Category: Seoul
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Salmon Sushi in Yeonnam: Yeonhadong’s Giant Salmon Bites
Yeonnam-dong is packed with pretty cafes and trendy restaurants, but if you’re after something a little different, here’s my pick: salmon sushi in Yeonnam done big. Yeonhadong (연하동) is a salmon specialist whose signature is daewang (“giant”) salmon sushi — a huge slab of salmon draped over rice that melts in your mouth. Pair it…
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Seoul Forest Bakery Cafe: Perment, and Its Surprise Vegan Bread Section
After a walk through Seoul Forest, my go-to stop is Perment (퍼먼트) — a seoul forest bakery cafe right on the main street between the station and the park. It’s the kind of place you notice because it’s always busy, and once you’re inside, the wall of croissants, kouign-amann and baguettes explains why. Good bread,…
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Korean Traditional Dessert Cafe in Insadong: DAMCCOT and Its Rare Sweets
If you want to try Korean traditional sweets that are hard to find anywhere else, this is my favorite spot in the neighbourhood. DAMCCOT (담장옆에국화꽃) is a korean traditional dessert cafe in Insadong where you can sit down to a plate of yakgwa, juak, yanggaeng and baked rice cakes, paired with a pot of warm…
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Things to Do in Seongsu: A Local’s Guide to Seoul’s Coolest Neighborhood
Ask a young Seoulite where the city’s coolest neighborhood is right now, and the answer is almost always the same: Seongsu (성수). Once a gritty district of shoe factories and warehouses, it’s been reborn as Seoul’s hippest hangout — sometimes called the “Brooklyn of Seoul” — where red-brick industrial buildings now house specialty cafes, pop-up…
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A Quiet Cafe in COEX: Stem Coffee, a Spacious Hidden Hideout
Anyone who’s been to COEX on a weekend knows the problem: it’s packed, it’s loud, and every cafe has you squeezed elbow-to-elbow. So the first time I found Stem Coffee — a big, genuinely quiet cafe tucked below the cinema — it felt like a secret. If you want a calm spot to sit and…
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Specialty Coffee at COEX: Terarosa’s Hand-Drip and Desserts
Here’s a familiar COEX problem: the cafes down in the Starfield mall level are all small, and on a busy day every seat is taken. That’s exactly how I ended up at Terarosa on the 1st floor — and it turned out to be the best coffee stop in the building. If you want proper…
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Lotte World Halloween: A Local’s Guide to Seoul’s Spookiest Theme Park Season
Every autumn, Seoul’s biggest theme park leans hard into Halloween — and it’s one of my favorite seasonal things to do in the city. Lotte World Halloween has a fun split personality: cheerful pumpkins and costumed characters on one side, a full-on zombie-apocalypse set on the other, with the scares dialing up after dark. If…
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Soul Market Bakery: A Spacious Cafe in COEX for Dessert and Coffee
If you’ve spent any time in COEX, you know the problem: it’s one of the biggest underground malls in Asia, and yet finding a proper cafe in COEX — somewhere big enough to actually sit down and breathe — is weirdly hard. Most spots are small and packed. So when I wandered into Soul Market…
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Things to Do at COEX: Library, Aquarium, and a Temple Across the Street
COEX in Gangnam is often called just “a big mall,” but that undersells it. Between a soaring free library that’s become one of Seoul’s top photo spots, an aquarium, a K-pop landmark, and a centuries-old Buddhist temple right across the street, there are genuinely good things to do at COEX — and almost all of…
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Does Bukchon Hanok Village Close? Official 2026 Visiting Hours
Planning to see Bukchon Hanok Village? There’s one important rule to know before you go: the busiest part of the village now has official visiting hours for tourists, with a fine for visiting after hours. It’s a response to over-tourism, and it’s easy to comply with once you understand it. Here’s what the rule is,…
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Things to Do in Ikseon-dong: A Local’s Guide to Seoul’s Prettiest Hanok Alley
Tucked into central Seoul, Ikseon-dong is a maze of narrow alleys lined with restored hanok (traditional Korean houses) turned into restaurants, cafes and shops. It’s often compared to Bukchon, but it feels different — less a museum-piece village and more a lived-in neighborhood you eat and wander your way through. Here’s a local’s guide to…
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A French Restaurant in Ikseon-dong: Authentic French in a Hanok at Paris Gaok
Ikseon-dong is known for its Korean food and cafes, so here’s a surprise: one of the most interesting meals on the street is French. Paris Gaok is a French restaurant in Ikseon-dong where authentic French cooking — by a French chef — is served inside a traditional Korean hanok. It’s a genuinely unusual pairing, and…
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Shabu Shabu in Ikseon-dong: Oncheonjip’s Doenjang Hot Pot
Right in the middle of Ikseon-dong’s hanok alleys is one of the neighborhood’s most reliably packed restaurants: Oncheonjip, a shabu shabu specialist that’s held a Blue Ribbon every year since 2021. For shabu shabu in Ikseon-dong — cook-it-yourself hot pot with an unusually deep, savory soybean-paste broth — this is the spot locals queue for.…
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Samgyetang in Jongno: 30 Years of Ginseng Chicken Soup at Jangsu Samgyetang
When you need warming up from the inside out, few Korean dishes beat samgyetang — and for samgyetang in Jongno, Jangsu Samgyetang is a reliable old hand. It’s been in the same spot for over 30 years, a minute from Jongno 3-ga Station, serving a rich, clean ginseng chicken soup that locals swear by. One…
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A Modern Korean Restaurant in Ikseon-dong: Ikseon Aetteut
If you want Korean food that feels both familiar and new, Ikseon Aetteut is a lovely pick. It’s a modern Korean restaurant in Ikseon-dong — the menu calls itself “casual Korean” — taking everyday Korean flavors and reimagining them, then plating everything beautifully on artful ceramics. Set in a hanok with a little garden inside,…
