A Foodies Fantasy in Seoul, Korea

We lead our travel journeys with our stomachs, and then our hearts

  Living in Seoul, knowing that there is over 80,000 restaurants here per the World Cities Culture Forum in 2016, you can only imagine how much time we spend looking for the best ones to eat at.  In our little piece of Seoul, we have managed to find six restaurants that we visit frequently.  I wish I knew where all of the photos were saved so I could show you how good the food looked! But you’ll just have to trust me when I say that I highly recommend these restaurants!

Stacked (Gangnam)

  This place was in such a prime location if you knew where the Yongsan base was in Seoul.  Before Yongsan closed down, this restaurant was located right outside of the walk-in gate by Itaewon. Right before we left Korea, we found out it moved to Gangnam. I was pretty sad because Sean and I ate here and we made it our “go-to” when we wouldn’t know where to eat.  We usually spend roughly about $50 here when we go, and we would get four sets of dumplings, two orders of fried rice, and drinks.  It’s such a steal for good dumplings!

Ichiryu. Photo from ViaMichelin.Co.Uk

Ichiryu (Itaewon)

  44 Jandari-ro 3an-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea | We found this restaurant by luck.  We were exploring the back streets of Itaewon where there is less traffic, and we noticed the Michelin recommended sign on the window.  When we entered, it was just a small bar.  They serve dinner menus here, and it’s three choices of Sapporo style lamb.  We ordered a French rack and lamb chops.  They prepared it for us, and it was absolutely delicious.  It’s a little on the pricier side for the amount of food you get, so we’d recommend saving for the occasion.

BBQ Chicken (Yongsan)

  If you didn’t already know, Koreans are well known for their BBQ and their fried chicken.  BBQ Chicken was a staple food in our household.  We ordered BBQ chicken almost every weekend when Sean came home.  There’s just something about those honey glazed wings and that undeniable crispy freshness the chicken had.  What blew our minds was the chicken would still be crispy (after heating in the oven) the next day! Witchcraft we tell you!  Absolutely mind blowing. 5 out of 5 for fried chicken, and I didn’t even eat fried chicken like that before Korea.

MenyaSandaime (Itaewon)

  24 Hongik-ro 5an-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea | We are forever on the search for the best ramen we can find.  Unfortunately, Sean hasn’t been able to taste ramen in Japan yet, but Menya Sandaime has definitely come very close to hitting home.  This ramen shop is quaint, but the line will go passed the neighboring stores.  The ramen noodles are made in house, the broth is super rich and flavorful. We’d recommend the black garlic ramen since it has such a bold flavor.

Egg Drop (Various locations)

  The versatility of eggs is always inspiring to me.  This small café specializes in egg sandwiches.  The menu isn’t very large, but the items are packed with flavor.  We tried three sandwiches in one visit and they did not disappoint.  We recommend this for a quick on-the-go brunch stop as their containers do well to prevent you from getting sandwich droppings on yourself.  If you’re feeling adventurous, try their delicious egg vanilla latte! It’s egg-citingly delicious, no yoke! 

Maple Tree (Itaewon)

116-1, Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul | It would be a shame to leave Korea without finding some amazing Korean BBQ.  We hadn’t realized how small the restaurant was until we went there trying to get a seat.  Our first recommendation would be to call ahead and try and reserve a space.  Once we were in though, the service was extremely fast.  The menu itself is fairly large, and the quality of meat reflects in the price for sure.  It did not seem like a very large portion of food, but with the unlimited sides, I was surprisingly satisfied for the rest of the night.  The aesthetic of the restaurant was very nice as well, seeing as most of it was covered in empty soju bottles!

Hibarin. Photo from imperialpalaceboutiquehotel.com

Hibarin (Itaewon)

  737-25 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea | This is another Japanese restaurant located in Itaewon. We were lucky to find this place after visiting, Vinyl & Plastic, a record store and cafe. This restaurant is located under IP Boutique hotel. It had a very modern aesthetic to it so dining there is very Insta-worthy. The katsu that we ordered was so good! It’s really something you can’t go wrong ordering.

Trip To Busan | Our escape from the hustle and bustle of Seoul

Back in May, Sean and I decided to take a spontaneous weekend trip to Busan.  Busan is a city located on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula.  It’s been popularly known for the zombie film Train to Busan, which I still have not seen.  We were going to take the train, but we like traveling with our car since it gives us a little more freedom with where we want to visit.  It’s about a 5-6 hour drive from Seoul, which isn’t bad considering the traffic getting out of Seoul.

  We stayed at Lotte hotel, which wasn’t bad because it was near so much stuff in the city already.  Outside of the hotel was two streets lined with street food carts.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try any because by the time we went out, everything was so busy.  We ended up eating Korean BBQ at a place near the hotel, and it was still so delicious.

  Honestly, it’s pretty hard to remember what we actually did in Busan since it’s been so long.  Our first stop was Taejongdae Cliffs. We didn’t spend too much time there because it was extremely hot, and I was no in the attire to climb any type of cliff. We took a walk along the pier, and then moved on with our tour of the city. Most of our morning we spent baking at Haeundae Beach.  It was a little strange for us at first because everyone that was there was covered head to toe.  We were a little hesitant to strip down to our bathing suits because we would be the only ones, but we did it anyways.  Asians are quite the opposite of Americans when it comes to tanning.  They admire porcelain white skin because it shows that you’ve got enough money not to work in the field all day (where you would get dark).  We’re obviously very Americanized Asians, haha.

  After trying to withstand the Korean heat, we packed up our things and went to Gamcheon Culture Village.  It’s a colorful village that sits on top of a hill where everyone goes to see the colorful houses of Busan that overlook the sea.  It was relatively crowded at the time that we went, but not so much where you were constantly bumping into people.  There are a few hidden alleyways that you can go up to get better views from the rooftops of the houses. Then for dinner, we decided to check out their massive fish market! We had absolutely no idea what we were looking for, so we chose a few fish and a live octopus and had it cooked for us. It took me a VERY long time to eat the octopus because it was still squirming on the plate! The crowd around us at the fish market was fun to watch. They ate everything. They ordered so much food, and they had A LOT of soju going around. It’s funny because it’s always groups of old people that go hiking, and then by mid-afternoon, they’re all drunk.

  We were extremely lucky that it didn’t rain on us during the one full day we had there.  Driving there and driving back to Seoul, we were traveling in downpour rain.  It definitely is a trip worth making if you have a free weekend in Korea and want to escape the hustle and bustle of Seoul!