Samgyetang near Gyeongbokgung Palace, 토속촌삼계탕

토속촌삼계탕 is famous in South Korea for its Samgyetang. You can see the popularity of this restaurant by the enormous line-up that forms outside during peak lunch and dinner times. If you can try to avoid these rushes, but if not possible at least the line moves fairly quickly. The best thing about Korean restaurants like this (other than the food) that focus on one main kind of dish is the speedy service. If you don't know what samgyetang is, it's a soup made with a whole chicken that has been stuffed with rice, pine nuts, chestnuts, Korean jujubes and ginseng. It's considered very healthy and to be eaten especially during Sambok, the month-long hottest period of the summer.


Here is the menu and prices. We were able to split one soup between the two of us although if you have a large appetite you may want to get your own. The group beside us ordered the spring onion pancake with their soups and it looked delicious. The serving portion was huge and so we asked the waiter if they offered a smaller sized serving. They didn't but the Chinese tourists overheard and offered to give us each a piece which was really nice of them.


The restaurant sits inside a series of traditional hanok (Korean style houses) that are used for seating areas.


This is the entrance.

And look, you know it's a "good restaurant" because it's guaranteed on the front entrance!

Directions: Leave Gyeongbokgung station exit 2. Walk straight for a few minutes and take your second left. You should see the restaurant immediately on the left hand side of the street.

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Crafty Burger

Crafty Burger's ordering area opens out onto the street. A ladder leads the way upstairs to the seating area. The kitchen (complete with giant rotating burger grill) is crammed into the tiny downstairs ordering area. Note that Crafty is also quite venerable, having been apparently established in 1894.

The burgers cover all the bases: juicy, fairly large, not too complicated when it comes to toppings. On the whole, a fine discovery in the Gwanghwamun area. My only complaint is that the burger patty was not as juicy as some of the better burgers in Seoul.

Here's the burger itself:

And their rotating grill:

Directions: Go out Anguk Station Exit 2 and walk straight. You should eventually see Crafty Burger on the lefthand side of the street. Zoom out on the map below to see its location in relation to Gyeongbokgung Palace and other nearby subway stops:

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Aloi, Thai in Gwanghwamun/Jongno

Aloi is a Thai restaurant near Gyeongbokgung Palace (in the Gwanghwamun/Jongno area). It serves all the standard Thai dishes and is packed with nearby businessmen during lunch time. It is located in the basement of an apartment building.

The atmosphere is clean and inviting, the staff is friendly, and the prices for entrees are pretty standard – about 10,000 -15,000 won.

Look for this sign:
Directions: Go to Gyeongbokgung station and follow the map below:

View Aloi Thai Location in a larger map

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Quo Lai, Chinese in Samcheong-dong

(Directions at bottom of post.)
Quo Lai is fancy Chinese in a small, cozy restaurant with an upscale, trendy-looking atmosphere, but it's not ridiculously expensive. You can get a really good set menu for 30,000 won per person at dinner time, which features 7 dishes. Meg & I both got that (you can only do it in groups of two people, since the dishes are meant to be shared).

The dishes in the 30,000 set are:

1. Chewy seafood in a deep brown gravy-like broth. Very savory.

2. Seafood noodles with a strange, meringue-like sauce. This dish is interesting, and an excellent complement to the richness of the first dish. Meg was suspicious of the meringue-type sauce, but I thought it was delicious. I think it was egg-based, but I could be way off.

3. Deep-fried shrimp with a sauce that's somewhere between honey mustard for sweetness and hollandaise sauce for texture.

4. Crispy pork with hot peppers piled on top. Mmm, crispy pork. Enough said.

5. Beef & green peppers and onions. A lot of peppers and onions, not that much beef, but still tasty.

6. Chinese flour buns. You know the stuff: really thick, chewy perfectly white, buns.

7. Choice of either jjajangmyeon (noodles with the black bean sauce) or seafood kalguksu (noodles in a mildly spicy clear broth with some seafood thrown in). I'm a jjajang fan, so I'd always recommend the jjajang. It may just be fifty pounds of msg, but something about that black bean sauce just sets off all the deliciousness alarms inside my brain.

Overall, a good meal. Increasingly fancier sets are available for increasingly fancier prices. A good choice to really satisfy a Chinese craving, though of course, there are cheaper ways to do that. Summary, the here food here is pricey but top-notch. Also a good place to take a date, assuming that the individual likes Korean-style Chinese food.

Directions:
These directions are lengthy. See the interactive map below to clear up confusion. Go out Anguk Station Exit 1 and walk straight. Eventually you will get to walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace. It is absolutely massive, you'll know it when you see it. (see the map below.) Turn right and head up the street that goes alongside the palace wall. Keep going until you see a restaurant called The Restaurant. (It should be at the third substantial intersection since you started walking alongside the palace.) When you see The Restaurant, turn right and walk up the street. Just keep going and you will get to Quo Lai after a while; it should be on the left side of the street. On the way up this street, you should pass many nice-looking restaurants and art galleries. If you want to take a cab or need to ask any Korean speakers how to get to Quo Lai, the Hangeul is 쿠얼라이.

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Olive & Herb: Italian Restaurant in Gwanghwamun

Olive & Herb is an Italian restaurant in Gwanghwamun. The interior doesn't look like much: just brown tables in a dimly lit room. White walls with a green painting of a tree on one wall.

You can get a decent calzone here (which is rare), although it's a bit pricey at 13,000 won. Otherwise, the fare is standard Italian: mostly pastas with various sauces in the range of 12,000-17,000 won.

If you're just looking for reasonably good Italian, then this place will do. However, if you're browsing for a place with a nice atmosphere (perhaps for a date or a nice dinner), then I would recommend one of Seoul's many other Italian restaurants. Olive & Herb is a basement restaurant in an apartment buiding that mostly serves as a lunch location for the employees of the large number of corporate offices in the area (probably when they're not looking to impress an important client at a fancy pants restaurant) .

Directions: Get out Gyeongbokgung Exit 6 and walk straight. Turn left at the corner. Walk straight. The street will fork into two streets, a left fork and a right fork. Walk down the left fork until you get to the intersection. Cross the intersection. Once on the other side of the street, Olive & Herb is in the basement of the large officetel building. (You'll see steps heading down as soon as you cross the street.)

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Burger Burger

Burger Burger is a burger stand in Gwanghwamun.

The upside: You can get a burger for 2,500 (the regular burger) or 4,500 (the same thing as the regular burger, but with more toppings, including a pineapple ring). They grill the burger fresh while you wait.

The downside: The burgers are quite bad. We're talking almost Lotteria-quality here. The patty is some kind of half-beef (or maybe just plain fake beef) thing that tastes more like meatloaf than a ground beef hamburger patty. And of course, unless you request otherwise, they put a ton of ultra sweet sauce on your burger, you know, because everybody knows that burgers taste better when they are doused in saccharine, syrupy sauces.

Directions: Go out Gwanghwamun Exit 6 and walk straight. Keep going, and follow the street while curves to the left a bit. At the McDonald's, turn left. After a short ways, you will see Burger Burger on the right side of the street.

If it is more convenient, you can also go out Seodaemun Station, Line 5; or City Hall Station, Line 1 and 2. Use the interactive map included in this post to find the how to walk from the station to Burger Burger.

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Ipanema: Brazilian Meat Restaurant (Churrascaria) in Gwanghwamun (Jongno)

Directions and map at bottom of post.
Ipanema is pretty much your standard Brazilian restaurant. All-you-can-eat meat on skewers, nicely-set tables, a salad bar that comes along with the meal. The cost is 26,000 won (13,000 won for children) plus VAT value-added tax. In summary, although Ipanema is a more than adequate restaurant and will certainly fill you up with meat, it is a bit substandard compared to the better Brazilian places in Seoul.


Here's a breakdown of what Ipanama has to offer:

Salad Bar: Of course, there is feijoada (for those that aren't familiar with it, a delicious stew of beans and pork). There is also some really good grilled vegetables, raw salmon, standard salad components, sushi, fruit, two soups, and a cinnamon punch. W
What this salad bar excels: really good grilled vegetables and its cinnamon punch.
Where it falls short: soups are bit bland and there aren't many substantive dishes on the salad bar. Other Brazilian places will often have multiple dishes on the salad bar besides just feijoada: e.g. shrimp-fried rice with egg, or, like Copacabana in Itaewon, chicken stroganoff and beef chili, each of which is almost a meal by itself. In comparison to other Brazilian restaurants, the salad bar here definitely falls a bit short.

Meat: The meat here lives up to the quality of other Brazilian places. There are all the standards: chicken, beef, sausage, lamb, pork. Unfortunately, although the meat selection is adequate, I did not get any of the really rare beef that is in the meat rotation at other Brazilian restaurants, and which I love so much I usually feel compelled to nab two or three thick slices of at a time (you never know when the waiter will come back with more). Additionally, although this place covered all the standards, it didn't bring around any specialties: e.g. the special course of garlic-infused beef at Copacabana or the truly wonderful "butter-steak" that I once had at another Brazilian restaurant (now sadly gone).

Non-meat courses: There was no cinnamon-pineapple here. That's a big minus. One of the hallmarks of eating at a Brazilian restaurant in Seoul is when, at the end of the meal, after you're full to the brim with meat, they bring around the pineapple on a skewer, often dusted with a coating of cinnamon (mmmm, pineapple). Usually the perfect end to a gut-busting meal. But alas, sadly absent from Ipanema. They do bring around potatoes done on a skewer, but it just isn't the same. (In fact, the potatoes are tough and hard to eat.)

But don't get me wrong. If you're in Gwanghwamun and you really feel like a boatload of meat, this place will satisfy. It's just that it is not quite as good as the other Brazilian restaurants in Seoul.

Directions:
Go out Gwanghwamun Exit 6 and walk straight. Keep going, and follow the street while curves to the left a bit. At the McDonald's, turn left. After a short ways, you will see Ipanema on the right side of the street.

If it is more convenient, you can also go out Seodaemun Station, Line 5; or City Hall Station, Line 1 and 2. Use the interactive map included in this post to find the how to walk from the station to Ipanema.

View Ipanema Brazilian Restaurant Location in a larger map

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Cook'n Heim, so-called "artsy" burgers in Samcheong-dong

8,000-15,000 for burgers; around 20,000 for pasta entrees.
Directions and map at bottom of post.

Cook'n Heim had potential, but ultimately, I'd say it failed to deliver. It touts itself as an upscale, fashionable, artsy place to get upscale, fashionable, upscale "Italian-style" burgers. I was intrigued to try these fancy pants burgers, so Meg and I ventured out to Samcheong-dong.

Well, the atmosphere is what you'd expect. You feel like you're in an art museum restaurant, some cozy little place for tourists to dine, next to the gift shop:

Is that good or bad? Well, I was actually kind of digging the atmosphere. I mean, hey, as long as the burgers are good, right?

Well, the burgers actually look fairly amazing. Here's the one I got, with focaccia bread and supposedly some gouda on there somewhere. Looks pretty dang good, eh? Well, my friends; alas! The burger patty was some strange half-meat concoction. Nowhere near real-beef. And strangely sweet. The focaccia was okay, though. But all in all, a highly Koreanized burger (and not in a good way.)


Here's Meg's burger: the "pine" burger, replete with a ton of saccharine-sweet pineapple-topping combined with loads of mustard. In my opinion, a bit of a sauce clash. And the burger patty, of course, was basically some low-grade meatloaf.
All in all, Cook'n Heim had great potential and decent atmosphere. But alas, for burger lovers, I would not recommend it.

Directions:
These directions are lengthy. See the interactive map below to clear up confusion. Go out Anguk Station Exit 1 and walk straight. Eventually you will get to walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace. It is absolutely massive, you'll know it when you see it. (see the map below.) Turn right and head up the street that goes alongside the palace wall. Keep going until you see a restaurant called The Restaurant. (It should be at the third substantial intersection since you started walking alongside the palace.) When you see The Restaurant, turn right and walk up the street. Just keep going and you will get to Cook'n Heim after a while; it should be on the righthand side of the street. On the way up this street, you should pass many nice-looking restaurants and art galleries.

View Cook'n Heim Directions in a larger map

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Sunshine Kebab, near Jonggak Station, Gwanghwamun

Directions: Go out Jonggak station exit 3 and walk straight.

When I stumbled into Sunshine Kebab late one stormy night completely
famished I hungrily gobbled down the chicken kebab I ordered. This
Australian kebab franchise promises authentic Turkish kebab. Although
I enjoyed my kebab it didn't quite cut-it on my kebab scale. The
bread was delicious. They didn't just throw their kebab into any old
tortilla like some places do. However, there was no white sauce! A great kebab has to
have a lot of white sauce, but in this Koreanized
version the meat was heated up on the grill in some sweet brown sauce.

Suspiciously I didn't see the meat out on the spit like at most kebab
places but I'm assuming they had already cleaned up and put that away
since it was near closing time. I'll have to investigate further
sometime during the day in the future. Also, if you choose to enjoy
what this restaurant has to offer don't expect to enjoy the lassi. It
was terrible. Someone should introduce these people to yogurt because
I'm pretty sure they just mixed something with regular maeil milk.

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Bärlin, German food in Gwanghwamun (Jongno)

Price: 60,000-100,000 for two people, including drinks (scroll to bottom of post for directions)

The first thing that strikes one entering Bärlin is the atmosphere. The interior is elegant, pleasant, and relaxed. It is located on the first floor of the Somerset Palace Hotel, a four-star hotel across the street from Gyeongbokgung Palace.


Upon looking at the menu, one immediately feels that one is in for a very authentic German meal. Indeed, everything sounded so delicious that I had to stop myself from ordering seven or eight dishes. The menu includes such enticing-sounding combinations as beef tartar with rye bread; smoked salmon with horseradish sauce and potato cakes; marinated herring with apple cream & red beet sauce and potatoes; oven-roasted silver cod fish fillet with carmelized apples, chestnuts, and buttered potatoes, beef broth soup...

So many excellent German flavors to imagine as one reads the menu! The menu reminded me poignantly how many unique tastes Germany has to offer, but also how absent truly authentic German cuisine is from Seoul's dining scene.

You can find the full menu here if you want to peruse it before going:
http://www.baerlin.co.kr/html_e/main.html
(There is some cheesy soft jazz that plays when you go to the website, but you can turn it off at the bottom of the screen.)

When Meg and I went, we ordered the Original Berliner Sausage with North German Potato Salad, and the Rostocker Smoked Sausage with South German Potato Salad. We also got cheese spatzle off the "Go-Between" menu, since... how can you go to a German restaurant without getting some spatzle? We also got some of their draft beers: an Erdinger Dark and a Krombacher Pils.



The beer, of course, was excellent, as were the potato salads. Potato salad preferences differ across Germany as the creamy dill North potato salad was much richer than the lighter tasting mustard and vinegar potato salad of the South. The flavor in both was well-crafted and fit well with the sausages. Unfortunately, the Original Berliner Sausage was essentially a glorified, extra-long hot dog. But as far as hot dogs do, it was high-quality. We also received a garnish for the sausages that was described as "pork fat fried with vegetables," which I had never heard of before but was excellent.


One complaint, however, is that there was not much food for the price (one sausage and a bit of potato salad for 20,000 won). Nevertheless, Bärlin definitely satisfies a craving for good German food.

Next time I go, I will probably order something from the "Exquisite Side of the German Kitchen" portion of the menu, in order to test out the full power of Bärlin's German kitchen.

Directions

View Bärlin in a larger map
There are three different subway stops you can go to that are all very close to each other, so you can choose the subway stop that is fastest for you to get to:

1. Take Line 1 to Jonggak. Get out at Exit 2 and go down the street until you hit a very large street. Turn left and walk until you see the Somerset Palace Hotel.
2. Take Line 3 to Anguk. Get out at Exit 6 and walk down the street until you find the Somerset Palace Hotel.
3. Take Line 5 to Gwanghwamun. Get out at Exit 2 and walk up the street until you hit the large street across from the palace. Turn right and walk until you see the Somerset Palace Hotel.

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