We tried eating at a variety of restaurants around Seoul, to really get a feel of the culinary delights. These included: market stalls, hole in the walls, food courts, fried chicken diners, fine dining venues, and many many cafes.
Fried Chicken – A Korean Staple
It is a staple to visit a fried chicken and beer restaurant when in South Korea. We went to a few while we were there, and even though we don’t drink beer Soju is always on the menu! We often got two different flavors and shared, the portion sizes are HUGE, so don’t expect it to be hungry after. This isn’t just a tourist trap, it is a favorite with locals as well, which absolutely adds to the experience. In Hongdae we sat next to a table of suited business men, who were all sharing a massive platter of chicken and giggling while they were putting soju in their beer.
Food Courts
The food courts we went to were in some of the established malls that we visited, like the Hyundai shopping center. These stalls here had a more Korean influenced international selection. There weren’t any multinational fast food eateries like McDonalds or KFC, which would really be competing with the local fried chicken! There were French styled sandwiches, Japanese sushi, Indian curries, Vietnamese pho’s, and many many more. This is a good option if you are craving something different, but you don’t want to expend too much energy searching. However, they are very, very busy. These were easily the most crowded places that we went to in Seoul.
Fine Dining
We treated ourselves to a romantic restaurant at the end of our trip at Candle 1978. The food was western styled, as we had steak as a main. The atmosphere was straight out of a romantic movie. Our table was a secluded booth that over looked the N-tower, and the decor looked like it was taken straight from a New York penthouse in 1978. The highlight was after we ate, where the maitre d’ told us to go upstairs to the courtyard. There was a little desk where you would write a love letter to your spouse. You then would put it in a mail box labeled with the date you were there, then 1 year later it would be sent to you to read. Fingers crossed they will send it to Australia! There was also a courtyard with a big luminescent moon to take some cute photos. All in all, this was the most romantic restaurant we have ever eaten at! Highly recommend!
To go here visit: http://www.candle1978.com/
Cafe Culture
South Korea is the epitome of coffee culture, on every corner there is a coffee shop, and in most cases there is multiple. Most that we came across were franchises like A Twosome place or Starbucks, there was even one in our hotel!
The coffee itself was more USA styled, rather than the European cafe style in Australia. There was still lattes and cappuccinos on the menu, but the froth was minimal. There is a wide variety of coffee/tea flavors and their accompanying iced combinations that you can get. We ventured out and got some unusual things, and they were very hit (brown sugar macchiato) and miss (white chocolate latte), but that is all part of the adventure.
The food in the cafes ranged in quality. We found that as a rule of thumb, if the cafe was a franchise the food was pretty average. But if it was a stand alone, or there were very few of them around, the food was very good. We ate at a serve yourself bakery just down from our hotel, and it was the perfect bakery.
The cafe culture in Seoul is a representation of the busy population always taking time to sit down and enjoy a drink. This is possibly why they aren’t limited to the morning rush, most cafes we walked past were open until 1am!