About Korea Eats
Curated by a Seoul local who has saved and visited 4,000+ restaurants across South Korea. This isn't an algorithm — it's a personal, hand-picked collection of places worth eating at.
Why Google Maps?
In South Korea, most people use Naver Map or Kakao Map to find restaurants. The problem? These platforms are flooded with paid promotions and sponsored listings, making it nearly impossible to tell genuine recommendations from advertisements.
Google Maps is far less popular in Korea, which is exactly why the reviews there are more trustworthy — people who leave reviews on Google Maps are usually real visitors, not incentivized reviewers. We use this data as our foundation, then apply additional filtering to remove outliers that still look suspiciously promoted.
How Scoring Works
Each restaurant gets a Score calculated from its Google Maps data:
Example: A restaurant with a 4.3 rating and 400 reviews → 3 + 4.0 = 7.0
The threshold for inclusion is Score ≥ 7.0. This means a restaurant needs either high ratings, many reviews, or a combination of both.
Excluded: Restaurants with 1,000+ reviews and a 4.9–5.0 rating are removed. In our experience, these tend to be heavily promoted rather than genuinely outstanding.
Score Colors
Data Source
Restaurant data (names, ratings, review counts, locations) is sourced from Google Maps. Ratings and reviews change over time, so the data on this site may not reflect real-time values.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Korea Eats use Google Maps?
In South Korea, most people use Naver Map or Kakao Map, but these platforms are flooded with paid promotions, making it hard to find genuine recommendations. Google Maps is less popular in Korea, which means the reviews are more trustworthy — people who leave reviews on Google Maps are usually real visitors, not incentivized reviewers.
How does Korea Eats score restaurants?
Score = Rating (first decimal) + (Review Count ÷ 100). For example, a restaurant with a 4.3 rating and 400 reviews gets a score of 3 + 4.0 = 7.0. Only restaurants with a score of 7.0 or higher are included. Places with 1,000+ reviews and a 4.9–5.0 rating are excluded as likely over-promoted.
How many restaurants are listed on Korea Eats?
Korea Eats currently features 3,677+ curated restaurants across 17 regions and 142 cuisine categories in South Korea. All data is sourced from Google Maps and updated regularly.
What restaurants are excluded?
Restaurants with a score below 7.0 are not included. Additionally, restaurants with 1,000+ reviews and a 4.9–5.0 rating are removed, as these tend to be heavily promoted rather than genuinely outstanding. This filtering ensures only quality restaurants make the list.