Between January and March of this year, I ate at 22 restaurants during my trip to Seoul and Tokyo. Few were old favorites, some were new experiences, and all were rated on a 10.0 scale. Read more to find out!
Restaurants List
No. 1
Restaurant Marugame Seimen Roppongi
Location📍Roppongi 1-chome Nanbokusen Station
Rating
Notes - My parents live three minutes from this udon shop making it a must-go when I visit. I went with the special this time with crab meat, finished with a generous amount of tempura sprinkles. As always, got a couple crispy tempura bites, but the special broth was not very dippable.
No. 2
Restaurant ON Bbq
Location📍Shinjuku-Arakicho
Rating
Notes - For dinner, went to a korean bbq place run by a first-generation-Japanese, Korean chef. Mostly served beef. Only five tables of seating, each with a charcoal-fueled grill. Good cold draft beer and freshly sourced red meat was a special combination. Ended the meal with a fluffy bowl of white rice and 된장찌개.
No. 3
Restaurant 집밥집
Location📍일산
Rating
Notes - Made my way across the pond to Korea and tried something new in Ilsan. The place we frequent (shown next in the blog) was closed so had to call an audible. We had bulgogi as our main dish but the fresh banchan and vegetables were the highlights. Wrapped kimchi, garlic stems, meat and rice in 깻잎 and 상추 for every bite.
No. 4
Restaurant 옹골래
Location📍일산
Rating
Notes - The best 순댓국 in the world. Broth is made only from head of the pig, daily. No pork stench. Garlic and other vegetables are incredibly fresh and crunchy. 쌈장 is simple. The meal is around 9,000. Bottle of soju is a must. They also only serve cheek, ear, and jowl cuts, which all come from the head.
No. 5
Restaurant 솔밭
Location📍수지
Rating
Notes - A regular choice when I visit my mom's side of the family in 수지. Staff is jovial, food is abundant, kimchi is stinky, crowd is loud, and price is reasonable. It's a great time. And don't be suprised, my uncles behind me are twins.
No. 6
Restaurant 구들장 불곱창
Location📍인덕원
Rating
Notes - Hole in the wall. Orders come with marinated 곱창 and 대창 with plenty of 부추 marinated in sweet and spicy soy sauce. Whole thing is put on the grill and flambéd with soju! We had to get up and step back from the burst of the flame. Rice fried at the end. Left in a coat of grease.
No. 7
Restaurant 대도식당
Location📍상성동
Rating
Notes - Authentic Korean barbeque experience. Only one cut of the cow on the menu. Other cuts available off menu. High quality Korean cow beef. An old establishment. No marinate, straightforward; an exemplary korean bbq restaurant.
No. 8
Restaurant 김치찌개집
Location📍일산
Rating
Notes - Specializes in 김치찌개 that's served with 돼지고기. It's difficult to mess up a stew like 김치찌개 but it's also not easy to make it stand out. Good meal.
No. 9
Restaurant 평양냉면
Location📍일산
Rating
Notes - My grandpa enjoys and frequents this place so much so that a tv show crew that happened to be taping a feature on the restaurant put him in an interview that made it to TV! Backstory is that the current owner's mother escaped North Korea and started a business selling 평양냉면. Noodles are bouncy, soup is not ice cold as 냉면s tend to be, and flavor is clean and mild. Bulgogi is prepared raw and cooked on a live fire, and is also mild in flavor. Bright red house kimchi packs a lot of flavor. Meat in the 갈비탕 is tender and juicy. The meat in the 소고기 and 돼지고기 수육 are well sourced but also mild in flavor. Thinking about it now, I should've heavily dipped the main dishes in the table sauces and ate them with the strong 반찬 to maximize flavor.
No. 10
Restaurant 화경
Location📍수지
Rating
Notes - 짜장면.. Good.
No. 11
Restaurant Ivy Place
Location📍Daikanyama T-site
Rating
Notes - At the center of a new outdoor shopping area that screams "This is a terrace!" is this restaurant with a surprisingly extensive menu. Calamari is fried using japanese tempura-frying technique. Despite the high price tag, it gets a near 8.0 score because my belief is that the calamari is a good pulse-setter of a restuarant, and in this case the calamari was a near 8.0.1.
No. 12
Restaurant Midori Sushi
Location📍Akasaka
Rating
Notes - I am spoiled by the good sushi in Japan because this place is really good but still gets only a mid-7 score. Sat at the table, not the bar, and ordered preset items. Yellowtail, squid, shirako, and tuna are best of the bunch. And of course draft beer-- kanpai!
No. 13
Restaurant Umu
Location📍Nishiazabu
Rating
Notes - The old man splurged for high-end itamae sushi to celebrate the mom's birthday and I tagged along. 30,000 yen per person, it is an indulgent experience where all you have to do is bring chopsticks up from the plate to your mouth, and lift then tilt glasses of beverage for a sip every so often as a plate is repeatedly cleared and replaced by a succeeding one, atop which stands a hand-crafted piece of edible creation. Having said that, if I had to foot a price tag of 30,000 yen, things could get a little harder to swallow. I think that my preferred sushi experience is one that is majoritively sashimi and nigiri with less pickled dishes. Happy birthday 엄마!
Check back for part two!
Footnotes
1The basic theory is that if a restaurant serves fresh calamari that is good, then it would mean that the kitchen is properly handling fresh squid on a daily basis, which requires a clean and organized kitchen. Ergo, if you serve good fresh calamari, then you have a clean and organized kitchen.