Seoul - good food

There are many blogs, youtube videos and websites recommending various street food and restaurants in Seoul. Before our trip, we made a conscious effort to check them out as part of our research. We also actively seek recommendations from friends and relatives who are frequent visitors of the city.

After collecting and half-digesting rims of data, we have sort of a general plan of attack. As always the case, despite having lots of time, we did not complete even half the must-eat-list. Plans change. Sometimes the journey time is simply too long, we got lost, we dwell too long at certain place of interest, too hungry to continue hunting for the restaurants.

Despite all the above reasons, we were pleasantly surprised by some of the unknown eating places. There were also a fair number of duds along the way. Below are some of our favorites in no particular order.

Bonjuk 本粥 본죽

72 Toegye-ro, Hoehyeondong 1(il)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

We chance upon this restaurant one morning while hunting for breakfast. It was not a place recommended by anyone we knew or mentioned in any of the blogs we read. It was empty when we were there, and we have totally no inkling that it will taste so good. I especially love their small plate of beef stripes that comes with the porridge. The reason why we even give this place a chance was because the actor-model at the front of the shop looks familiar and, the place looks clean.

This location is deep inside an office building between Shinsegae Department Store and Woori bank. It has a Starbucks outside.

Our favourite is the Mushroom and Seafood porridge. It was so good that we visited this place two times. As an added bonus, the portion is of decent size.

A Chinese blogger, evalilycoco, also recommended this eating house. Same restaurant but in another location. It is apparently part of a chain.

Congee House

31, Myeongdong 8ga-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04537

This is another very good porridge place and it is in Myeongdong, 3rd floor of The Stay Hotel. Close on Thursday.

Issac Toast

My favourite snack in Korea. Ate it 4 times. They have many outlets in Seoul, and 2 in Myeongdong itself. I usually make my purchase at night when there is no queue. This place is also highly recommended in many blogs.

Hong Kong Banjeom 0410

14, Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04536, South Korea

This place was recommended by a friend who visits Seoul every year. They serve good black bean sauce noodle or jajangmyeon (炸酱面).  Despite minimal service and limited menu options, this place is packed. Reason is because it serves good food at a very decent price.

Since the food can get a bit messy, they provide aprons so that you don't dirty your clothes. Just grab an apron from the counter.

Apron

  

Seoul Coffee Joints

Our holiday routine typically consist of 3 rounds of teas and coffees a day. Before lunch, afternoon and night. Sometimes we will have cakes and muffins to go along with our beverages.

We were thus pleasantly surprise to find many coffee joints in Seoul, and most of them actually taste decent. South Korea has their own local coffee chain that sort of mirrors Starbucks. I have taken some pictures below.

Starbucks Reserve

A Twosome Place

Ediya Coffee

As can be expected, the coffee joints near Universities such as Ewha and Hongdae are cheaper than those found in Dongdaemun and Myeongdong. These taste just as good. Don't have to be so loyal to Starbucks.

Seoul - hunting for almonds

I was told that there was an almond craze recently in South Korea. Specifically, people were going crazy over honey butter almond nuts. In places such as Myeongdong, shops were stacked with packets of almonds. There were honey butter, wasabi, hot spicy, strawberry and many other flavors.

I have tasted honey butter almond from Tom's in Singapore and it was really good. Only problem was the price. At SGD$9 to SGD$10 for a 210g pack of nuts, it is not exactly cheap.  But boy, did we run through a few packets.

In Seoul, the price of these almond nuts are cheaper. I believe they are manufactured in South Korea. We decide to buy 10 packets back to Singapore as gifts and for our own consumption.

And this was how we started our very Singaporean quest of looking for cheap honey butter almond nuts. We started taking mental notes of their price at various shops as we tour. Never get from the first shop, they say.

On the second day of our search, wife noticed that though the packaging looks similar, the almonds may be from different companies. Not all are from Tom's, and the difference can be seen from the logo on top. We bought a few small packs to do a taste test. Indeed, Tom's honey butter nuts tasted better, and we were adamant to only get from Tom's, despite its heftier prices. All previous research and mental notes gone down the drain.

Different logo

Different logo

All in all, our research shows that the cheapest nuts can be found in this shop named baviphat in Myeongdong with a price of KRW$4900 for a pack of 210g nuts (about SGD$5.60). I attached the picture of the shop and its location (marked in green) below.

Tourist Map of Myeongdong

We don't professed to have scoured all shops since this was not really our top priority. However, we did search Lotte mart, Myeongdong, Hongdae and Ewha Woman University areas, though not too extensively, I must admit. Generally, we noticed it is cheaper to get them from places outside of Myeongdong. You are warned.

Seoul Observations - First day and taxi

I have always wanted to visit South Korea. In 2019, I finally made my long awaited trip with my wife in end October. I figured it was a good time to go when it was not too cold, and at the same time catch some autumn colors.

Well, sadly, October in Seoul is still cold, especially at night. As for autumn colors, we are still too early. Most of the trees are still green. Approximately only 1 in 50 have put on their autumn hue. Despite things not turning out exactly as planned, Seoul is still a fabulous place and we thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

We reached Incheon airport at night, and immediately proceed to get our SIM card. Unlimited data for 10 days, and it cost us about SGD$44 each. Next, we make our way to AREX, for a non-stop train ride to Seoul station. We got our tickets from KLOOK, and it only cost us SGD$6.55 each.

While waiting for the train, I can't help but notice the platform for the "All Stop" AREX train seems to be more crowded. Maybe we will try it next time.

AREX schedule at Seoul station

The ride to Seoul station was comfortable enough. There is a place to store your luggage at the end of each cabin. Since it was already night time, we cannot really admire any scenery outside. Besides, a large part of the trip was underground and covered.

At Seoul station, the plan was to take a taxi all the way to the hotel. That was when things first started going awry. There is a taxi stand outside Seoul station, with a number of orange cab waiting for passengers. One of them drove away after seeing us and our luggage. The next two, to our horror did not have sufficient boot space to put our luggage. I think they are hybrid vehicles, and sadly half the car boot space is already occupied by the car battery or gas cylinders.

This is going nowhere. We finally decided to stuff 2 bags in the boot and hold on to the third one at the back seat. It is getting late and we are desperate to get to our hotel.

The journey to our hotel was another adventure. The taxi driver does not speak English and after we showed him the address of our hotel in the Korean language, as well as a rough map, he drove off hesitantly. I said hesitantly because he was constantly stopping and referring to the map I showed him. This is not looking good.

Dearest wife decide to use the KakaoMap software she installed. She managed to turn on the directions for the software and that was when we noticed the driver was constantly driving opposite to the instructions given. After a few U-turn, and many hand signals, we finally reached our hotel near Shinsegae Department Store (신세계백화점 / 新世界百货商店). Cost of taxi ride, KRW$5600, which is less than SGD$7.

That ends our very eventful first day in Seoul.

One additional observation. We travelled between our hotel and Seoul Station two more times using cab. The cheapest was KRW$3800. The most expensive was the time we completed our shopping from Lotte mart at Seoul station. The driver keyed in the address into his navigation system and the journey without any U-turn cost us KRW$6800. Traffic was a bit heavier but, I can't help but feel we have been taken for a ride. And yeah, in case you are wondering, all 3 are orange cabs. Journey was a lot longer for the more expensive ride though.