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:

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Zelen, Bulgarian Food in Itaewon and Hannam

(pictures and map coming soon)

Zelen is awesome. The menu is so extensive it's difficult to narrow your selection down to just one dish. If you go with a large party, Mihal may accommodate you by offering a price fixed menu. For 26,000 won our party was able to sample a smorgasborg of food. Appetizers included bread as well as grilled eggplant with cheese, grilled mushrooms with cheese and salad, and grilled peppers stuffed with, you guessed it, cheese. The grilled peppers were the most popular for our group. The stuffing was delicious and they were served atop a homemade yogurt dill sauce. For the main course we received a sampling of many of their popular entrees. A platter of skewered meats and veggies, ribs, and stuffed chicken with a side of their very popular spinach stuffed chicken. Although our vegetarian friends found the menu a little meat-heavy the cooks had no problem substituting vegetarian and vegan dishes for them. We enjoy visiting Zelen for large parties; however it's also a great place to take a date. They also offer couples sets that are reasonably priced and will be certain to have you looking forward to a second date.

Hannam Location: Go to the main Hannam bus stop. Across the street from GS Gas and KFC, go down the street between Red Mango and Cafe Slow. Not far up the street you will see the twinkling lights in Zelen on your right.

Itaewon Location: Leave Itaewon station exit 1. Take your first right and then your first left. At the end of the street turn right and go up the stairs. Zelen is at the top of the stairs on the right.

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Marrakech Nights, Moroccan Food in Itaewon

This is one of my (Meg's) favorite restaurants in Seoul. We often go on weekends because they put out a great buffet for just 18,000 won. Our group consists of a mish-mash of vegans and carnivores and Marrakech manages to appeal to everyone. There are plenty of meats (lamb, chicken), vegetables and dips (hummus, baba ganoush, zaluk, and teruka) to choose from. The staff are really friendly. Hookahs are available. There's a big screen TV on one side of the wall to catch a game or enjoy some music videos over dinner. While your there take a minute to look at the mixture of family photos and traditional paintings that cover the walls. Not only will your stomach be thanking you for the food but you'll also notice a warm-fuzzy feeling for supporting this family establishment.



(map coming soon)

Directions: Leave Itaewon station exit 3 and walk straight down the street for 10 minutes. Look for the sign; it's on the second floor.

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Fugetsu, Japanese in Hongdae

(Directions and map at bottom of post)

Fugetsu is a popular Japanese restaurant in Hongdae. One of the main dishes served here is okonomiyaki. Okonomi means "what you like" and yaki means "grilled." Each table is equipped with its own grill. If you are new to Japanese cuisine (as we are) this would be a good place to start because your server cooks your food for you. I would not know where to begin to cook my own okonomiyaki.

The menu has many options to choose from. We ordered a beef modanyaki (okonomiyaki with noodles). The server mixed cabbage with egg and plopped it on the grill with some beef in the middle. After some time he added a layer of noodles and Katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna). The paper-thin pink-brown shavings look alive as the heat causes them to wave and dance on top of the other ingredients. When the beef is cooked through the server flips the savory pancake and spreads a layer of mayo and okonomiyaki sauce on top. I never expected Japanese food to include mayonaise but the end result was quite delicious. It blended well with the sweet teriyaki/worcestershire-like okonomiyaki sauce.
In the picture below you can see that we also ordered a seafood soba noodle stirfry. It was a nice accompaniment to the other dish because it was a little plainer and not sauce heavy.
They did not have an English menu available to us so it's best to know some Korean, although the menu does have a lot of pictures to help you out if your knowledge of Korean is low.

Directions: Walk out Hongik University Station Exit 5. Take your first left (not the intersection with the KFC immediately when you come out, but the next left) and then your second right. I've seen some maps of Hongdae call this the "street you want to walk." You will have to walk for about 15 minutes passing many colorful shops and restaurants. Look for this building with a pig sign on the second floor:
It's across the street from a parking area. I tried to get a clear picture of the sign with the big pig but it's still a little difficult to make out. Here's a map to help you out:

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Diner Pub, Apgujeong

(Directions at bottom of post)















Diner Pub has a good little thing going. Dishing out a good selection of beers, and some really high quality bar food, including 6,000 won burgers. Indeed, as the name suggests, Diner Pub walks the line between restaurant and bar, landing, in my opinion, more on the side of restaurant. (I guess this is the Seoul equivalent of the new breed of establishments: the “gastropub.”)

The atmosphere is jolly. Located right in the heart of the Apgujeong restaurant area, the place is packed with wealthy young Koreans, without that much of a foreign crowd. (This is Apgujeong, after all, not Itaewon.) As a result, the menu is a bit more experimental, since it isn't tied down by the restraint of catering to expats craving an exact replica of the food from home.

There are fried strands of spaghetti on the table to nibble on (see picture below). The burger is not exactly a standard burger. Rather, the texture is more than of cream-chipped beef on toast. Imagine a toasted cheese sandwich, with a sizeable amount of especially juicy ground beef and rich, darkly colored lettuce added to it. On the whole, I would describe this burger as smooth, like a “melt.”

And objectively delicious.

For quality atmosphere, fine beers, and extremely high quality bar food, you can't miss at Diner Pub.

Directions: Go out Sinsa Station Exit 8 and walk straight. Turn at the third left. This is the main Garosu-gil street (shown in yellow and running north-south on the map below). At the first opportunity, head left to cross over one block, to the next street that runs parallel to Garosu-gil. Walk up this parallel street and Diner Pub will be on your left. See the map below:

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Le Vert: Burgers, Sandwiches, Salads, Pizza in Haebangchon/Itaewon

Le Vert is a quaint, open-air restaurant with a vaguely French feel to it. The menu has burgers, sandwiches, beers, etc. It is on Haebangchon-gil (up the street from Itaewon; see bottom of post for directions), nestled among other Haebangchon foreigner bastions such as Phillies, Indigo, and Pita Time.

I got a burger, and Meg got a turkey sandwich.

First, the burger: The burger prices aren't too bad for Korea: there's a standard cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion for 8,000 won (includes fries). You can get the same burger and fries with a load more toppings on the burger (including a fried egg and bacon) for 10,000 won. I chose the deluxe version. One of the draws is that the burger comes on a ciabatta-like bun. The main downfall is that the patty is on the small side, and very well-done. It's a little lump buried amongst a sea of toppings. The moisture in the burger did not come from the juice dripping off the meat as it does in a primo burger, but only from the array of toppings and sauces that surround the meat. However, the fries were large , the portion of fries was generous, and they came with a delicious garlic mayonnaise. On the whole, a B+ burger and fries.

Now, the turkey sandwich. Here, there was some real disappointment. When you visit a place like Le Vert that has several classic American sandwiches on its menu (all in the 10,000 to 12,000 won range), you expect a turkey sandwich to have a large stack of sliced up deli meat (see Suji's and the All-American Diner down the street from Le Vert). This sandwich literally had at most two slices of turkey. It was on ciabatta bread, which was nice, but on the whole, a rather anemic turkey sandwich.

I would say that Le Vert is a place to hang if you're more interested in a cafe-type atmosphere than in actual food. As far as the Itaewon/Haebangchon area is concerned, there are many better places nearby. Keep in mind, though, you'll have a decent meal if you go to Le Vert, but compared to the surrounding establishments, it's unfortunately a B+ restaurant.

Directions:Go out Noksapyeong Station Exit 2 and walk straight down the street. When you get to a large collection of kimchi pots, veer onto the street where the pots are and walk up. (Use the interactive google map below.) You'll pass Pita Time, and La Vert will be across the street from the bar Phillies.

View La Vert Directions in a larger map

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Flying Pan, Brunch in Itaewon

Flying Pan is a very popular place to go for breakfast, brunch, lunch... anytime really. The menu has so many delicious things I want to try them all and have succeeded at sampling almost half of their dishes by now. Above you will see a picture of the chicken salad sandwich with avocado. Definitely a favorite of mine. Also, I would especially recommend the salads. They are all made piled high with mescaline greens, fresh ingredients and home-made dressings. In the picture below you can see we ordered the grilled banana and ricotta french toast and eggs benedict ham. When making the french toast they use real brioche bread and maple syrup which is what makes it the best french toast I've tried in Korea.


The poached eggs, bread, ham and potato salad were delicious but for some reason we didn't get real hollandaise sauce with the eggs benedict (just a large pat of butter on top), so that was a bit disappointing. A quick informal survey of my friends produces the result that a trip to the Flying Pan excites the women more than the men. One reason could be because it's definitely fancier than a greasy American or English style breakfast, but that's what I find so appealing. The prices are not astronomical but slightly high at about 10,000 to 16,000 won per plate.


Directions: To get to the location above, leave Itaewon station exit two and turn left at the first side street. After turning, you should see it almost immediately on your right side. There are three locations in total. A second in Itaewon and one in Apugjeong.



Above is the grilled vegetable sandwich with salad.


This is called "Aladin's bowl." Flying pan has been introducing some spicy middle eastern flavours to some of their dishes. This one is a slightly spicy sauce with chickpeas, onions and sausage with a pouched egg on top, served with turkish bread (has a sourdough flavour).

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