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
Category Archives: Seoul
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
In and Around Mangwon Market (Seoul, March 2024)
I’ve fallen a little behind on my goal of getting all my Seoul reports done by the middle of May. Okay, quite a bit behind. I’m going to try to catch up in a hurry though. Here first is a very image-heavy look at one of our favourite market outings in the city in early March, to Mangwon Market. Like Cheongnyangni Market, Mangwon Market is a traditional farmers’ market, which is to say it is a market where locals go to shop—though it’s quite a bit smaller than Cheongnyangni Market. Located in Mapo-gu, it’s more off the tourist map than Gwangjang Market, Namdaemun Market and Tongin Market—or Noryangjin Fish Market, for that matter. It’s a covered market and once you’re in it, the alleys are lined with cooked food vendors of various kinds. We visited on a Saturday morning and had a very nice time walking slowly through the crowded market, stopping to eat snacks along the way. We also bought some prepared foods to take away with us for dinner and some fresh seafood to cook in the upcoming week. And then as we were leaving the market we couldn’t resist stopping at a small restaurant for some noodle soup and mandu. Here is a look at it all. Continue reading
Tim Ho Wan (Seoul, March 2024)
In my report on our meal at Grand Szechuan at the end of March I noted that in our three months away we had barely eaten any Chinese food. I listed two meals: one a Korean-Chinese lunch in Seoul and the other an Indian-Chinese takeout dinner in Delhi. Somehow I forgot about the third, which was the best of the three and the only non-hyphenated Chinese one of the three: dim sum at one of the Seoul outposts of the Tim Ho Wan empire. Tim Ho Wan, as you probably know, started out in 2009 as a no-frills, reasonably priced dim sum shop in Hong Kong, famously picking up a Michelin star. Multiple branches opened in Hong Kong (I’ve previously reported on a quick meal at the Central branch) and then all over the world (including the US). We’ve not eaten at Tim Ho Wan’s US locations but when we saw there were three in Seoul, we couldn’t resist. We ended up eating at the Samseong location in Gangnam. This is the flagship Seoul location and, most importantly, the largest of the three. A long wait seemed the least likely here and that hope proved true. After a brief wait we were seated and very quickly after that we we were eating. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Woo Lae Oak (Seoul, February 2024)
Somehow we only ate one barbecue meal in Seoul. But it was a good one. Woo Lae Oak has been around since 1946 and is one of the most celebrated restaurants in the city. It’s not the cheapest barbecue place—they use only Korean beef—but it’s also far from the most expensive. What they’re perhaps most famous for isn’t even grilled beef. The origins of the family that owns the restaurant are in North Korea and they are especially known for their Pyongyang-style naengmyeon and some people go there exclusively to eat their naengmyeon. We were there principally for the meat. Of course, it’s a mistake to end any Korean barbecue meal without chilled naengmyeon and so we ate across both sides of their menu, so to speak. Here’s a quick look at the meal. Continue reading
Eating at Noryangjin Fish Market (Seoul, February/March 2024)
Last weekend I posted a look at my visits to Seoul’s famous Noryangjin Fish Market, complete with an excessive slideshow of images. Noryangjin is a massive fish market, yes, but it is not just a fish market. The market also contains a large number of seafood restaurants on the second floor where you can have things you bought at the market cooked up to your specifications or where you can order off a menu as at a regular restaurant. I ate at the market on both visits, accompanied on each occasion by groups of my students. Here now is a report on those two meals, one a weekend lunch in February and the other a weekend dinner in March. As you’ll see, the experiences were not identical. And you’ll be glad to know that together they add up to another excessive slideshow of images. You’re welcome. Continue reading
Mingles (Seoul, February 2024)
The vast majority of our meals out in Seoul—and all the meals I’ve so far reported on—were eaten at more or less casual restaurants and at markets. We did, however, also eat three fancier meals; at places with Michelin stars, no less. Our interest was to see what contemporary high-end Korean cooking looks like, especially in the home country, where diners are intimately familiar with the cuisine in its traditional guises. The first of these three meals was eaten at Mingles, located in Gangnam-gu and currently the holder of two Michelin stars. We ate lunch there on a weekday in late February. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
At Noryangjin Fish Market (Seoul, February 2024)
I’ll stay in Seoul to close out the week but instead of a restaurant report I have for you a look at the city’s premier fish market: the massive Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. I made two visits to the market. The first was on a weekend early on our trip, with the family and a large group of students; and then towards the end I took a smaller group of students there as well for a birthday-related outing on a weeknight. As it happens, both visits involved eating as well—a major feature of the market is the large number of seafood restaurants where you can have things you buy fresh at the market cooked up for you. However to keep things manageable, I am focussing in this first report only on the market as market. I’ll post my report on the two meals—one a lunch, the other a dinner—next weekend. Continue reading
Myungdong Boribap & Kodari (Seoul, February 2024)
Back to Seoul. This report is actually of our second meal out in the city. We’d arrived the previous day and enjoyed a welcome dinner at Chon in Insadong. We were back in Insadong again the next day. Well, my family and I lived in Insadong for the full five weeks—it’s the students who were back in Insadong the next day. On our agenda was a day of tourism before the program proper began. The first half of the day was spent at the Gyeongbokgung Palace (clad in hanboks for maximum cheese quotient) and environs and the second half was spent walking to and then at Namdaemun Market. In between we had to eat a quick lunch. The itinerary had “lunch on your own” marked on it but we bailed the students out and took them for lunch with us. It had to be quick, it had to be at a place that could take 25 of us and it had to be a place that would be reasonably quick. At the intersection of all these variables was Myungdong Boribap & Kodari on Insadong St. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Eating at Tongin Market (Seoul, February 2024)
Of all the markets we visited in Seoul in February and March, Tongin Market was the closest to where we were living. It also turned out to be the one least like the others. Gwangjang Market, Namdaemun Market, Cheongnyangni Market, Mangwon Market and the Noryangjin Fish Market are all markets first. Cheongnyangni and Mangwon markets are neighbourhood markets that include some food vendors. Namdaemun Market has famous food alleys but they’re really secondary to the real business of the market which is retail sales. Even Gwangjang Market with its prominent food alley is dominated by shopping during the day. And Norynangjin is a massive wholesale and retail seafood market with restaurants attached. Tongin Market, however, is different: it’s almost entirely about food vendors. It ended up therefore being a very different experience than all the other markets, feeling more like walking through an extended food court. We visited towards the end of February with a large group of students. This is what we found. Continue reading
Namgyung (Seoul, February 2024)
Here, courtesy jet lag, is another quick report on a casual restaurant meal in Seoul. This was eaten in February and features Korean Chinese food. As you may know, like Indian Chinese food, Korean Chinese is its own hybrid cuisine. We don’t see very much of it in the Twin Cities but it’s very popular wherever Koreans live in large numbers—which is to say that it is very popular in Seoul as well. And dishes like jjangmyeon are iconic in the larger Korean culinary repertoire. Even though the missus loves Korean Chinese, we didn’t somehow particularly seek it out in Seoul—I guess there were lots of things we wanted to try there and some more often than others. Accordingly, this report of lunch at Namgyung is not of a meal at a lauded Korean Chinese restaurant, merely one that was convenient right after a lecture the missus had organize (on North Korean cinema) at the hostel at which my students were living in Yeongdeungpo. We took a bunch of the students with us to a late lunch after the talk. Here’s what we ate. Continue reading
Teumsae Ramyun (Seoul, March 2024)
I’d said I’d probably have a review today of one of our fine dining meals in Seoul. Yet again, I have lied to you. I have instead for you a review of a meal at almost the opposite end of the price spectrum, featuring ramyun (the Korean incarnation of ramen). This meal was eaten at the Anguk branch of Teumsae Ramyun, a chain which has been around several decades now. It is one of many similar restaurants all over the city (and the country) which serve cheap meals of packet ramyun that are further customized by the kitchen. Teumsae Ramyun has their own brand of ramyun which is used in their restaurants. They are known for their spicy ramen, which comes in three settings from low to high. They have a few versions of ramyun on the menu, along with a few options for gimbap, rice bowls and mandu/dumplings and that’s it. These are not restaurants to linger in. On weeknights they’re mostly filled with solo diners or pairs eating a quick, cheap meal on their way home from work. Well, we weren’t on our way home from work but we did also stop by on a weeknight. Here’s a quick report on how it went. Continue reading
At Obok in Jongno-gu’s Bossam Alley (Seoul, March 2024)
The Seoul food content train rolls on, barreling from one food alley to another. On Thursday I posted a look at our lunch in Namdaemun Market‘s famous Hairtail Alley; today I have for you a look at another very well-established alley, albeit one not located in a market that is famous in its own right and not one that’s prominent on the tourist trail: Bossam Alley in Jongno-gu. Located not too far from a major street (Jong-ro) lined with massive office buildings, the alley nonetheless feels like it’s far away from the rush of Seoul. It takes up about 150 feet of Supyo-ro 20-gil and if you don’t know it’s there you could pass by none the wiser. You have to go a hundred feet or so into Supyo-ro 20-gil before it even begins. You’ll know you’re there when the alley suddenly narrows dramatically and there’s pig parts everywhere being cooked outside the restaurants that open from one side of the alley. We walked through the alley slowly and then picked a restaurant more or less at random: Obok. And I am happy to say that we had a very good meal there. Continue reading