Where to eat on your first trip to Korea: 97 places (October 2026)
97 restaurants in the Korea on a Plate guide for a first trip to Korea, ranked Monthly 30 first and then by Google rating. Each has hours, a price per person and what to order.
In this guide: 1992 Deopbap & Jjageuri Gangnam Main, Haehwaok, Geumseonggwan Naju Gomtang (Naju-style Beef Soup), Myeongdong Kyoja, Tosokchon Samgyetang.
At a glance: Price per person ₩5,000–₩85,000 (middle ₩14,000). Average Google rating ★4.2. 10 of 97 are open late or 24 hours.
Updated 2026-10-05
Disclosure: the editor of this guide runs Haehwaok. Ranked by the same rule as every other restaurant: this month's 30 first, then review-weighted Google rating.
Tips before you go
Side dishes (banchan) are free and refillable, and water is often self-service.
Press the call button or say "jeogiyo" to call staff, and pay at the counter on the way out. No tipping.
This main branch is about 80 m from Gangnam Station and is listed on DiningCode for rice bowls and jjageuri. Every listed dish, from jjageuri stews to Jeolla-style rice bowls and Jeonju bibimbap, is priced at ₩13,500, and reviewers most often call it down-to-earth, casual, clean and good value.
START WITHJjageuri · thick pork stew eaten with rice
Haehwaok is a 24-hour Korean restaurant near Sinnonhyeon Station in Gangnam, Seoul. Visit for Hanwoo beef soup, beef shank and tendon hot pot, bulgogi and Korean beef barbecue, from breakfast to late-night dining.
Geumseonggwan Naju Gomtang serves Naju-style gomtang made with hanu (Korean beef) near Namdaemun Market, along with galbitang, pan-fried beef slices and boiled beef platters. DiningCode lists it for gomtang and dongdongju rice wine, and reviewers most often call it unpretentious, casual, generous and popular with locals.
START WITHNaju Gomtang · Korean beef soup served with rice, Naju style
Pair a visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace with a warming bowl of chicken soup. The traditional hanok setting makes this an inviting introduction to Korean comfort food.
Eulmildae is one of Seoul's most-cited destinations for Pyongyang-style naengmyeon, a subtle buckwheat noodle in cold beef broth that Korean food lovers argue over endlessly. It's an acquired taste for first-timers, and a window into a dish with roots north of the border.
Make room for Jeju’s black pork barbecue. Staff grill the meat at your table over briquettes, so you can settle in and enjoy the island’s signature meal.
START WITHHeukdwaeji gui · grilled Jeju black pork
One of Jeju City's most recommended early-morning soup houses, specializing in a Jeju-only style of haejangguk built around bracken fern instead of the cabbage used on the mainland. It opens at 6am and draws locals starting their day alongside travelers wanting a hearty meal.
START WITHGosari haejangguk · bracken-fern and pork-bone soup
One of the best-known pancake stalls inside Gwangjang Market, a covered market that has fed Seoul since 1905. Sit at the counter, watch the pancakes fry a few feet away, and eat on a stool the way market regulars do.
Jinokhwa opened in 1978 and is one of the founding restaurants of the alley now called Dak-hanmari Golmok, where whole chickens simmer tableside in a shallow pot of broth. It's a communal, cook-it-yourself meal that rewards a small group with time to linger.
A Korean barbecue house a few minutes from Itaewon Station that opens in the late afternoon and grills until nearly midnight. Staff cook the meat at the table and keep the side dishes topped up, and English is spoken, which is why it is one of the most-reviewed barbecue rooms in Itaewon.
START WITHSamgyeopsal and pork neck grilled at the table
A pork barbecue room on Bogwang-ro, down the hill from Itaewon Station, open until midnight every day and from noon at weekends. There is a set that lets you try several cuts at once, and the house stew is what regulars add to the grill.
START WITHPork belly, pork neck and the house stew
A second branch of a pork barbecue place in the lanes below Itaewon Station, open from late afternoon to midnight every day. Servers grill the thick cuts at the table and tell you which condiment to eat each one with; the room is set up for visitors, with most tables full of travellers.
A barbecue house steps from Konkuk University Station, open noon to midnight daily, serving pork belly and shoulder as well as Korean beef. Staff grill at the table, and the steamed egg on the side is worth adding.
A small noodle restaurant holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the Seoul selection. The kitchen builds Korean noodle bowls with some Italian technique, and the menu changes with the season, turning cold in summer and to an ox-head broth in winter. There are only a few tables.
Bapjangin Dwaeji Jjigae's Hongdae branch, about 140 m from Hongik University Station, serves pork stews: jjageuli, pork kimchi stew, soft tofu with potato and soft tofu with brisket, plus bulgogi, stir-fried squid and Spam sets for one or two. DiningCode reviewers most often call it unpretentious, generous and good value.
Baekam sundae is a style from Baekam in Yongin, where the sausage is packed with vegetables and glass noodles rather than filler and the broth is a clear pork bone stock. This is the original branch of the Nongmin group and it draws a steady office lunch crowd from the Daechi and Seolleung blocks. The soup arrives with sundae and assorted pork offal already in the bowl.
START WITHSundae-gukbap · pork blood sausage and offal rice soup
A Seongsu branch of a restaurant known for soy-marinated raw crab, with a spicy crab, marinated shrimp and marinated abalone on the same menu, all served as set meals with rice and side dishes. It has a lunch and a dinner service and is closed on Mondays.
START WITHGanjang-gejang · raw crab marinated in soy sauce
Opened in 2014 by an owner who mills and cuts his own buckwheat, so the strands are slightly thicker and rougher than at the older Pyongyang houses. The broth is simmered about five hours from Korean beef with medicinal roots, and the house also makes its own pear vinegar, mustard sauce and daily radish kimchi. It appears in the Michelin Guide Seoul selection.
START WITHPyeongyang mul-guksu · buckwheat noodles in chilled beef broth
A samgyetang specialist near Samgakji Station serving whole young chicken in broth, including black-sesame and herbal versions alongside the classic. It is light, warming and an easy first Korean meal; a kimchi pancake on the side is a popular addition.
START WITHSamgyetang · whole young chicken in ginseng broth
Groups & sharingFirst time in KoreaNear the sights
₩22,000 per person
Hours 11:00–21:00
A large, bright dining hall in the heart of Namdaemun Market with seating for over a hundred, this spot is built for the market's steady flow of shoppers and tour groups rather than a quiet meal. It's a dependable, filling stop near Seoul Station and the market's kitchenware and fabric alleys.
START WITHWanggalbitang · large-cut beef short rib soup
Gwanghwamun Seokgalbi's D Tower branch, about 190 m from Gwanghwamun Station, serves pork and beef stone-plate grills, 1++ hanu striploin on a tabletop brazier, a large galbitang, hanu yukhoe bibimbap and a cheese potato pancake. DiningCode reviewers most often describe it as clean, upscale, formal and casual.
START WITHSeokgalbi · meat grilled on a hot stone plate
Every place is in the Korea on a Plate guide, written by an editor who runs four restaurants in Seoul. The list is filtered from published hours, prices and tags; nobody pays to be listed.
