reading
Tim Ho Wan, Yongsan-gu (Seoul, July 2025)
Just a few more reports to go from our trip to Seoul in July. We made a few returns on this trip: to Gwangjang Market, to Gwanghwamun Gukbap, and to Oreno Ramen (the first visit for me, the second time for the missus and the boys). This report is of a lunch that was also a return of a kind. One of our very last meals in the city in March 2024 had been an excellent dim sum lunch at the Samseong location of Tim Ho Wan, the famous Hong Kong-based dim sum chain. Now, it’s not like eating Chinese food would normally be a high priority in Seoul but when you live in a dim sum desert like Minnesota, you have to take every opportunity to eat high quality dim sum that you get. As it happens, we thought that lunch was even better than at the better dim sum places in the San Gabriel Valley outside Los Angeles. And so it was a given that we would return on this trip as well. And we did—but not to the location we’d eaten at in 2024. Continue reading
Oreno Ramen, Insadong (Seoul, July 2025)
My last meal report from our brief trip to Seoul in July was of dinner at a place we’d eaten at on our previous, longer visit in February/March of 2024: Gwanghwamun Gukbap. This report too features a return, but not to a place I had eaten at in 2024. Towards the end of that trip, after an afternoon’s wandering in one part of Seoul or the other, I had abandoned the family and headed off to Noryangjin Market to take a few of my students whose birthdays had fallen during our Seoul sojourn out to dinner at a seafood restaurant there. The missus and the boys meanwhile, accidentally emerged from Entrance 1 of the Anguk subway station near where we were staying in Insadong, turned into an alley in search of dinner and randomly walked past and then into a ramen restaurant. There they ate what they—particularly our younger boy—described to me as the best ramen they’d ever had. However, they couldn’t remember the name of the place—and since the last days of the program we were on were incredibly hectic, I never chased it down. But when we made our plan to return to Seoul this summer, the younger boy had it high on his wishlist; partly because he wanted me to try it as well, but mostly because he wanted to go back in his own right. So, we took Line 2 to Anguk and emerged from Entrance 1 and without too much trouble found the place again: Oreno Ramen. We were all curious to see what we would make of it after eating ramen in Tokyo just a few days previous. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Gwanghwamun Gukbap II (Seoul, July 2025)
As I head into the home stretch with my meal reports from our week in Seoul in July, here is a very quick look at our last dinner in the city. For this meal we went back to a restaurant we ate at in February 2024: Gwanghwamun Gukbap. The restaurant is located off Gwanghwamun Square and is known for its gukbap (clear broth with rice). In 2024 we had gone there specifically to eat the gukbap, and we did eat it. But we didn’t go back this on account of the gukbap. In fact, we didn’t even order it at this meal. No, we went back for two other dishes: another that we had eaten and loved at our previous meal and one that we had very much regretted not ordering at that meal when we saw it going out to tables all around us. Were there any regrets at this meal? Read on to find out. Continue reading
Apgujeong Miyeokguk (Seoul, July 2025)
The Seoul reports roll on. Apgujeong is the name of a neighbourhood; miyeokguk (or mieyok guk) refers to seaweed soup. Apgujeong Miyeokguk is the name of a restaurant in Apgujeong that specializes in Miyeokguk. We only went to Apgujeong, a part of the tony Gangnam district, once during our longer stay in Seoul in 2024—it’s where we went to watch the second Dune movie—and didn’t eat there. But we had a post-lunch meeting there in the afternoon on the day after our arrival in July and it seemed easiest to grab a bite somehere near the meeting. We’d not actually planned to eat at Apgujeong Miyeokguk. We were looking for some fried chicken place or the other but it didn’t seem to be where the map had told us it would be. Walking around, we passed Apgujeong Miyeokguk. It looked busy and it looked good and so we went in. And it was indeed good. Here is a quick look at our meal. Continue reading
Manbae Arirang (Seoul, July 2025)
Back to Seoul. My previous report from our visit to the city in July covered a dinner centered on grilled pork. Today I have for you a lunch centered on pork, but this time it’s not grilled. We were at a branch of Manbae Arirang, a bossam specialist. Manbae Arirang has been around since the late 1980s and are known for their near exclusive focus on bossam or boiled/simmered and sliced pork, eaten with a range of condiments and wraps. This is one of my very favourite Korean dishes/meals. Manbae Arirang apparently uses a special cut of Korean pork belly for their bossam and are known for a lighter, non-greasy take on the dish. There are a number of branches scattered around the city. We were at the Gongdeok location, getting in quick lunch before a spot of business at the nearby Fulbright office. Continue reading
Hwapo Sikdang (Seoul, July 2025)
Back to Seoul. So far I have reported on meals eaten during our week-long visit in July that centered on fried chicken, noodle soup and dumplings, naengmyeon, and the pleasures of Gwangjang Market. Here now is a report on the first of two meals centered on what in the US is one of the most iconic genres of Korean food: grilled meat. Arguably, in the US Korean bbq is mostly identified with grilled beef, with pork as a sort of handmaiden. Beef is probably in the ascendancy in Korea as well but, unlike in most American cities with established Korean communities and food scenes, there are a large number of establishments that focus on pork, and specifically on Korean pork. We happened on one of them, more or less by accident, while wandering the area around Namdaemun Market in seach of dinner: Hwapo Sikdang. Continue reading
Nene Chicken (Seoul, July 2025)
Let’s keep the Seoul reports rolling. When last seen we were eating noodle soup and dumplings at Myeondong Kyoja. Today I have for you a fried chicken report. We ate fried chicken on a few occasions on our previous, longer stay in Seoul in Feb/March of 2024. One of those meals was at an outpost of one of the major fried chicken chicken chains, Kyochon. On this trip we ate it at an outpost of another major fried chicken chain, Nene Chicken. Kyochon was founded at the start of the 1990s and Nene Chicken was founded at the end of the decade. While perhaps not quite as well-known in the US as Kyochon and some of the other major players that have set up franchises here, Nene Chicken has a very large presence in South Korea as well as in East and South East Asia (and also Australia, New Zealand and Canada). Most importantly for our needs, they had a location a couple of minutes walk from our flat in Cheongpa-dong. Continue reading
Myeongdong Kyoja (Seoul, July 2025)
My previous report from Seoul was of dinner at Nampo Myeonok. That meal was centered on naengmyeon. My report today is of a lunch at another of Seoul’s venerable restaurants. This meal was also centered on noodles and noodle soups, none of which were naengmyeon. We were at Myeongdong Kyoja, a restaurant, famous for their food and also for only having four dishes on the menu between April and October (and only three between November and March). We were there in July. There were four dishes on the menu and there were four of us there to eat, and so we got one of everything; it was the right thing to do. Continue reading
Nampo Myeonok (Seoul, July 2025)
Back to Seoul. When last seen there, we were eating a casual lunch at Gwangjang Market. As I noted in that post, there is no better food in the world for hot weather than mul naengmyeon, the chilled noodle soup featuring buckwheat noodles and a delicate broth made with beef and dongchimi (radish water kimchi). Nampo Myeonok is famous for their Pyongyang-style mul naengmyeon, having been serving it in Seoul since 1972. This was high on our agenda for our first meal in Seoul on this trip (as I also noted in that Gwangjang Market post, my Seoul reports are going to go up out of sequence). We took the subway to Euljiro and made our way to the restaurant through lanes full of restaurants and people of all ages outside and inside them. This aspect of Seoul in the evenings is one of my favourite urban experiences in the world; the energy of the city (and its love of food and drink) is on full display. Continue reading
Back to Gwangjang Market, Again…(Seoul, July 2025)
I’ve been threatening to start posting reports of our meals in Seoul for more than a week now. Here, finally, is the first one. I will remind you that after our week in Tokyo (meal reports from which were posted chronologically), we went to Kyoto for a few days and from there to Seoul (and from there to Delhi). I’m jumping past the Kyoto meal reports just to mix things up a bit. I’m going to post a few Seoul reports mixed in with a Delhi report or two and then I’ll go back and do the Kyoto reports. And these Seoul reports are not going to be in chronological order either. This first report, for instance, is of lunch eaten on our third day in Seoul. We had an appointment in the afternoon in Sindang-dong and got off the subway a few stops earlier to eat at one of my favourite places in Seoul: Gwangjang Market. I’ve reported at great length on meals at the market before (see here, here, here and here) and will almost certainly do so again. Yes, it’s a bit of a Seoul cliche at this point but I do love the energy of the place, and across my visits had not had a single bad meal there. I am happy to report that that streak was not broken on this visit either. Continue reading
My Best Restaurant Meals of 2024
I began my recap of the 2023 version of this post by noting that we had been literally all over the map that year. Well, in 2024 we did not go to Europe at all (unless you count layovers in airports) but we/I spent even more time outside the United States. Our year began with an off-campus program: I took a bunch of students to Bombay for five weeks before we moved to Seoul for another five weeks. As you might imagine, we ate out a lot in both cities and ate a lot of fantastic food in both cities. On the way back to Minnesota from Seoul we stopped in Delhi for two weeks and ate out quite a bit there too. Then in May I was in New York/New Jersey by myself for a few days before the whole family did a trip to Southern and Northern California together in the second half of June. A long break from travel followed after that till I went off by myself again, this time for two weeks and to Delhi. In between we ate out at our usual weekly clip in the Twin Cities metro. And so there’s a lot of geography to draw on for this year’s top 10 list as well. As I did last year, I’ve tried to manage things a bit by separating more expensive/formal restaurants from more casual places into distinct top 10 lists. This year, however, I’m not doing an overall top 5 list that draws from both; instead each list is ranked rather than presented in chronological order. Continue reading
Back at Gwangjang Market (Seoul, Feb/March 2024)
Here, finally, almost exactly five months to the day since we left after our five stay in February and March, is my last report from Seoul. It features a return to what had been my favourite place to visit when I was in Seoul on my own in March 2023: Gwangjang Market. On that occasion I was in the city for a week and Gwangjang Market was a brisk, appetite-stimulating walk from my hotel. I ended up eating dinner there four nights in a row (see here for a general look at the market, and here and here for my meal reports). This time I was back for more than a month but only visited Gwangjang Market three times. This is not because something went wrong with the market in the intervening period but because on this trip, with the family and 22 students in tow, I ventured much further afield, including to several other traditional markets (Cheongnyangni, Namdaemun, Mangwon, Noryangjin Seafood Market). But Gwangjang Market was still the first and last of these that we visited. Here is a look at those visits. Continue reading
Kwonsooksoo (Seoul, March 2024)
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. Continue reading
Soul Dining (Seoul, March 2024)
You’ll never believe it but I have a restaurant report from Seoul today. I’ve been promising the imminent conclusion of my reports from our five-week trip to the city in February and March for a couple of months, and here I am in mid-July with two more reports still to come after this one. This lunch at Soul Dining was eaten in early March. This was the second of three high-end/Michelin-starred restaurants we ate at on the trip. I’ve previously reported on the first of those meals—at Mingles. At the end of that report—back in April—I’d said I’d have the other two done in the coming weeks. Of course, I meant months. Anyway, here finally is a look at what was an exquisite lunch at Soul Dining. We had lunch there on a weekday in the company of a friend who was in Seoul for a week as part of my program. Continue reading
Wonjo Agujjim II (Seoul, March 2024)
I know I said I’d finally post my report today on our meal at Tenant in Minneapolis at the start of the month. But I really do need to wrap up my reports from Seoul: it’s been three months now since we left the city. Luckily, I have only four more reports to go. Two this week, two next week and I’ll be done before the month ends. Of the four remaining reports two are of places I ate at for the first time on this trip and two are of places I ate at on my solo visit to Seoul in March 2023. Both of the latter were places I particularly enjoyed and knew I was going to go back to for sure with the family in tow. One, of course, was Gwanjang Market (which we indeed went to multiple times); the other was Wonjo Agujjim. I’ll close out my Seoul reports with a Gwanjang Market wrap-up. Here first is a look at a larger meal at Wonjo Agujjim than I was able to manage on my own in 2023. Continue reading