I just got back from my third trip to South Korea’s capital of Seoul, and the city has truly won over my heart 😉 It just might be my favorite all-around city in Asia thanks to its unique mix of affordable and delicious dining, endless markets, shopping and nightlife that goes into the morning hours. That is, as long as you go when the weather is warm because my last trip to Seoul back in December 2018 was absolutely soul-crushing with the sub-freezing temperatures 😅
Make sure that you download the Naver app onto your phone for directions and up-to-date opening hours, as Google Maps isn’t widely used in South Korea. Because of this, every spot in my list below is written as the name on Google Maps so you can look it up to save to your own maps, but is linked to Naver for directions. I’ve divided my list of restaurants, cafes, markets, bars and more fun activities to do all around Seoul by neighborhood, so you can either jump ahead to go straight to the list, or keep reading to understand why I’m starting the list with Hongdae, my new favorite area of this vibrant city.
Why We Loved Staying in Hongdae
This time around we stayed in the young, artsy neighborhood of Hongdae, which I highly recommend. It’s a little further from the main tourist areas of Myeongdong and Bukchon Hanok Village (about 40 min subway ride), but you can easily stay in Hongdae an entire weekend and still have a list of restaurants, shopping streets, and bars to explore. Since Hongik University is in this neighborhood, prices are generally more affordable, and there’s loads of activities to do well into the night from bars and clubs to even photo studios and an arcade that’s open until 3AM.
Hongdae is also located on the Airport Railroad Express (AREX) all stop train line, so you can take public transportation for less than 5,000 won per person and get from Incheon International Airport to Hongik University station in an hour. Now if you’re like us and you’re running late for your flight because you just couldn’t pull yourself from your last delicious dinner, you could instead spend 50,000 won for a taxi that takes 40 minutes 😅
Our Hotel in Hongdae
We stayed 3 nights at RYSE, a modern (dog-friendly!) boutique hotel that won us over with it’s combination of aesthetically pleasing design in every corner, comfy beds, thoughtfully placed switches, sustainable toiletries and water dispensers, and a gorgeous bathroom complete with a waterfall shower and bidet toilet.
The rooftop bar has stunning views of the city (as pictured above!), and RYSE is also part of Marriot Bonvoy’s Autograph Collection so you can earn hotel rewards points. While the hotel doesn’t have a pool, that’s not what we’re visiting Seoul for anyway, so we definitely plan to stay here again for our next trip.
My Favorite Restaurants, Bars & Things to Do in Hongdae
Pigbar
My favorite Korean BBQ spot that we visited as everything was just SO GOOD, including super crispy pork belly and flavorful and crispy pig skin paired with unique condiments that included anchovy sauce, mushroom-wasabi sauce and homemade ssamjang. They also serve bubbling hot cheese corn to dip your meat in, along with sundubu and seafood ramyun for a spicy side.
Chungkiwa Town (Hongdae)
Chain of Korean BBQ restaurants inspired by LA Koreatown – be sure to make a booking. Some of the best banchan EVER including spicy marinated raw crabs and a potato/corn/shredded shrimp salad to go with high quality cuts of beef like galbi and steak. This spot was honestly neck and neck with Pig Bar for my favorite KBBQ, but Pig Bar edged them out because the naengmyeon at Chungkiwa Town was straight up bad, so skip ordering it.
Go for a birthday and they will bring out a cart with a delicious, rich seaweed soup for good luck and birthday hats/scepters for the whole group.
Offer Bakery
The definition of an aesthetically pleasing cafe with gorgeous, perfectly crisp kouign amann and other types of pastries, located right behind RYSE Hotel.
Makgeolli Salon
Laidback pub hidden down an alleyway serving a wide variety of makgeolli or rice wine by the pitcher. The mango makgeolli tastes like an alcoholic mango lassi in the best possible way and might be one of my favorite alcoholic beverages I’ve ever tried.
More places in Hongdae to visit:
🐷 Saemaeul Restaurant – a solid traditional pork BBQ spot that’s open until 4AM, pictured at the top of this post. Self-service so you will have to cook for yourself and also fetch additional kimchi, perilla leaves, lettuce, etc. from their self-service counter, but this is a great spot for an easy, tasty late night meal
💃🏻 Mike’s Cabin – a fun, laidback basement club playing a mix of k-pop and top 40/EDM club music with darts in the corner with a great party vibe
🍕 Monster Pizza – solid NY-style pizza slice shop open until 6AM on the weekends. Make sure to ask for extra packs of parmesan
🕺🏻 NB2 – short for Noise Basement, this 2 floor club plays a mix of top 40/EDM and hip hop. It’s dark, loud and gets crowded but it’s fun if you go with a group. Also right across the street from Monster Pizza
🕹 Zzang Games – multi-level arcade with a wide range of video games, plus claw machines which you should absolutely SKIP as they will suck all your money and are impossible to win (I’m usually very good at them but I feel like these were rigged 😂). Stick to air hockey, racing and other classic arcade games and have a great time
🍸 Side Note Club – rooftop bar of the previously mentioned RYSE hotel. Worth a visit even if you aren’t a hotel guest for a sunset drink with gorgeous views.
🛍 Shopping Street – there is so much shopping to do all around Hongdae, with markets and street stalls dotted around the neighborhood, plus flagship stores for brands like Gentle Monster, KakaoTalk and Line. So just go exploring and see what you can find!
Places in Hongdae I wanted to try but didn’t get to:
🐷 James Cheese – pork ribs served on a platter of molten cheese
🐷 Yugji – Korean BBQ spot with cheesy gyerin jjim (steamed egg) around the corner from Pig Bar that had a 1.5 hour wait 😭
🍧 Sulbing (has locations across Seoul) – loaded Korean bingsu or shaved ice with a wide variety of toppings
🐔 Shin Migyeong Hongdae Dakgalbi – spicy chicken and cheesy kimchi fried rice
🍲 Donsubaek – 24 hour pork rice soup
🧆 Halal Guys – franchise of the famous chicken and rice from NYC
My Favorite Restaurants, Bars & Things to Do in Insa-dong/Anguk-dong
This area around Bukchon Hanok Village is filled with cute cafes and restaurants to cater to the swarms of visitors to one of Seoul’s top tourist attractions. Next time I visit Seoul when it’s not too hot out, I will definitely rent a traditional Korean outfit to tour the alleyways of Bukchon Hanok Village.
Hwangsengga Kalguksu
Michelin-recommended restaurant for kalguksu (Korean knife-cut noodle soup) and mandu (dumplings). It’s super popular, so we ended up queuing 30 minutes on a Sunday at 1:45PM for it, but it was worth it as the rich yet clean ox bone broth soup with silky, bouncy noodles was the perfect hangover cure.
The dumplings are made fresh by hand right as you enter the restaurant, and were so plump and flavorful. Definitely try them on their own and also in the comforting dumpling soup. Make sure to also try the platter of bossam with tender pork and kimchi, but I would skip the noodles in cold soybean broth as it was quite bland.
Bukchon Son-mandu
As the name suggests, this mandu shop is just a short walk from the famous Bukchon Hanok Village, serving extra crispy, deep fried mandu and other variations of dumplings.
Jaedong Sundubu
Great spot for tofu stew and Korean bbq near Bukchon Hanok Village
More places around Bukchon Hanok Village to visit:
🍺 Kiwa Taproom – hidden gem in an alleyway serving craft beers in a skylit hanok/traditional village house
🍷 Amie Wine Studio – highly instagrammable wine bar specializing in rose with a central courtyard and rustic living room-styled interiors in a hanok/traditional village house
🛍 Tamburins (locations around Seoul) – basically the Korean Aesop with fragrances, lotions, candles and more from Korean sunglass brand Gentle Monster
Other Places to Visit Around Seoul
Gwangjang Market
As seen on Netflix Street Food, this expansive market has dozens of stalls selling different Korean specialties arranged based on what they serve, so one section has multiple stalls selling mung bean pancakes, while another section sells kalguksu, and another section sells meaty items like pork trotters and soondae (blood sausage), and so on. Definitely try the super crispy mung bean pancakes from the center stalls, along with freshly made seafood and green onion pancakes that can be found at stall 043/044.
Dotted in between these main stalls that serve similar menus, you’ll find other specialty stalls offering everything from honeycomb milk ice cream (found at stall 001, an absolute must with a warm hotteok pancake!) and these viral cheese coin pancakes (found if you walk down the alley away from the main mung bean pancake stalls toward the textile area of the market).
We skipped the Netflix-famous kalguksu stand pictured below since the line was quite long and we were already super full. Some friends who went told us the quality of food is better at the sit-down kalguksu restaurants like the aforementioned Hwangsengga or the other famous shop Myeongdong Kyoja since the dumplings are more fresh.
🍺 Six Night – a massive bar in Gangnam with big high top tables to stand around in the center for large groups surrounded by booths for sitting. Super fun vibe with steampunk-ish interiors and street art
🥢 Omiga – restaurant in Gangnam serving hanjeongsik, a traditional Korean full course meal where they fill the table with banchan and other items
🦀 Noryangjin Fish Market – indoor fish market where you pick your seafood and then bring it upstairs to one of the restaurants to cook for you. Definitely try the snow crab and if you’re brave enough, this is also where you can try the fresh raw octopus
Chains/Big Brands to Visit Around Seoul:
💄 Olive Young – chain of beauty shops with locations all over Seoul for you to stock up on Korean skin care and other beauty products
☕️ Mega Coffee – as the name suggests, they serve huge iced coffees here with 2 shots in every coffee
🍗 Kyochon – global chain for Korean fried chicken
