We all know Korean food is good. Here are 10 Korean restaurants -- with
the visuals, ambience and incomparable tastes -- where it's even better
Because with Korean food, dishes this simple (essentially pork and cabbage) can compete with the fanciest of spreads.
'Best
of' lists are controversial, unscientific, inherently subjective and
are guaranteed to result in bellyaching. But they are good for precisely
this reason: they get us talking about food.
In order to compile our own list, we spoke with a number
of certified “foodies” – people who obsess about food about as much as
we do. One of those people is Jun Kyung-woo, the co-author of
best-selling book Dining in Seoul.
“The first question is: how do you define Korean food?” says Jun. “Is it the ingredients? Is it Korean because it exists in Korea? Is it what Korean people actually eat?”
“The first question is: how do you define Korean food?” says Jun. “Is it the ingredients? Is it Korean because it exists in Korea? Is it what Korean people actually eat?”
Indeed, the constantly shifting topography of Korean
cuisine now includes dishes like pizza topped with fried shrimp and
sweet potatoes and Chinese food like jjajjangmyun (black bean noodles).
Respectively, they are branded “Italian” and “Chinese” food, but are so
heavily Koreanized that they would be unfamiliar to native inhabitants
of those countries.
“Korean food has deep roots,” says Jun. There is a long, dynamic history that includes a certain ingredients and flavors like soy, garlic, red pepper and techniques like salting, pickling, and braising. So while an outlandish pizza might be an entirely Korean product, for this list, we are looking at food that has a long genealogy on the Korean peninsula.
“Korean food has deep roots,” says Jun. There is a long, dynamic history that includes a certain ingredients and flavors like soy, garlic, red pepper and techniques like salting, pickling, and braising. So while an outlandish pizza might be an entirely Korean product, for this list, we are looking at food that has a long genealogy on the Korean peninsula.
That being said, our conception of Korean food isn’t
narrow. We value the bowl of naengmyun from the restaurant that has
operated for over three decades as much as the artfully constructed
plates that filters Korean flavors through molecular gastronomy.
There is an astounding breadth to Korean cuisine. We’d like to think that this is a start.
Song Jook Heon (송죽헌)
The
space and the meal may seem humble compared to more extravagant
hanjeongsik restaurants, but the food at Song Jook Heon is like a Korean
grandmother’s -- simple and absolutely delicious.
True hanjeongsik, or traditional Korean food, is all about space –- literal, physical space.
“With real hanjeongsik, you would wait in an empty room,”
says Gang Heon, a noted music and food critic and owner of Wagit, a
membership-only restaurant in Itaewon.
“Then they would bring in a table filled with 30 different
dishes. Where there was nothing, suddenly, there would be an
abundance.”
It is difficult to find restaurants that still operate this way.
“As a result of Western influence, there has been a shift,” says Gang.
In a concession to Westernization, most hanjeongsik
restaurants in Seoul offer food in time-based courses rather than the
cornucopia of plates overflowing the table. According to Gang, if you
are going to stay in Seoul, you would do well by going to Song Jook
Heon, the Seoul location of a restaurant across the street from the
secret garden of Changdeok Palace.
The original location is in Gwangju in Jeollanamdo, and
offers a delicious spread of dishes that include grilled abalone with
pan-fried ginkgo berries, duck patties with a hint of ginger, and
codfish dumplings with an egg white foam.
They will also grant particular requests, so they will serve you samgyetang or spicy chicken stew if you call ahead.
Reservations are absolutely necessary.
The meal ends, in true Jeollado style, with rice and a
variety of jeotgal and jangahjji or salted fish eggs and anchovies. The
flavors are pungent, unapologetic and not for first-timers.
“It’s hardcore,” says Gang.
The lunch menu starts at ₩25,000 per person; the dinner menu starts at ₩70,000.
37-1 Unni-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 종로구 운니동37-1); +82 2 763 4234; Open Monday-Friday, noon-2 p.m., 6:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
Yong Su San (용수산)
“It’s
a restaurant that appeals to a lot of people,” says Gang. And we can
see why. It's easy for bossam to taste good, but not so easy to look
this pretty.
If the Jeollado style of royal cuisine is, as Gang says, the “boss” of Korean food, then the food from Gaesung, the former capital during the Koryo dynasty, is its main rival. Where Jeolla food is boldly, almost aggressively, flavored, the food of Gaesong is clean and more subtle.
Gaesong style lends itself more easily to Western palates.
The restaurant Yong Su San has opened a number of branches over the
past three decades, including one in Los Angeles.
Gaesong food also has the advantage of being visually
stunning, whether it is the gujeolpan -- crepes with finely julienned
vegetables and proteins separated according to color -- or sinseollo, a
soup with a bounty of meats, seafood and vegetables served in a heated
silver brazier.
Yong Su San has multiple locations.
Lunch starts at ₩38,000. Dinner starts at ₩56,000.
Yong Su San main branch, 118-3 Samcheong-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 종로구 삼청동 118-3); +82 2 771 5553; www.yongsusan.co.kr; Open daily, noon-3 p.m., 6 p.m.-10 p.m.
