This week’s Seoul report is a quick look at dinner at a Seoul restaurant I’ve reported on twice before: Gwanghwamun Gukbap. As with all the other Seoul restaurants I’ve reported on so far from this trip (here, here, and here), Gwanghwamun Gukbap is within walking distance of where we were staying, near Gwanghwamun Square. As the name suggests, the restaurant’s signature dish is gukbap (pork broth/soup with rice), but that’s not what we’ve been going back there for since we first ate there as a family in February 2024. That’s not because the gukbap is not very good; it is. It’s because we are soondae enthusiasts more than we are gukbap enthusiasts and Gwanghwamun Gukbap’s soondae is truly outstanding. We loved it when we ate it again in July 2025 and we loved it yet again on this visit. But soondae wasn’t the only thing we ate. Read on for more details. Continue reading →

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 →

I’d said I’d have another Bombay report today but I lied. My remaining Bombay reports are very image-heavy and I don’t have the time right now to resize and process large numbers of images. And so I have for you another quick report from Seoul, of lunch at Gwanghwamun Gukbap. I noted in my report of lunch at Ryujung Dakgaejang that Seoul is filled with restaurants that specialize in specific dishes and have very little else on their menus. Well, Gwanghwamun Gukbap does have almost 10 items on their menu but odds are almost every table will have their eponymous gukbap on it. Gukbap literally means soup with rice. Here the soup is made with pork bones and meat and is served with slices of perfectly cooked pork. The rice is not served in the soup, as is traditional, but alongside for you to add as you see fit. I can report that the gukbap is indeed very good but we actually liked another dish even more. Read on for details. Continue reading →