I just got back from my 4th trip to South Korea’s capital of Seoul, and the city has truly won over my heart 😉 It’s one of my favorite all-around cities in Asia thanks to its unique mix of affordable and delicious dining, endless markets, traditional culture, shopping and nightlife that goes into the morning hours. I highly recommend visiting when the weather is warm since winter can be soul-crushing with the sub-freezing temperatures, though November might be the perfect time to visit so you can comfortably wear traditional hanbok around town—more on that later!
While I have another post that goes over the best neighborhoods to stay in Seoul, here you’ll find a deeper dive into all of my favorite restaurants, cafes, bars, stores, and other fun things to do. 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 and won’t provide walking or driving directions. 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.
JUMP AHEAD:
- Where to Eat Korean BBQ
- Renting Hanbok for Gyeongbokgung Palace & Bukchon Hanok Village
- Where to Eat Around Bukchon Hanok Village
- Gwangjang & Namdaemun Market
- Bukhansan Mountain
- Things to Do in Insadong & Myeongdong
- Things to Do in Hongdae
- More Things to Do Around Seoul
Top Things to Do in Seoul
Eat Korean BBQ
I obviously had to start this list with food! While you can find Korean barbecue around the world, it’s truly special to be able to eat straight from the source, with every establishment specializing in different cuts of meat, banchan (side dishes), and condiments. We love it so much we’ve easily had it 3 nights in a row in a single weekend. You can find BBQ restaurants all over Seoul, but these are my favorites:
Favorite Pork BBQ in Seoul – Pigbar
This hidden gem in Hongdae is my favorite Korean BBQ spot as everything was just SO GOOD, including super crispy pork belly and flavorful and crispy pig skin all cooked over charcoal, paired with unique condiments that included anchovy sauce, mushroom-wasabi sauce and homemade ssamjang. I have yet to find better samgyeopsal (pork belly) in Seoul! They also serve bubbling hot cheese corn to dip your meat in, along with sundubu and seafood ramyun for a spicy side.
Favorite Beef BBQ in Seoul – Chungkiwa Town
This chain of Korean BBQ restaurants inspired by LA Koreatown has locations all across Seoul. Some of the best banchan including spicy marinated raw crabs and a potato/corn/shredded shrimp salad to go with high quality cuts of beef like tender galbi and steak, all grilled over charcoal. 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.
Massive Galbi in a Private Room – Legendary Ribs 전설의우대갈비
This chain specializes in woodae galbi, a long cut of bone-in short rib taken from the middle 3 ribs of a cow, resulting in most tender and marbled part of the ribs. Every table has their own private room with comfortable booth seating, where someone will help cook your meat for you and instruct you on how to eat the ribs with a variety of condiments for maximum enjoyment. The banchan are more simple here, so definitely add their spicy nangmyeon as a perfect pair to the rich meat.
Late Night BBQ – Saemaeul Sikdang
Solid traditional pork BBQ in Hongdae that’s open until 4AM, as 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
Wear Hanbok to Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village
While you can do this in normal clothing, it’s way more fun to immerse yourself in the culture by wearing traditional Korean hanbok to can visit the largest palace from the Joseon Dynasty and the nearby Bukchon Hanok Village, a charming residential neighborhood filled with hundreds of hanok (traditional Korean houses). There are countless shops to rent from and as a bonus, you will also get free entry to Gyeongbokgung Palace if you arrive in hanbok as it’s encouraged (don’t miss this giant tree at the southeast end of the palace grounds!).
While Bukchon Hanok Village is beautiful to see from the hilltop, I recommend spending more time around the palace for photos as there are so many more spots for photos versus the more crowded and narrow alleys of Bukchon Hanok Village (or try to go early to beat the crowds!). It’s also fun to wear your hanbok to the traditional cafes and restaurants around Bukchon Hanok (more on that later).
We rented from Byulgeongteo Hanbok right next to Gyeongbokgung Palace, though they also have a location in Anguk if you want to start/end closer to Bukchon Hanok Village and Insadong. We’re wearing their fusion/premium hanbok, which includes hairstyling and a handbag.
If you purchase a Discover Seoul pass, it actually includes free hanbok rental from Hanbokgam (though you may have to pay extra for premium hanbok like I’m wearing) along with a one-way train or bus from the airport and admission to other major sights like Namsan Tower and COEX Aquarium for only a little more than just renting a hanbok, so if you’re able to stack your activities in 1-2 days after fly into Seoul, you can see a lot of savings.
Where to Eat Around Bukchon Hanok Village
The Anguk-dong area is filled with cute cafes and restaurants to cater to visitors, and if you do you hanbok rental for at least 4 hours, you can even enjoy all of these places in your traditional clothing.
Cafe Onion Anguk
This incredibly popular cafe and bakery is housed in a 100 year old traditional hanok building, but be prepared to wait on the weekends (we waited 30 minutes for takeaway pastries and coffee to enjoy in the outdoor space, though the wait is even longer to sit indoors on their tatami style floor seating). Frankly I think there are better bakeries in Seoul without such long waits, like Figments in Myeongdong and Offer in Hongdae later in this list, but it’s still worth checking out for the overall experience enjoying yummy pastries (especially the dark chocolate salt bread) in a beautiful setting.
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 plump, flavorful dumplings made fresh by hand right as you enter the restaurant. Definitely try them on their own and also in the comforting dumpling soup along with 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, steamed shrimp dumplings and other variations of dumplings.
Jaedong Sundubu
Great spot for bubbling hot 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
🛍 Tamburins (locations around Seoul) – basically the Korean Aesop with fragrances, lotions, candles and more from Korean sunglass brand Gentle Monster
Visit Gwangjang & Namdaemun Market
As seen on Netflix Street Food, Gwangjang Market is an expansive market with dozens of stalls selling different Korean specialties arranged based on what they serve, so one section has multiple stalls selling yukhoe (beef tartare), 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 stall, 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.
We skipped the Netflix-famous kalguksu stand pictured above 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.
While I haven’t been in years, you might be even better off visiting Namdaemun Market, which is Seoul’s largest traditional market. It offers a lot of the same food (if not more) in open air stalls, but with lower prices given its lack of Netflix fame, along with plenty of non-food stalls so you can walk around and shop in between bites. Check out a young me in 2012 drinking with my sister and a couple of Korean aunties at Namdaemun Market.
Hike Bukhansan Mountain
If you’re an avid hiker and want to work off some of that Korean BBQ, definitely check out Bukhansan National Park. There are endless hiking trails with varying degrees of difficulty, but you want to make sure you can get to the peak for stunning views of the city and craggy mountain. It’s reasonably difficult with a short scary part that has cables you need to hold onto at the end, but I was able to do the hike solo back in 2012 with zero hiking experience thanks to the help of some friendly Korean grandpas, so you can too.
Explore Insadong & Myeongdong
These neighboring areas offer their own respective Culture Street and Shopping Street, which are perfect for souvenir and window shopping. Myeongdong also has street food stalls and stands serving extra tall ice cream cones for snacking in between all the shopping. Here are some more spots you can’t miss in the area:
Figments
Underrated cafe and bakery with my favorite of all the pastries we’ve tried in Seoul with sleek, minimalist interiors and great coffee (try the dirty Vienna) right outside of Euljiro station in Myeongdong. It was one of the only cafes we found that was open on a Saturday morning, as most places don’t open until 10:30AM or later. Figments specializes in laminated pastries like croissants and pain Suisse, as well as sourdough which is baked fresh daily at 11:30AM. The ham pain suisse and almond croissant were excellent, but the Dubai chocolate inspired pain suisse filled with pistachios and crispy kaitafi is out of this world with limited quantities daily.
Cheonggyecheon
This peaceful park is like a river version of NYC’s High Line, with big wide sidewalks and seating lining a revived stream that cuts across Seoul. You can enter from Myeongdong to see the waterfall and rainbow lit bridge, though there is art work, greenery and street performers all along the path.
Ssamziegil
You’ll find small independent craft shops throughout this artsy 4 floor mall with a center courtyard and rooftop. Worth a visit if you have extra time to kill in Insadong.
Pocha Street
The moment you exit Jongo 3(sam)-ga Station at the edge of Insadong, you’ll be hit with the lively sounds and crowds of young people reveling at outdoor drinking establishments or pocha. We visited Dragon Pocha which had a lively environment with tables and plastic stools sprawling across a parking lot. The dakgangjeong or sweet and spicy fried chicken is fantastic, and they have other traditional Korean drinking fare like spicy boneless chicken feet and claypot items.
You can also check out Saeseoul which features both modern and retro video games on the first 2 floors, a relaxed bar on the 3rd floor, and terrace and rooftop on the 4th and 5th floors with views of Ikseon-dong Hanok Village.
Eat, Drink, Dance and Shop in Hongdae
The young, hipster neighborhood of Hongdae is filled with endless things to do well into the night. Be sure to also pop into one of their many photo studios that are open until late night to take fun, cutesy photos.
🍸 Side Note Club – rooftop bar of RYSE hotel. Worth a visit even if you aren’t a hotel guest for a sunset drink with gorgeous views pictured above.
🥐 Offer Bakery – The definition of an aesthetically pleasing cafe with gorgeous, perfectly crisp kouign amann and muscat grape pastries along with other baked goods, 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.
💃🏻 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 – 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 (locations around Seoul) – 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
🛍 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!
🐷 Yugji – Korean BBQ spot with cheesy gyerin jjim (steamed egg) around the corner from Pig Bar
🍧 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
Other Places to Visit Around Seoul
🍸 Charles H. – speakeasy cocktail bar hidden behind a discreet door in the basement of the Four Season Seoul. Excellent cocktails themed around New York, Hong Kong, London and Havana in a spacious, dark but glamorous room with plush leather seating
🍺 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 as you can get them at great savings and with an immediate tax refund. My favorite products are Probioderm 3D Lifting Cream, Biodance Collagen Masks, Beauty of Joeson Sunscreen, and Unove Silk Oil Essence
☕️ 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
Read my guide on where to stay in Seoul
