Reviewed by a reader
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: Optional
Suggested Items: Buffet
This is a good place to stuff your face with a lot of reasonably priced Korean food, and the biggest attraction is the value. It’s an all-you-can-eat Korean buffet, but unlike Carne Station drinks aren’t included. The prices are much cheaper, though, and 9,500 won buys you [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price:$$
Reservations: Optional (takes reservations but not needed)
Suggested Items: Try the Yukhwe (steak tartar) after the main course!
Bottom line: This is an upscale beef restaurant near Yongsan, suitable for dates.
From the moment you arrive at this restaurant, you’ll probably get the impression this is an upscale restaurant. The courteous [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Grilled Fish, Changgukjang Jjigae, Jaeyuk Bokkeum
This is what we mean by the great hole-in-the-wall lunch stop that’s a well kept secret. Super packed with locals around lunch time, Gui Daehak serves a mean grilled fish. It feels like you’re camping. Their Jaeyuk Bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork) is hot and tangy. [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Galmaegisal, Dwaeji Galbi
This Mapo hole-in-the-wall is actually an upgrade from its smaller hole-in-the-wall location. Mapo Jeong Depo is a no frills blue collar grill joint that does what it does well. The floor is concrete. The tables are small, and it gets noisy in the evening. The menu consists of [...]
Cuisine: Modern Korean
Price: $$$
Reservations: Recommended
Suggested Items: It’s a rotating prix fixe menu. Just let the chef take care of you.
Jeong Sik Dang is the pioneer of Korea’s “New Korean” cuisine, marked by new techniques and a playful attitude. The name of the restaurant itself is a joke on the chef owner’s name, Yim Jeong Sik [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Boribap, Chicken Barbecue, Pajeon, Makkeoli
This was Anyang’s best kept secret until recently. Now it looks like people are flocking here. Fortunately, it hasn’t diminished the quality of its dishes, even with its recent expansion. San Ma-eul is a folksy traditional country restaurant at the foot of Gwanak Mountain that originally [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Samgyetang (it’s all they have)
This Anyang restaurant specializes in Samgyetang and nothing else. It serves nothing else. You just go in and tell them how many bowls, and they come out with bubbling bowls filled with whole small chickens stuffed with rice, jujubes and medicinal herbs and bark, which actually [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Omogary Kimchi Jjigae, Hand-made Jjajangmyeon Noodles
This is a fastly growing chain of restaurants that have stores from Busan to Seoul. They specialize in “omogari” kimchi, which is heavily aged kimchi. The flavors are rich, sharp and hearty. The kimchi jjigae is the star of the show, with succulent chunks of [...]
Cuisine: Korean
Price: $
Reservations: No
Suggested Items: Teriyaki Bibimbap, Green Sprout Salad Bibimbap, Sweet Potatoes with Honey Syrup
Cafe Sobahn is CJ Foodville’s attempt to modernize the simple bowl of bibimbap. The interior is comforting with subdued lighting and stone facades. There’s a greenhouse in the middle of the restaurant that grows sprouts for the actual [...]
Cuisine: Asian, Modern
Price: $$
Reservations: Recommended
Suggested Items: The “Amazing” Fish, BulGalbi and Grilled Mushroom Salad, Million Won Samgyeopsal
Star chef is a chef-run bistro near Yangjae that specializes in updated Korean and pan-Asian cuisine. Chef-owner Hu-nam Kim prepares dishes with heavy Korean, Southeast Asian, Japanese, Chinese and European influences. Popular items include the BulGalbi and Grilled Mushroom [...]
