← All places
🍚

Home-style meals · Jongno

Sanchon

산촌

Tourist favorite

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.

서울특별시 종로구 인사동길 30-13

Naver MapGoogle Maps

How it works here

🥢 How Korean restaurants usually work

Waiting

Wait not known
Reservation

What to order

  • Temple food set meal (jeongsik)사찰음식 정식

    Many small vegetable dishes, stone-pot rice and soybean-paste soup, priced per person.

How much to order

  • 👤 1-4The set meal for each person; there is little else to choose.

Insider tips

  • Everything is vegetable-based, so it is friendly to vegetarians and vegans.· 3 reviews
  • Opening hours listed online don't always agree, so call or check before you go.· 2 reviews

Why it's famous

Sanchon ("mountain village") is run by a former Buddhist monk, who built the menu around the vegetable dishes of Korean temples.· 2 reviews

  • Tourist favoriteNamed in Seoul's 2026 Gourmet 100, the city government's list of the capital's best restaurants, in the vegetarian category.· 4 reviews
  • Tourist favoriteA classic choice when Koreans want to show foreign friends a different side of Korean food.· 3 reviews

Did you know?

  • The same building houses Gallery Monalisa Sanchon, so you can look at an exhibition before or after the meal.· 2 reviews

Good to know

  • Down an alley off Insadong-gil, within walking distance of Anguk, Jonggak and Jongno 3-ga stations.· 3 reviews
Where this comes from (19 reviews)

Summarized in our own words from Korean diners' blog reviews; each fact is backed by at least two reviews. Last checked 2026-10-28.