- Everything you need to know
about eating at restaurants in Seoul, South Korea.
(happy music)
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun,
informative and entertaining.
Sometimes people think Korean food can be intimidating,
and eating at Korean restaurants can be intimidating,
'cause of certain etiquette and ways they do things.
But in this video, I'm gonna break it all down,
and make it simple, tell you the general types of food
you need to eat, and the etiquette in Korean restaurants.
In Korea, Seoul, the country,
I'll probably use those terms interchangeably
but this is all good for Seoul,
and the country of South Korea.
In this video I'm gonna start with the basics,
like what do you see when you sit down at a table,
what the side dishes look like, where you find the utensils,
then I'll move on to one of the classic Korean
sit down restaurant meals, Korean barbecue.
I'll tell you what the dishes look like, how to order it,
how to eat it, I'll tell you what
my favorite Korean barbecue restaurant is in Seoul,
then we'll move on to the second quintessential Korean meal,
Korean fried chicken.
And then it's time for dessert.
I'll tell you all about Korean shave ice,
then we'll talk about what
some Western chains look like in Korea,
including what the donuts look like at Krispy Kreme.
I'll give you a brief introduction to animal cafes in Seoul,
and then finally I'll conclude with a brief discussion
about Korean street food in Seoul,
but I have a whole separate video
about what the best street food markets are in Seoul,
you'll find a link to that video in the description,
or at the end of this video.
Well the first thing I wanna mention is related to cafes,
and Korean tea houses.
A Korean tea house is super popular place to visit.
We're at a tea house in Insadong.
We've got two teas and shaved ice,
but what you need to know about tea houses,
they typically have a one drink per person minimum.
Here we started and we said we wanted a shave ice,
a bingsu, and the waitress was like
well you can't just order that,
everybody has to get at least one drink.
So know that when you come to a tea house.
In Korean restaurant you'll typically sit down
and have a whole bunch of side dishes
presented in front of you.
If they put 'em and these dishes are full,
you can typically ask for refills on all of the side dishes.
Kimchi, the quintessential side dish here.
Pickled cabbage, garlic, peppers.
This particular restaurant,
these sides are actually self serve.
You notice over here there's these two large containers,
and these two large containers, they are full of kimchi,
and so you can serve this yourself, on these little trays.
They won't serve it for you in this particular restaurant.
Typically either on the table, or on the side of the table
you'll have some utensils.
Here it's on the table, other places it might be a drawer
that is on the side.
When you are done eating at a sit down restaurant,
you almost always pay at the counter.
You almost never pay at the table.
Sometimes you'll have a little bill on the table
that you bring with you to the counter.
Other times you tell them where you sat.
Other times you tell them what you order,
but don't be waiting for them to bring the bill to you,
'cause you need to go out and pay at the counter, to pay.
Speaking of the utensils, the chopsticks in Seoul and Korea
are typically always metal chopsticks.
If you're adept at wooden chopsticks,
but you've never used metal chopstick,
these are much harder to pick things up with.
Mm, and the rule of thumb in Seoul,
oh this is spicy, and sour.
Mm, but that's some of the best kimchi, right?
Mm, rule of thumb, if it's red, it's spicy.
And that's spicy.
But not everything is red, and so not everything is spicy.
If you're looking for things that are not spicy,
generally get something that is not red in color.
Before you go to Seoul, you should definitely know
about Korean barbecue.
Korean barbecue is my favorite thing to eat in Seoul,
and many visitors feel the same.
You'll find Korean barbecue or meat houses
everywhere in Seoul,
but if you're deciding which one to eat at,
you kinda need to decide whether you want beef, or pork.
They sorta generally specialize
in the two different types of meats,
you'll find some that are altogether,
but they're usually separate, and if you're here,
I would suggest you find if you find beef,
find beef that is bred in Korea.
The Korean beef will be the most tender and tasty,
but it is expensive.
Don't expect to find cheap all you can eat Korean barbecue,
it's gonna cost you a pretty penny.
So if you're at a Korean barbecue restaurant
that serves you lettuce,
and the proper way to eat this is you pick up the meat,
after it's been barbecued,
you'll typically have some kind of a sauce,
this is like a sesame and a salt sauce,
it goes in there, get it in there liberally,
and then you'll get some chili sauce,
you'll wanna get a lot of that too,
which is hard for me to do one-handed,
'cause I can't hold it, and then you put it in the lettuce.
Now typically be some kimchi or some side thing,
you get a liberal scoop of that on there,
and then this is where the chopsticks go away,
because now it's a hand food.
You take this and you kinda wrap it all up,
and then the whole thing just goes, mm, (mumbling).
And you know how I know that?
Well I was eating at that restaurant, up on the 2nd floor,
where I just shot that scene,
and what happened right before I shot that,
the lady who was working there,
she was disapproving of how I was eating
the Korean barbecue.
She made it like that, put it in her hand in that dollop,
and put it right in my mouth.
And then had a big smile on her face.
So after four Korean barbecue visits,
if you're curious what my favorite one was,
well it's this one in Hongdae that's called um,
(lips blowing) hey if there's anybody that reads Korean,
and knows how to pronounce that,
I'd love if you'd let me know.
But I put a link in the description below too,
so if you wanna find it, you can find it.
It's just out of the Hongik University station,
exit one, about a block and 1/2 to the right.
But let me show you what we ordered
that we really liked in this place,
and why it was my favorite.
My favorite meat is always the marinated kalbi,
or the boneless short rib.
So that's really great,
and then they've got two great pork items,
the marinated pork ribs, and the grilled pork belly.
If you got two people, order those three,
you can't go wrong, really delicious.
The only thing about this place
compared to the other three we ate at,
this one is a self service,
so you have to grill it yourself,
and they kinda make sure you grill it quickly,
like if you're not grilling it fast enough,
they'll be putting the meat on for you,
you have to turn it around,
it's a really involved eating experience,
but it's delicious.
Well what's great about this place, like many others,
was it's cooked over charcoal,
but they have these really thin grills,
so the meat doesn't stick to the grill.
You get all the heat and the flavor from the charcoal,
but none of the stickiness on the grill,
like on traditional full metal grills.
Also the tables are very unique that you're eating on.
You're basically eating on a table
that's placed on top of a metal barrel.
One more thing to know,
if you're eating at a sit down restaurant,
like this Korean barbecue place,
or any other sit down restaurant,
the waiters will not come to check on you.
If you want them, you need to push a button.
Almost every Korean sit down restaurant
has a button on the table, or on the wall,
it'll ring a bell,
and then the servers will come over to help you.
It makes a little bit of music, and don't feel like
you shouldn't press that button to call them,
that is what they want you to do.
A must eat while you're in Seoul, is KFC.
I don't mean Kentucky Fried Chicken,
I mean Korean fried chicken.
You'll find Korean fried chicken chains and restaurants
on almost every corner.
Two Two Fried Chicken is one of the biggest chains
they have here, and they have a different,
few different types of Korean friend chicken.
This particular one is garlic fried chicken.
And there's actually little pieces of garlic
embedded in this, it's fried fresh just for you,
not like KFC sitting on a heat lamp.
And mm,
it's moist, nice garlicy flavor,
but you know, best of all, Korean fried chicken,
it doesn't come with mashed potatoes,
what does it come with?
Yes, of course kimchi, right here.
Oh that's too big of a piece for me to chomp on video.
Kimchi, mm, a great side dish for your chicken.
Mm, and some steamed dumplings, Korean steamed dumplings,
what a great pairing, it's steaming.
Pretty good too, but it's got some soy sauce on the side.
Better with the soy sauce.
Mm, and some pickled radish
to wash it all down.
Oh, but you also should know, when you're coming to Seoul,
a lot of places, they won't give you water,
there's actually a sign in here that says water self,
and you get it yourself,
there's a little cooler on the side,
and these small little glasses.
It's cold, but it works.
So if you're curious what different portion sizes
they have for chicken, well there's only one,
the chicken, the whole chicken.
That's the only portion you can get.
Well I guess you could get two whole chickens.
There's kind of this interesting thing in Korea
about not really making portion sizes for one person.
Korean barbecue's the same way, portions are only for two.
I mean you can come and eat here if you're one person,
you're just gonna have to get the whole chicken.
And you can't be picky about white meat or dark meat,
it's the chicken, you get the whole chicken.
With the exception of the head and the feet,
that'll be a different restaurant.
Yes you can find those here too,
we found those in some of the night markets we were at,
a tasty chicken feet, no feet here.
But just, you know, you get the whole thing,
breast, wings, thigh, legs, that's it, on a plate.
Make sure to try a very traditional Korean dessert,
the Korean Bingsu, or shave ice.
And it comes in many different flavors.
This one here is read bean.
I think red bean's the quintessential flavor,
and the shave ice is not just ice,
it's actually a milky ice, kinda like a snow ice.
Mm, pretty good.
Refreshing, on a hot day.
And I'm not ordinarily a big fan of red bean,
it's also got some other like nuts
and things like that over here.
But this red bean is not quite as sweet as in Japan.
We also had a pretty good red bean shave ice yesterday
that had citron in it too, which was cool.
It comes in green tea flavors.
So, make sure you get the bingsu.
One of South Korea's biggest shave ice chains
is called Bing-Sul, it's the Korean dessert cafe.
They have a lot of unique shave ice things,
like this one, it's a melon shave ice
that has strawberries underneath.
They have over 490 locations in Seoul,
so make sure to check it out.
I mean that is like a piece of artwork, in a melon.
So for more traditional shave ice,
get red bean with a number of different things.
This is red bean and five grains.
And it's got like walnuts, it's got these other nuts,
it's got mochi, and then there's like
another layer underneath, that even has red bean down there.
And when you're at the shave ice cafes,
make sure to get a foofy drink.
This is like a pear drink, that's got pear and orange,
and a stick in it.
I mean it's a taste of a drink that
you probably never had before.
But it's pretty good.
Be aware though, a lot of these places
can take quite a long time to make these things.
They typically will give you a buzzer,
and when the buzzer rings, you go pick it up,
even in a tiny cafe like this one.
Seoul has a ton of animal cafes.
You'll find people on the street
handing out advertisements for cat cafes, dressed as cats.
You'll find meerkat cafes, and the dog cafes,
well they don't need quite as much advertisement,
'cause you can hear the dogs barking when you walk by.
Here's a dog cafe in Hongdae,
you can see the dogs in the window too.
Aw, they look big and fluff, ready to pet.
When you're in Seoul, check out some of the local chains
from your home, because they might be different.
Krispy Kreme, I figure would have the same donuts
as back at home in the states.
Au contraire mon frere, not so much.
This is a nacho cheese donut.
Yes, a nacho cheese donut.
And it has basically what looks like
nacho cheese Doritos dust.
Duncin' Donuts has different things,
McDonald's has like bulgogi burgers,
and shrimp burgers, so do check out some of those chains
for their unique items.
Actually this Krispy Kreme,
80% of the donuts are donuts that I've never seen before.
Are you curious how a nacho cheese donut tastes?
I am.
Wow, I like it.
It's strange, but I like it.
I mean in the combination of sweetness, plus nacho cheese.
Mm, and it kinda, the different tastes,
they come and they go as you chew on this,
so you get a little bit of sweet,
a little bit of cheesy, a little bit of chippy.
Anyway, check it out, Krispy Kreme, Seoul.
Some of these donuts just don't make sense.
You can see the nacho cheese donut right here,
that makes total sense.
But this one, the donut with salsa inside?
Like a filled donut with salsa inside of it?
I am not brave enough to eat that.
I'm curious if anybody has,
if so, let me know what you think.
(moaning)
So what do you do if you're thirsty in Seoul?
Do you go buy a bottle of water?
Do you find a drinking fountain?
What you do is if you have an empty bottle,
find a department store.
In the department stores, they have these machines
that dispense water, they dispense cold water,
and hot water, cold out of the right, hot out of the left.
You can fill up your water bottle with
mm, cold water, or they have little cups
that you can drink out of too.
It is not advised to drink the tap water without boiling it.
Seoul is also really big on street food,
and street food markets.
If you wanna know more about eating
Korean street food in Seoul,
I've got a whole separate video
about the best street food markets in Seoul.
You can find a link there in your upper right,
or in the description below.
A quintessential Korean food to get
from a street vendor is topokki,
so they've got it right here.
3,000 won, I got my money ready, let's go get it.
Hello, topokki please.
3,000 won right here,
they give you these little sticks to eat it from.
It's a rice cake and a spicy red sauce,
let's check this out.
It's hot, and even some drinks too.
Oh it's too hot to drink, but this,
this is pretty good.
Check out the topokki when you're in Seoul.
And the last thing you need to know
is I've got more videos.
You'll enjoy watching some of my other videos
from South Korea.
You can click here or here,
or find links in the description below.
I won't say goodbye, because I'll see you
in one of these videos.