Korean Breakfast in Seoul: Restaurants Open Early
Most Seoul restaurants open around 11, but a few classic places start serving early in the morning: hangover soup, beef bone broth, gimbap and old-style tearooms. Here's where to eat a Korean breakfast in the neighborhoods our guide covers.
23 places in our guide
- 🍲
Cheongjinok 청진옥
Soups & stews · Jongno · Since 1937
Seoul's most famous hangover soup house, serving since 1937. Its yang-seonji haejangguk is a clear, savory beef broth with soft cubes of congealed ox blood, tripe and cabbage, eaten with rice and radish kimchi. It opens at 6 in the morning, near Gwanghwamun and Jonggak.
Try: Yang-seonji haejangguk (regular or large)
No wait - 🍲
Daehwajeong Jinjja Haejangguk 대화정 진짜해장국
Soups & stews · Dongdaemun · Since 1981
A hangover soup house in an alley behind the DDP, feeding Dongdaemun's wholesale traders since 1981. There is basically one dish: a nutty soybean-paste broth with dried cabbage, beef and seonji (congealed ox blood). It opens at 5 in the morning.
Try: Jinjja haejangguk (regular)
Short wait - 🍲
Dakjinmi Gangwon-jip 닭진미 강원집
Soups & stews · Namdaemun & Seoul Station · Since 1962
A chicken soup shop from 1962 in Namdaemun Market's braised-fish alley. Dak-gomtang here is a plain, restorative bowl of clear broth, chicken and rice, and a meat set meal is the other favorite. It suits a quick solo market lunch.
Try: Dak-gomtang (chicken soup with rice)
Short wait - 🍲
Darak-tu 다락투
Soups & stews · Hongdae · Since 1967
A chicken soup shop across from Hongik University's main gate, open since 1967 and still serving only two things: dak-gomtang, a clean chicken and rice soup, and dak-kalguksu, chicken noodle soup. Generations of Hongik students, professors and neighbors have eaten here.
Try: Dak-gomtang (chicken and rice soup)
Locals' pickShort wait - 🍵
Eulji Dabang 을지다방
Tearoom · Euljiro · Since 1985
A 1985 dabang, Korea's old-fashioned tearoom, famous for herbal ssanghwa tea with a raw egg yolk floating on top. BTS shot photos here, so you will find local shopkeepers and young fans from around the world sharing the same vinyl sofas.
Try: Ssanghwa-cha (herbal tea with egg yolk)
- 🍲
Hadongkwan 하동관
Soups & stews · Myeongdong · Since 1939
Seoul's benchmark gomtang since 1939: Korean beef and tripe in a clear, savory broth, poured over rice in a heavy brass bowl. It opens at 7 a.m., serves only breakfast and lunch, and the menu is just soup and boiled beef.
Try: Gomtang
Short wait - 🍲
Imun Seolnongtang 이문설농탕
Soups & stews · Jongno · Since 1904
Often called Korea's oldest restaurant, serving seolleongtang (ox bone soup) since 1904. The broth is mild and milky, and you season it yourself at the table with salt and green onion. Breakfast is served from 8 a.m.
Try: Seolleongtang
Short wait - 🍲
Jungnimjang 중림장
Soups & stews · Namdaemun & Seoul Station · Since 1972
A 1972 seolleongtang house in the back lanes behind Seoul Station. Locals order the milky beef soup in the larger 'teuk' size, or the doganitang (ox knee soup), with kimchi and radish kimchi on the side.
Try: Seolleongtang (ox bone soup)
Locals' pickShort wait - 🍢
Mabokrim Halmeoni Jip 마복림할머니집
Street snacks · Dongdaemun · Since 1953
The shop that started Sindang-dong's famous tteokbokki alley. A big pan of rice cakes, fish cakes, ramyeon, chewy jjolmyeon noodles and dumplings is set on a burner at your table and simmers in a sweet, mild sauce of chili paste and black bean paste. Finish by frying rice in what's left.
Try: Jeukseok tteokbokki set (for 2, 3 or 4)
Short wait - 🍲
Miseongok 미성옥
Soups & stews · Myeongdong · Since 1966
A seolleongtang house hidden at the end of an alley in the middle of Myeongdong's shopping streets, serving since 1966. The menu is just ox bone soup made with Korean beef and sliced boiled beef (suyuk), with excellent radish kimchi. It opens at 6 in the morning.
Try: Seolleongtang (regular or large)
Short wait - 🍲
Mugyodong Bugeokukjip 무교동북어국집
Home-style meals · Myeongdong · Since 1968
Since 1968 this alley restaurant near City Hall has served exactly one dish: a milky dried-pollack soup that Seoul office workers swear by for breakfast and hangovers. Sit down and the soup arrives almost at once.
Try: Dried pollack soup (bugeo haejangguk)
Short wait - 🍲
Munhwaok 문화옥
Soups & stews · Euljiro · Since 1952
A third-generation seolleongtang house by Euljiro 4-ga, serving since 1952. The beef soup comes with soft sliced meat, and regulars also order the assorted suyuk, or the jok-tang (ox foot soup).
Try: Seolleongtang (ox bone soup)
Short wait 
Myeongdong Chungmu Gimbap 명동충무김밥
Street snacks · Myeongdong · Since 1983
A Myeongdong landmark since 1983 that sells just one thing: chungmu gimbap, little rice-only seaweed rolls eaten with fiery squid salad and crunchy radish kimchi. Business has been so good that the restaurant fills its own building.
Try: Chungmu gimbap
Short wait- 🍦
Taegeukdang 태극당
Desserts · Dongdaemun · Since 1946
Often called Seoul's oldest bakery, open since 1946 and little changed inside: marble floors, chandeliers and old-fashioned Korean breads. Come for the monaka, milk ice cream sandwiched in a crisp wafer shell, and the retro sarada-ppang (salad bread).
Try: Monaka ice cream
No wait - 🥞
Bakganae Bindaetteok 박가네빈대떡
Market food · Jongno
One of Gwangjang Market's two famous mung bean pancake houses. You can watch the beans being ground in a stone mill out front, then sit upstairs for crispy bindaetteok, beef tartare and makgeolli.
Try: Mung bean pancake (bindaetteok)
Short wait - 🐟
Huirak Galchi 희락갈치
Market food · Namdaemun & Seoul Station
The best-known restaurant in Namdaemun Market's galchi (cutlassfish) alley, open about 50 years. Thick pieces of cutlassfish are braised with radish in a spicy red sauce and brought to the table in a little pot, along with fluffy steamed egg and fried fish on the side.
Try: Braised cutlassfish (galchi jorim)
Short wait - 🍞
Hyoja Bakery 효자베이커리
Desserts · Seochon & Bukchon
Seochon's old neighborhood bakery at the entrance to Tongin Market, open since the mid-1980s and once a supplier to the Blue House. Its warm cornbread is the reason to come. It's takeout only, so grab one and eat it on the way through the market.
Try: Cornbread
Locals' pick - 🍜
Kkongkal (Noryangjin) 꽁칼 노량진점
Noodles · Noryangjin
A Blue Ribbon noodle shop on the exam-students' street near Noryangjin Station. An anchovy kalguksu comes with a small bowl of barley rice to mix with vegetables, and the price is hard to beat. Easy for solo diners.
Try: Myeolchi kalguksu (anchovy noodle soup)
Locals' pick Monyeo Gimbap 모녀김밥
Market food · Jongno
The Gwangjang Market stall credited with making mayak gimbap famous: finger-sized seaweed rolls of rice, carrot and pickled radish, dipped in a sharp mustard sauce. The nickname "mayak" ("narcotic") is a joke about how hard they are to stop eating.
Try: Mayak gimbap
Short wait- 🥞
Namdaemun Yachae Hotteok 남대문야채호떡
Street snacks · Namdaemun & Seoul Station
Namdaemun Market's famous savory hotteok stand. Instead of the usual sweet syrup, a golden fried pancake is stuffed with glass noodles and vegetables and dipped in soy sauce; there's a sweet seed version too. The line is part of the experience.
Try: Yachae hotteok (savory pancake with glass noodles and vegetables)
30-60 min wait - 🍚
Sigol Yachae Doenjang 시골야채된장
Home-style meals · Gangnam Station & COEX
A 30-year-old lunch favorite between Gangnam and Sinnonhyeon stations. Office workers come for doenjang bibimbap, rice mixed with vegetables and a rustic soybean stew, or a stew with pork neck and kimchi. A rare homestyle meal in the Gangnam towers.
Try: Doenjang bibimbap with vegetables
Locals' pickShort wait - 🍲
Somunnan Seongsu Gamjatang 소문난성수감자탕
Soups & stews · Seongsu
The 24-hour gamjatang house in the middle of trendy Seongsu, now as full of foreign visitors as of locals. A big pot of pork backbones, potatoes and dried cabbage leaves simmers at your table in a spicy, nutty broth topped with perilla seeds; add hand-torn noodles, then fry rice in what's left. Solo diners can get a single bowl.
Try: Gamjatang (pork-bone stew, small to large)
30-60 min wait - 🥩
Yeongcheon Yeonghwa (Cheongdam) 영천영화 청담점
Korean BBQ · Gangnam
A Cheongdam house for hanwoo, Korea's prized native beef, open around the clock. It is best known for yukhoe bibimbap, rice topped with seasoned raw beef, and for grilled hanwoo rib meat. Foreign visitors, especially from Japan and China, fill the tables alongside locals.
Try: Hanwoo yukhoe bibimbap (raw beef bibimbap)
30-60 min wait