Seoul's Must-Eat Restaurants: The Places Every Visitor Goes
The restaurants foreign visitors line up for most, and that Koreans themselves still rate: Myeongdong's noodle and soup houses, Gwangjang Market, the famous barbecues and gejang, and temple food. What to order at each, how long the wait is and how to get in.
40 places in our guide
- 🍲
Baekje Samgyetang 백제삼계탕
Soups & stews · Myeongdong · Since 1971
A Myeongdong samgyetang house open since 1971. A whole young chicken stuffed with sticky rice and ginseng comes bubbling in a clear, gentle broth, with a small shot of ginseng liquor on the side. Upgrade to the version with cultivated wild ginseng root, or try the black-skinned silkie chicken.
Try: Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup)
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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 - 🍜
Gwanghwamun Mijin 광화문미진
Noodles · Jongno · Since 1954
Seoul's best-known cold buckwheat noodle house since 1954. You dip chilled buckwheat noodles into a cold soy broth that you season yourself with grated radish, green onion, wasabi and seaweed. A Michelin Bib Gourmand pick between Gwanghwamun and Jonggak.
Try: Cold buckwheat noodles (naeng-memil)
30-60 min wait - 🍲
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 - 🍖
Halmaejip 할매집
Jokbal & bossam · Seochon & Bukchon · Since 1975
"Grandma's place", a 1975 alley restaurant near Gyeongbokgung Palace that serves just two things: jokbal (braised pig's trotters) with a spicy chili-oil kick, and gamjatang, a hearty stew of pork backbones. A Michelin Bib Gourmand pick that still feels like an old neighborhood eatery.
Try: Jokbal (braised pig's trotters)
30-60 min wait - 🥩
Hanilkwan (Apgujeong) 한일관 압구정점
Korean BBQ · Gangnam · Since 1939
Seoul's grand old name for bulgogi, serving since 1939. Its Seoul-style bulgogi is thin, sweet-savory marinated beef cooked at the table in a little broth, and the lunch sets add grilled galbi, rice and a spread of side dishes. A polished, family-friendly dining room where Koreans celebrate birthdays and meet in-laws.
Try: Seoul-style bulgogi
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 - 🍚
Jingogae 진고개
Home-style meals · Myeongdong · Since 1963
A classic Korean restaurant in Chungmuro since 1963, where Seoulites take parents, clients and out-of-town guests. The signature is galbi-jjim, beef short ribs braised until they fall apart, served as a set meal with rice and side dishes; eobokjaengban hot pot and its stuffed-cucumber kimchi are other favorites.
Try: Galbi-jjim set (braised beef short ribs)
No wait - 🍲
Jinokhwa Halmae Wonjo Dakhanmari 진옥화할매원조닭한마리
Soups & stews · Jongno · Since 1978
The original shop of Dongdaemun's dakhanmari alley, open since 1978. A whole young chicken simmers in a big pot at your table; you dip the meat in a sauce you mix yourself, then cook rice cakes and noodles in the broth. It has grown to fill a three-story building plus an annex.
Try: Dakhanmari (whole chicken hot pot)
30-60 min 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 - 🍜
Myeongdong Hamheung Myeonok 명동함흥면옥
Noodles · Myeongdong · Since 1978
A 1978 noodle house tucked in an alley behind Myeongdong Cathedral, serving Hamheung-style naengmyeon: thin, very chewy noodles, either in cold broth or tossed with a spicy sauce and raw fish. A kettle of warm beef broth on every table is part of the meal.
Try: Hoe-naengmyeon
Short wait - 🍜
Myeongdong Kyoja 명동교자
Noodles · Myeongdong · Since 1966
Myeongdong's most famous noodle house, serving kalguksu since 1966: knife-cut noodles in a rich chicken broth topped with minced meat and four tiny dumplings, eaten with a fiercely garlicky kimchi. Koreans and visitors alike call it a must on any Myeongdong trip.
Try: Kalguksu
Short wait - 🍜
Samcheongdong Sujebi 삼청동수제비
Noodles · Seochon & Bukchon · Since 1982
The busiest door on Samcheong-dong's main street since 1982: hand-torn dough soup (sujebi) in a light anchovy broth, served in a little pot, with crispy potato pancakes on the side. A Michelin Bib Gourmand pick near Bukchon and the palaces.
Try: Sujebi (hand-torn dough soup)
30-60 min wait - 🥣
The Second Best Place in Seoul 서울서둘째로잘하는집
Home-style meals · Seochon & Bukchon · Since 1976
A tiny Samcheong-dong teahouse with a famously modest name, serving sweet red bean porridge (danpatjuk) and traditional herbal teas since 1976. A warm bowl here is a classic stop on a walk through Bukchon and Samcheong-dong, especially on a cold day.
Try: Sweet red bean porridge (danpatjuk)
Short wait - 🍜
Woo Lae Oak 우래옥
Noodles · Euljiro · Since 1946
Open since 1946, Woo Lae Oak is one of Seoul's oldest and most famous Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodle) houses. Its beefy broth makes it a friendly first bowl for naengmyeon beginners.
Try: Traditional Pyongyang naengmyeon
1 hr+ wait - 🍚
Balwoo Gongyang 발우공양
Home-style meals · Jongno
Korean Buddhist temple food served as a calm, multi-course meal, run by the Jogye Order across the street from Jogyesa temple. Every dish is plant-based, built on seasonal vegetables, mountain greens, grains and long-fermented sauces. A good choice for vegetarians, vegans and anyone curious about a different side of Korean cooking.
Try: Temple food courses (Wonsik, Maeumsik, Huisik)
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Buchon Yukhoe 부촌육회
Market food · Jongno
The best-known shop on Gwangjang Market's yukhoe (beef tartare) alley, run by the same family for about 60 years. Order the beef tartare bibimbap, or go bold with yukhoe and live octopus chopped together.
Try: Beef tartare bibimbap (yukhoe bibimbap)
Short wait - 🍲
Eunjujeong 은주정
Home-style meals · Euljiro
An old Euljiro favorite in the alleys of Bangsan Market, known for kimchi jjigae you eat wrapped in fresh greens. At lunch it serves only the stew, full of pork and well-fermented kimchi, with a basket of lettuce and herbs; in the evening it becomes a pork belly barbecue that finishes with the same stew.
Try: Kimchi jjigae with ssam greens (lunch)
Short wait - 🥟
Gaeseong Mandu Koong 개성만두 궁
Street snacks · Jongno
A hanok dumpling house tucked down an Insadong alley, making Gaeseong-style mandu: large, delicate dumplings from the old city of Gaeseong in today's North Korea. They come in a clear, gently seasoned soup or a bubbling hot pot to share.
Try: Gaeseong meat dumpling soup
30-60 min wait - 🥩
Geumdwaeji Sikdang 금돼지식당
Korean BBQ · Dongdaemun
Seoul's most famous pork barbecue, near Yaksu Station, and one of the hardest tables in the city to get. Staff grill thick bone-in pork belly and marbled "snowflake" pork neck over a hot grill until crisp, and you wrap it with fresh basil. Join the queue as early as you can.
Try: Bon-samgyeop (bone-in pork belly)
1 hr+ wait - 🍜
Gohyang Kalguksu 고향칼국수
Market food · Jongno
The Gwangjang Market noodle stall made famous by Netflix's Street Food: Asia. Sit at the counter and watch Cho Yoon-sun roll and cut the dough by hand, then eat a steaming bowl of knife-cut noodles with handmade dumplings.
Try: Hand-cut noodle soup (son-kalguksu)
30-60 min wait - 🍗
Gyeyeolsa 계열사
Fried chicken · Jongno
Often named one of Seoul's three great fried chicken shops, in the hillside neighborhood of Buam-dong behind Gyeongbokgung. Order the old-school fried chicken, light and very crisp, with golbaengi-somyeon, spicy sea snails tossed with thin noodles, and a draft beer. A favorite reward after hiking Bugaksan or Inwangsan.
Try: Fried chicken
1 hr+ 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 - 🍜
Hwangsaengga Kalguksu 황생가칼국수
Noodles · Seochon & Bukchon
A Bukchon noodle house known for kalguksu in a milky beef-bone broth and fist-sized handmade dumplings. Right across from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, it is a favorite lunch stop between galleries and palaces.
Try: Beef bone broth kalguksu
30-60 min wait - 🍺
Manseon Hof 만선호프
Pubs · Euljiro
The biggest name in Euljiro's Nogari Alley: cheap draft beer and grilled dried pollack (nogari) at plastic tables that fill the streets on warm evenings. It has grown into several buildings around the alley, with a rooftop that is the place to be at sunset.
Try: Grilled dried young pollack (nogari)
Short wait - 🍚
Mokmyeoksanbang 목멱산방
Home-style meals · Myeongdong
A Michelin Bib Gourmand bibimbap restaurant at the foot of Namsan, an easy stop before or after Namsan Tower. Choose from neat bowls of seasoned vegetables topped with raw Korean beef (yukhoe), bulgogi or soy-dressed wild greens, and add chili paste as you like. You order at a kiosk and collect your tray.
Try: Yukhoe bibimbap (with raw Korean beef)
Short wait - 🥩
Mongtan 몽탄
Korean BBQ · Itaewon
The barbecue that turned Samgakji into a food destination. Its signature is ude-galbi, a giant beef short rib on the bone, first smoked over burning rice straw for a deep, smoky flavor, then grilled at your table by staff. Finish with fried rice made in the drippings. Expect one of Seoul's longest lines.
Try: Jjipbul ude-galbi (straw-smoked beef short rib)
30-60 min wait 
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- 🍜
Nampo Myeonok 남포면옥
Noodles · Myeongdong
A decades-old North Korean-style restaurant tucked in the Da-dong alleys between City Hall and Myeongdong. Come for eobokjaengban, sliced beef and offal simmered on a wide brass platter at your table, then cool off with Pyongyang naengmyeon in a light radish-kimchi broth and a plate of dumplings.
Try: Eobokjaengban (beef hot pot on a brass platter)
Short wait - 🦀
Odarijip 오다리집
Home-style meals · Myeongdong
Myeongdong's best-known place for gejang, raw crab marinated in soy sauce or spicy chili sauce, one of Korea's most beloved "rice thieves". The set meals come with rice, side dishes and soup, and the menu is written in several languages for the many visitors from abroad.
Try: Ganjang-gejang set (soy-marinated raw crab)
Short wait - 🍖
Samhaejip (Jongno) 삼해집 종로점
Jokbal & bossam · Jongno
The best-known restaurant in Jongno 3-ga's bossam alley. Bossam is boiled pork belly sliced and wrapped in cabbage with spicy radish kimchi; here you can have it with fresh oysters in season, with garlic, or with spicy octopus. Order bossam and a bubbling pot of pork-bone stew comes free.
Try: Gul-bossam (bossam with fresh oysters)
Short wait - 🥩
Samwon Garden 삼원가든
Korean BBQ · Gangnam
Gangnam's landmark galbi house: a big traditional restaurant with a garden and waterfall, where Seoul families have celebrated for decades. Order the house marinated beef short ribs or plain prime Korean beef ribs, grilled at your table, or come at lunch for a bowl of galbitang and cold noodles.
Try: Samwon traditional marinated galbi
Short wait - 🍚
Sanchon 산촌
Home-style meals · Jongno
A long-running temple-food restaurant down an alley in Insadong. The set meal brings a parade of small plant-based dishes made from mountain greens, roots, tofu and fermented sauces, with stone-pot rice and soybean-paste soup. Gentle, healthy and very different from Korean barbecue; Koreans often bring foreign guests here.
Try: Temple food set meal (jeongsik)
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Seoryung 서령
Noodles · Namdaemun & Seoul Station
The newer star of Seoul's Pyongyang naengmyeon scene, next to Namdaemun Market. Its noodles are 100% buckwheat, served in a clear beef broth, and the menu card on each table explains how to enjoy each dish. A Michelin Bib Gourmand pick with long lines.
Try: Seoryung sunmyeon
1 hr+ wait - 🍚
Sigol Bapsang (Itaewon) 곽경찬의 시골밥상
Home-style meals · Itaewon
A countryside-style Korean home meal in the middle of Itaewon. Order the sigol bapsang set and the table fills with around two dozen small side dishes, stews, grilled fish and rice, like dinner at a grandmother's house in the country. The rooms are crammed with old farm tools and household objects.
Try: Sigol bapsang jeongsik (country-style set meal)
Short 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 - 🥞
Soonhee-ne Bindaetteok 원조순희네빈대떡
Market food · Jongno
The most famous mung bean pancake stall in Gwangjang Market, right at the entrance to the food alley. Thick, crispy bindaetteok fried in a sizzling pool of oil, with meat patties and beef tartare on the side. The line is part of the experience.
Try: Mung bean pancake (nokdu bindaetteok)
Short wait - 🥩
Wangbijib (Myeongdong main branch) 왕비집 명동본점
Korean BBQ · Myeongdong
The Korean barbecue restaurant most first-time visitors to Myeongdong end up at. Staff grill marinated pork ribs, beef and pork belly over charcoal at your table, so you don't need to know what you're doing. Wangbijib has several branches around Myeongdong; this is the main one, near Myeongdong Station.
Try: Dwaeji-galbi (marinated pork ribs)
Short wait - 🥩
Yukjeon Sikdang (Sinseol-dong main branch) 육전식당 신설동본점
Korean BBQ · Dongdaemun
The pork barbecue that made thick-cut pork famous in Seoul. Whole slabs of pork neck and belly, several centimeters thick, are grilled for you by staff until crisp outside and juicy inside. A steamed egg and kimchi jjigae round out the meal.
Try: Tong-moksal (thick-cut pork neck)
Short wait - 🍜
Yurimmyeon 유림면
Noodles · Myeongdong
An old-school buckwheat noodle shop beside the Deoksugung Palace stone-wall road. In summer, office workers line up for cold buckwheat noodles; in winter, for a bubbling pot of udon-style noodle soup. A Michelin Bib Gourmand pick.
Try: Cold buckwheat noodles (memil-guksu)
Short wait