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FoodA sharp, properly hot seafood noodle soup with real savoury depth behind the chilli. Order the fried dumplings with it. If you don't handle heat well, this one may beat you. It's a short walk from Yeongdeungpo Station.
FoodVietnamese-run pho with a genuinely deep clear broth — Korean diners compare it to gomtang, and they're right. Han River Park is directly in front, so lunch and a riverside walk are one trip.
FoodThe signatures are steak-and-truffle black bean noodles and fried chicken buried under sliced chilli. Pricier than a normal Chinese restaurant, but portions are big enough that one bowl feeds two. Come as a group, share two or three mains, and book ahead.
FoodA long-running Seoul institution serving clear beef soup over rice. Eat it plain first, then ask for radish kimchi brine and pour it in — one bowl, two flavours. Expensive for what it is, but the care shows. Opens at 7am; branches in Myeongdong and Yeouido.
FoodSingle-origin filter coffee poured into a tulip glass and brought out on a walnut tray, with the rest in a steel kettle. Good when you want something other than your usual cup. Small room, office district — not a quiet solo spot on weekdays.
FoodIf you want the old, restrained style of Pyongyang cold noodles, this delivers it. The mung bean pancake is fried in beef fat and tastes wonderfully nutty. Great value — but it's on the second floor inside the market, which is easy to walk past.
FoodOpen around the clock in the middle of Myeongdong. The small size feeds two adults comfortably, the heat is mild by Korean standards, and they do takeout.
FoodA soufflé pancake café in a restored hanok in Ikseon-dong. On taste alone it's fine, not remarkable, and not cheap. The space is the point — decide what you came for and you'll enjoy it.
FoodA clean-tasting beef broth and notably tender boiled brisket. With 5,790 reviews it draws a queue — but it opens at 8am and takes app bookings, which solves most of that.
PlaceA "five-day market" doesn't mean it runs for five days. It opens only on dates ending in 2 and 7. Korea's largest market of its kind — but turn up on the wrong day and you'll find an empty car park.
FoodA seafood restaurant near Moseulpo Harbour. If you came for the raw squid rice bowl, you have to come in summer. Wrapping it in lettuce is the whole point here.
FoodCold soy-milk noodles vary enormously from shop to shop. This one runs thin rather than thick — which is exactly why the kimchi is doing half the work.
FoodThe noodles themselves are the reason to come. Lightly seasoned with just enough chilli to keep you going back for the next mouthful — and I'm not even a noodle person.
FoodSeveral pufferfish dishes at prices that won't scare you. Not a revelation — a textbook Korean bokguk house. The fried pufferfish and the raw pufferfish salad were the surprises.
FoodIt arrives looking like it will taste strongly of pork offal. It doesn't. Blood sausage cut with chopped nuts, in a broth simmered in a cauldron. Open from 7 in the morning.
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