Korean in Junggu: Mugyodong Bugeogukjip & More - 43 Local Picks

Since 1968 the kitchen has made a single dish, bugeo haejangguk, a dried-pollock hangover soup. The milky long-simmered…

Beef and radish alone go into this clear, grease-free broth, and the beef flavor still comes through strongly. It arriv…

This second-floor Korean restaurant near Gukje Market lists vegan ramyeon and a tofu steak as separate dishes. Duruchig…

Spicy, smoky stir-fried jjukkumi (webfoot octopus) arrives as a set with a bowl of kalguksu, so the meal moves from fie…

The kimchi jjigae can look like more pork than kimchi, simmered long with well-soured kimchi into a heavy, meaty broth.…

Tables turn over quickly since everything is self-service, from ordering and picking up trays to returning dishes. The…

Floor-to-ceiling windows run up both levels of this Myeongdong shop near Euljiro 1-ga Station, and further inside the t…

The pork-bone soup here runs clear enough to see the bottom of the bowl, lightly seasoned and almost free of porky smel…

Since 1968 this back-alley spot in Chungmuro has served baeksuk baekban: half a boiled chicken, a rich chicken gomtang…

Tucked into Da-dong behind Seoul City Hall, about 250m from Euljiro 1-ga Station, Buminok runs as a lunch canteen by da…

Barley rice has been served here below Bomunsan since 1960. Waiting runs on numbered tickets, and on weekend lunchtimes…

This was the original main branch until the head store moved toward Unseo Station. For the ppalgangeo nakji jeongol, po…

The stone-plate yukjeon, egg-dipped pan-fried beef, uses noticeably thicker beef than most jeon pubs and comes with a f…

Even with dak-muchim or dak-jjim, each diner gets a bowl of clear chicken broth, and leftover meat plus a bowl of rice…

The Korean tasting course on the 23rd floor of The Shilla Seoul is built from familiar dishes, but seasoned noticeably…

Brass bowls of Naju gomtang arrive with the rice already inside, warmed by repeatedly pouring hot broth over it (a tech…

Down a narrow Myeong-dong alley, an older couple runs a small rice-and-stew shop whose banssang baekban changes daily:…

In a second-floor room about 250 meters from Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, the owner grills the beef ove…

Tongmandu, bite-size dumplings, come to the table in the steamer itself, paired in summer with naengmomil, cold buckwhe…

Two hundred meters from Euljiro 1-ga Station, on Myeongdong 9-gil, this branch serves seolleongtang and boiled beef. Th…

Water parsley, oyster mushrooms and paper-thin beef go into the pot first at this basement shop in the Hansan Building,…

Steep stairs inside an old Namdaemun Market building lead to this second-floor fish house near Hoehyeon Station. Instea…

Kimchi-jjim and kimchi-jjigae are the whole menu. The jjim arrives ready to eat, long-aged kimchi with pork that comes…

Sanghwang mushrooms turn the broth of this samgyetang yellow and thick, nothing like the clear version most ginseng chi…