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The 38 Essential Seoul Restaurants

From a luxe barbecue feast at an exclusive basement counter, to fried chicken and spicy rice cakes at an old school beer bar, here’s where to eat in Seoul

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Seoul’s food traditions extend back centuries, from the hearty bowls of seolleongtang (ox bone soup) found in cozy restaurants to the simple vegan fare of Buddhist temples. But the Korean capital’s dining scene has experienced a sea change in the last decade, as chefs look both outward and inward to keep up with customers’ evolving tastes and expectations.

The new modern Korean cuisine started at renowned fine dining spots like Mingles, where chef Mingoo Kang combines traditional ingredients with Western cooking techniques, and the global approach has proliferated through casual eateries and bars. Many of the city’s star chefs who had been working overseas, like Mosu’s Sung Ahn, also returned home during the pandemic, bringing international experiences and tastes back with them. Drink menus typically dominated by soju and beer have expanded to include wine, sake, and cocktails, while standout bars such as Charles H and Bar Cham have elevated Seoul’s drinking scene to worldwide recognition.

The country’s own cuisine is also thriving. Korean barbecue has entered a new heyday, as chefs continue to explore ways to improve the experience with better ingredients and services. Young craft distillers have also attracted attention for new takes on old Korean spirits, gaining exposure thanks to a slew of restaurants and pubs interested in redefining traditions. And, after some classic businesses succumbed to the pandemic, long-time powerhouses of the Seoul dining scene are getting more affection now than ever. A bowl of simple warm noodles and a cold beer at an old standby restaurant just hits differently.

The Culinary Studio of the research institute Onjium showcases Korean food culture through a refined multi-course menu in their Michelin-starred restaurant. The institute’s mission, “making modern things more dignified by taking inspiration from the past,” is appropriate for dishes that take inspiration from historical regional recipes on the verge of disappearing. Cho Eun-hee, a certified Korean royal court cuisine trainee, leads the kitchen alongside researcher Park Seong-bae. A dining room overlooking the beautiful stonewalls of Gyeongbokgung Palace adds to the sense of heritage.

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Hwangsaengga Kalguksu

Hwangsaengga Kalguksu specializes in Pyongyang-style kalguksu (hand-cut noodles). The star of the menu is sagol kalguksu, a hearty bowl of noodles in thick beef bone broth with pumpkin, mushrooms, and green onions for garnish; the subtle sweetness from the vegetables nicely mingles with the umami of the broth. In the summer, try the special kongguksu, noodles in cold broth made from ground soybeans, sesame, and various nuts. No matter the time of year, order a side of the soft, meaty dumplings for the table.

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Wind your way through the alleys of Seochon until you come across the unassuming hanoak (traditional Korean house) that houses Bar Cham. There, award-winning bartender Lim Byung-jin serves uniquely Korean signature cocktails, each named for the region that produced the local spirit featured in the drink. The interior, which goes hard on oak (or “cham” in Korean), is cozy and relaxing. Bar Cham made the 2022 Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, and there are various non-alcoholic cocktail options just as delicious as their alcoholic counterparts.

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When a restaurant advertises itself as a “landmark,” it’s almost always a letdown, but the claim is justified in the case of Anju Maeul. The cozy wooden space is always full of drinkers, and there used to be an eternal line of people waiting for their turn by the door; there’s now a kiosk that takes reservations and alerts you via text. The star on the handwritten menu is seasonal seafood. Be sure to try the seasonal sashimi, and the tofu topped with salted herring roe is a fan favorite. Don’t hold back when you order; some items sell out in minutes, so you may not have a second chance.

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Kkot, Bape Pida

At Kkot, Bape Pida (Flower Blossom on the Rice) in Insa-dong, 95 percent of the ingredients for the vegetable-heavy menu are sourced directly from certified organic farms. Vegetable jeon (pancakes) and fresh salads with perilla dressing are delicious without the help of any artificial additives, but the signature item is bibimbap elegantly wrapped in a yellow egg bojagi (wrap). While not everything on the menu is vegan, there are enough options to make a vegan meal, along with a variety of high-quality traditional liquors. In recognition of its work toward a sustainable planet, the restaurant received a Green Star from the Michelin Guide in 2021.

Named the best bar in Korea on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2022, Charles H is a speakeasy discreetly hidden away in the lower level of the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. After passing through a secret passage, guests find a glamorous interior suited for a lux hotel bar with decor inspired by Korea’s traditional metal ornaments. The cocktail list contains classics and original creations inspired by Charles H. Baker, the eponymous bon vivant who wrote the classic cocktail book The Gentleman’s Companion .

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Gwangjang Market

Gwangjang is Korea’s largest hanbok (traditional clothing) and textile market, but it also happens to be the oldest street food market in the country, filled with food stalls boasting a wide array of dishes. See something you like? Just grab a seat and start ordering. Look out for yukhoe (Korean beef tartare with sesame oil and Asian pear) and bindaetteok (fried mung bean pancakes).

Tucked away in an alley in Euljiro, Eunjujeong originally specialized in pork belly, but it’s become famous for its kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew), a lunchtime special and a side on dinner orders of pork belly. Pots filled with uncooked pork and spicy, tangy kimchi wait for guests at each table; they cook up in minutes, but keep yours simmering longer to make the broth even tastier. Eunjujeong uniquely offers ssam, an assortment of leafy vegetables, to wrap chunky pieces of meat from the jjigae, and there is a vending machine where you can purchase different noodles to add to your broth. Be careful about making plans after a meal, as the pungent smell of kimchi jjigae can linger on guests for hours.

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Wooraeok has been serving delicious Korean barbecue in Seoul since 1946, but the restaurant is also well known for its Pyongyang naengmyeon (Pyongyang-style cold buckwheat noodles). While most versions of this dish feature a subtle broth — often derided as bland — Wooraeok’s version is meatier and more flavorful, making it suitable for first-timers.

Born and Bred

Born and Bred is a three-story paradise for hanwoo aficionados. The three above-ground floors operate as different concepts: a butcher shop, a private dining space, and a casual restaurant where you can enjoy a traditional barbecue meal. While the casual restaurant promises a superb experience, try your luck securing a spot at the exclusive basement counter. The meal features just about every cut of Korean beef and it’s become a benchmark for countless high-end barbecue restaurants.

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Also featured in:

The 14 Best Barbecue Restaurants in Seoul

Tuk Tuk Noodle Thai

Among Yeonnam-dong’s vibrant streets you’ll find Tuk Tuk Noodle Thai, where Thai chefs have served the area for over a decade. The interior is decorated with items that owner Im Donghyuk and the team brought from Thailand. Try a handful of dishes and chase them down with ice-cold Thai beers, or something from the selection of Champagne and natural wines. Sister restaurant Soi Yeonnam Mao in Gangnam is another excellent option with a smaller menu featuring Tuk Tuk’s greatest hits.

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Euljiro Boseok

The newtro (a portmanteau of “new” and “retro”) trend is responsible for the hipster takeover of the old neighborhood of Euljiro, where the narrow alleys have filled with a unique mixture of old and new restaurants and shops. Euljiro Boseok, a Korean bar and one of the forerunners of the trend, serves creative recipes using fresh, familiar ingredients. The most iconic dish is the spicy octopus capellini seasoned with perilla oil, though the prawn minari jeon (pancake) is also a must-try. Despite the Korean-style food, Boseok skips the usual Korean liquors like soju or makgeolli for a selection of Japanese sake and natural wine. The bar counter only seats 20, so make a reservation via Instagram DM.

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When it comes to gomtang, a Korean beef soup traditionally served to the king, not many do it better than Hadongkwan. Gomtang has been the only item on the restaurant’s menu since it opened its doors in 1939, but you can customize your order with different cuts of meat such as brisket or tripe. Order at the door as you walk in and you’ll get your bowl almost right away. Don’t be alarmed when it arrives lukewarm; that’s how it’s always been served, even to royalty. Add leek, salt, and kimchi to taste at your table, and enjoy your cheap, quick, hearty lunch or breakfast.

Coffee Libre

For over a decade, Coffee Libre has pioneered the specialty coffee market in Korea. These days, the operation buys beans directly from over 100 farms in 12 countries, roasts them in Korea, and supplies more than 400 cafes in the country. Beyond supplying others, the brand has four of its own stores, including the main location in Yeonnam. Coffee Libre’s latte, made with an acidic double shot of espresso and warm milk, has become the standard for specialty coffee shops in Korea.

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Geumdwaeji Sikdang

Although Geumdwaeji has been open for just over six years, it is currently the barbecue restaurant in town, especially when it comes to pork belly. Even during the pandemic, Geumdwaeji received global recognition for being a frequent dinner spot of celebrities, including members of BTS. Aged and cooked on a cast iron grill over briquettes, Geumdwaeji’s pork is juicy and rich, with a chewy texture — everything you look for in a perfect bite. Meanwhile the tangy, meaty kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) is so popular that Nongshim, Korea’s leading manufacturer of instant noodles, recently launched a collaboration with Geumdwaeji. They do not take reservations, so be prepared to wait an hour or two by the door.

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Miro sikdang.

Every hike should end with homestyle Korean dishes and a drink like it does when you make the journey up to Miro Sikdang, a small pub-like Korean restaurant located on a hill near Hongik University. With a keen eye for exceptional ingredients, chef Seungjae Park creates simple yet delicious dishes like bulgogi, seafood scallion pancakes, and a spicy whelk salad with Spam.

JinMi Sikdang

For over a decade, JinMi Sikdang in Mapo has been proudly serving a single item: ganjang gejang, a lesser known Korean delicacy of soy-marinated crab. JinMi uses only the highest quality blue crabs from Korea’s west coast. The walls are full of traces of celebrities who have visited over the years. It is possible to walk in, but reservations are highly recommended, as they may run out of crabs even before dinner time.

Yooyongwook Barbecue Lab

Many people dream of quitting their jobs to chase their cooking dreams, but Yoo Yong-wook actually did it. Yoo’s weekend barbecue parties on his family farm became the most coveted social dining experience in town thanks to social media; even celebrities were reaching out for a seat at the table. So finally, after six years of serving friends, in 2020 he decided to leave his corporate job and open a restaurant. Inside a moody 120-year-old arcade building, Yooyongwook Barbecue Lab serves a nine-course meal centered on barbecue techniques. As the name implies, Yoo (who goes by lab director rather than chef) strives to develop new recipes using wood fire and smoke, like his signature beef rib inspired by Korean soy sauce-based seasoning. You’ll need a reservation a few months out and some luck to dine.

Somunnan Gamjatang

Once filled with factories, Seongsu-dong now bustles with trendy cafes, restaurants, and pop-up stores. Despite the rapid and drastic changes in the area, some timeless classics remain, like Somunnan Gamjatang (famous gamjatang), which serves the eponymous savory red stew of pork bones and potatoes. Soju is unavoidable and don’t forget to add on sujebi, fresh hand-pulled dough that’s roughly torn straight into the hot broth at the table. While tang dishes are meant to be shared between two or more people, there is also a singular portion option of gamjaguk (potato soup), so don’t be afraid to visit alone. It’s always crowded and loud, so not the best option for those who want to enjoy a conversation over their meal.

Fritz Coffee Company

Award-winning baristas, a dedicated buyer for green coffee beans, and a famed baker joined forces to start Fritz Coffee Company, which is seated in a beautiful old space that was once a Korean barbecue restaurant. The coffee powerhouse imports beans directly from producers around the world and roasts them in-house. The bread and pastries, freshly baked every morning by famed baker Minsu Heo, are the pairing that Seoul’s best cup of coffee deserves.

Bawi Pasta Bar

Fresh pasta is having a moment in Korea, and Bawi Pasta Bar is at the center of the trend. Chef Kim Hyun-Joong started the business as a one-man operation in a deserted alley, pressing dough into noodles to order. His early hit, mint pistachio pesto, has become a cult favorite, along with others like squid ink pasta topped with caviar. Although Bawi has relocated to a newer, bigger venue, Kim still cooks alone for the most part for the eight-seat counter, and much of his 10-course dinners unfold in front of guests’ eyes. The calm black interior and excellent playlist add a zen-like ambiance that wouldn’t be out of place at a high-end Japanese restaurant. Reservations through Catchtable, a local reservation app, are a must — though very hard to come by.

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Chef Sung Ahn opened Mosu San Francisco in 2015 and was awarded a Michelin star the following year for innovative dishes that built on his career in Japanese and French kitchens. But in 2017, Ahn closed the restaurant and permanently relocated back to his motherland to open Mosu Seoul, where he surprised guests with elegant dishes that creatively interpret Korean ingredients, like burdock tarte tatin, almond tofu, and hearth-grilled hanwoo. The high-ceiling space is cozy, the service is top-notch, and the prestigious wine program, handled by award-winning sommelier Jinbeom Kim, is the finest in Korea. It didn’t take long for Mosu to return to the Michelin Guide at its new location, attaining two stars in 2020.

Right from its debut in 2019, Mongtan established itself as Korea’s quintessential barbecue spot for a unique experience. The signature udae galbi (long beef rib) is a real crowd-pleaser. It’s first cooked in the kitchen over a blazing straw fire — which might seem like a gimmick but gives the meat its distinctive aroma and flavor — before it’s seared over sizzling-hot metal pot lids at the table to finish. Complete your meal with naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles) or onion fried rice. Always expect to wait at least a couple of hours, unless you’re one of the lucky few who manage to score an online reservation (available only on weekdays).

Seoul’s first natural wine bar, Big Lights, played a significant role in today’s natural wine craze in Korea. The wine bar opened in 2017 as a semi-private bar that only took reservations through referrals — thankfully, that’s not the case anymore. Its new location functions as part of the showroom for Danish furniture brand Fritz Hansen, with furniture and lighting by the retailer. The wine list lives up to the hype, and the food cooked using wood fire is also top-notch. Keep an eye on their Instagram for occasional wine tastings, when rare wines are sometimes sold by the glass at reasonable prices.

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Hannamdong Hanbang Tongdak

At Hannamdong Hanbang Tongdak, 30-day-old chickens are marinated in a broth of Korean medicinal herbs (licorice, cinnamon, etc.) and slowly roasted over a wood fire rotisserie-style. The result is crispy, sweet skin encasing meat that is juicy and seasoned to the core. The chickens are a little small (so order one per person), but they’re quite substantial, stuffed with glutinous rice, garlic, jujube, and ginkgo. Try topping it off with a piece of kimchi to cut through the hefty flavors and pairing with a draft beer, which always goes well with a good chicken. Go around 5 p.m., when they open on weekdays, to avoid the multi-hour wait that builds up later in the evening.

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Tteok (rice cake) is a typical Korean snack that comes in many shapes and forms, but Dosuhyang specializes in a less common variety, North Korean-style injeolmi. Workers form each one by hand from mortar-crushed glutinous rice and red bean paste, giving the rice cakes a rustic aesthetic complete with finger marks. The taste is delicate, subtle, and not too sweet. While walk-ins are welcome, make a reservation over the phone to secure some of the limited quantities produced every day.

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Tartine Bakery Dosan

Chad Robertson’s San Francisco icon, Tartine Bakery, chose Seoul as its second home, opening its first global outpost in 2018; the city now has six locations. The Dosan branch shares space with Kinfolk Lounge, the independent lifestyle magazine’s first physical space, in a two-story glass-walled building that boasts a beautiful seating area with a courtyard and a terrace. Enjoy Tartine classics such as sourdough and banana cream pie with specialty coffee while reading a Kinfolk magazine. The space also hosts various pop-ups and exhibitions, so check out the website for current events.

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With access to fresh seafood and the rich cultural influence of Japan, Seoul is home to some of the finest sushi outside of Japan. There are options at all price points, from cheap lunch boxes to high-end sushi, but many cite Kojima as the best in Korea. Located on top of luxury clothing store Boon the Shop, the restaurant is led by chef Kyung Jae Park, one of Seoul’s most respected sushi veterans, who gained a following while training at the Shilla Hotel’s Ariake and then cemented his reputation at his first restaurant, Sushi Chohi.

Chef Kim Geon, who won a Michelin star for his restaurant Goryori Ken in 2022, also runs this casual Japanese izakaya where you’ll find a lengthy menu of traditional Japanese bar food in a relaxed atmosphere. Start with the bacon-spangled potato salad and a cold draft beer, soju, or sake while deciding the rest of your order. The signature sashimi moriawase collects the season’s best fish, including yellowtail, mackerel, and scallops, with each piece prepared and aged according to its characteristics to ensure maximum flavor. Another popular classic is Fukuoka-style mackerel fried rice, a satisfyingly salty and complex rice dish with shredded grilled mackerel, shiso, and umeboshi. While walk-ins are accepted, call ahead to check for availability.

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Since 1989, Han Chu has been the best place for draft beer in Apgujeong. The old drinking spot, at the end of the trendy streets of Garosu-gil, is always crowded with people enjoying cold beer and some fried chicken after a long day at work. Gochu twigim (deep-fried stuffed peppers) and tteok-bokki (spicy rice cake) are also excellent drinking companions.

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While Seoul is home to a lot of high-end Japanese dining, Mitou stands out for its original kaiseki courses using the freshest seasonal ingredients. Japan-trained chefs Kwon Young-woon and Kim Bo-mi head the elegant and refined space comprised of an eight-seat counter and a private room. The restaurant is always booked months in advance.

Critically acclaimed restaurant Mingles shows the future of contemporary Korean dining. For almost a decade, chef Mingoo Kang’s innovative style — applying modern techniques and ingredients to Korean tradition — has continued to redefine the possibilities of the cuisine. From the warm, minimalist wooden interior to beautiful serveware created by local craftsmen, Mingles feels modern and traditional at the same time. The unconventional beverage program, which marries wines and Korean liquors, also elevates the experience.

Hansung Kalguksu

Opened in 1983, Hansung Kalguksu is, as the name suggests, a beloved kalguksu (hand-cut noodles) restaurant. Hansung’s version is relatively simple, with clean beef broth and zucchini for topping. Although a good bowl of noodles always satisfies, Hanseong is a popular drinking spot known for its wide variety of dishes. Diners come to have a good time with chilled drinks and classic items such as hanwoo suyuk (boiled hanwoo beef), jeyuk (boiled pork), modeum jeon (assorted fritters including shrimp, oysters, and fish), and mandu (dumplings). Nakji-bokkeum, spicy stir-fried octopus, is a popular option, but the pro move is to tweak your order by adding kalguksu noodles. Keep in mind the restaurant closes on Saturdays but opens on Sundays.

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JinMi Pyongyang Naengmyeon

North Korea’s traditional dish, Pyongyang naengmyeon (often shortened to “Pyongnaeng”) has become one of Seoul’s most beloved cold dishes for its subtle, clear broth and chewy buckwheat noodles. While some classic Pyongnaeng houses have stood for decades, JinMi has proven to be a strong new competitor, thanks to chef Yim Se-Kwon, who has 20 years of experience in some of the most iconic Pyongnaeng restaurants. The restaurant is also great for other classic items like mandoo (dumplings), bulgogi, and jeyuk (boiled pork belly), and JinMi’s eobok-jaengban (North Korean-style beef hotpot) with layers of meat and clear broth is a well-known favorite among Seoul’s bar crowd.

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This small Italian gelato shop keeps the city’s sweet-lovers happy with gourmet offerings using local fruits and vegetables, fresh nuts, and grains. Popular signature flavors include rice, honey with Gorgonzola, and gamtae (seaweed) caramel. The menu lineup changes every month; look out for seasonal flavors like corn, watermelon, and chestnut.

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Joongang Haejang

Seoul never sleeps, and many restaurants are open 24 hours to shelter the hungry souls wandering the city, including Joongang Haejang. The signature gopchang jeongol (beef intestine hotpot) perfectly balances savory intestines and spicy broth, ideal for a late-night feast or for remedying a hangover the next day. The fast turnover rate at the restaurant allows them to source the freshest ingredients from the market. While most items are sized for sharing, the individual-sized soups also provide a hearty meal.

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Korea’s leading French dessert shop is operated by husband and wife patissier duo Otsuka Tetsuya and Min-sun Lee. The two met at Pierre Herme Paris in Tokyo, where Tetsuya served as executive chef and Lee as pastry chef. Using techniques accumulated in France and Japan, the two patissiers offer more than 50 high-quality desserts both classic and innovative, including pastries, cookies, and cakes. Maison M’O is often credited for popularizing madeleines in Korea, offering them in flavors like lemon, salted chocolate, and chestnut. If you can’t make it to the patisserie in Bangbae-dong, pick up some sweets online or at Blue Bottle Coffee locations across Korea.

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Chef Jo Woo-Ram worked for five years at Maison Verot, a famous charcuterie restaurant in Paris, before opening ​​Maison Jo, Seoul’s leading French charcuterie house. The takeout menu of high-quality charcuteries includes pate, terrine, and saucisson, all made from Korean ingredients, as well as baguettes and other French breads and pastries made by patissier Lee Eunhee. Maison Jo’s jambon-beurre — a generous amount of butter and jambon blanc stuffed between slices of housemade baguette — is one of the city’s best sandwiches. You can also pick up premium European groceries such as olive oil, vinegar, and various natural wines.

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Authentic Korean recipes even YOU can cook!

Authentic Korean Recipes Anyone Can Cook

My Top 13 Best Seoul Restaurants – from Humble to Fancy!

Top 13 Best Seoul Restaurants (and Seongnam)!

Or should I say JinJoo’s top 13 FAVORITE Seoul restaurants?? But however you want to call it, these are just simply the Best Seoul Restaurants in my opinion. Please note, the listing is in random order as I find it almost impossible to rank these restaurants together as they are quite different.

Recently, Stay.com contacted me letting me know that they are ending their service end of this month. And they were nice enough to let me know that I could save my guide for best Seoul restaurants which I wrote for them few years ago. So then it got me thinking that my readers may also enjoy having them on my site.

I have posted a few times before of the restaurants I that I have visited but I always thought about consolidating all those in one page so that you and I (haha) have everything together here. These are my favorite restaurants that I love to visit EVERY TIME I go back to Seoul.

Most authentic and classic Seoul Restaurants (in no particular order)

These are no frill, mostly humble Seoul restaurants that have been my family favorite for years and years (sometimes over 30 years!) and some newly discovered ones too! So many restaurants come and go these days but I am quite sure these restaurants will be around for many more years to come. Most of these restaurants don’t even have any websites because they know that customers will come for their fabulous food no matter what. So I will either include just the address instead. Here’s my must-visit restaurants list for the times I go back to Seoul.

• Pildong Myeonok (필동면옥) since 1985 – Known for their huge mandu (dumplings) filled with tofu and kimchi. A must visit if you want true authentic Northern style Korean dumplings. 서울 중고 서애로 26 ( 26, Seoae-ro, Jung-gu)

• Jonny Dumpling – Great hole in the wall kinda place (at least the original spot 😉 ) but with the BEST Chinese dumplings ever. They have become so popular that there are now 3 locations within the area of Itaewon and each of them have different off days so there’s always one open any day of the week. Order their Gunmandu 군만두 and you won’t regret it.

• Soyon Andong Guksi (소연 안동국시)  – My great friend Kyungsun treated me to this restaurant in my most recent trip to Seoul. Now that my friends and my family know I blog about Korean food, they are all so nice to bring me to the best restaurants in Seoul. I am so blessed and grateful. This restaurant is also unique in that if you let them know in advance, they will print customized placemats for you with the name of your guest of honor printed on their paper place mats. I felt VERY special that she did it for me. Everything was delicious, loved everything including the muk muchim, bugeo gui, bindaettoek and of course, kalguksu (knife noodles)!  ( 24-2 Bongeunsa-ro 84-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul)

Fancier Micheline Star (or Guide) Seoul Restaurants

• Jungsik Dang  정식당 – A two Michelin star restaurant by chef Yim Jung Sik that has taken Korean food to another level by bringing molecular gastronomic techniques into Korean cuisine. Fantastically good Korean fusion dishes that are served with most delicate presentations.  ( 83-24, Cheongdam- dong, Gangnam-gu)
• Pierre Gagnaire – Two Michelin star french restaurant in Hotel Lotte, by the internationally renowned chef Pierre Gagnaire.  My husband took me to this place for our wedding anniversary while we were living in Korea and it was a pure delight. Sadly, I don’t have any photos – the lighting was pretty terrible for photos and I also just wanted to focus on enjoy the evening with my husband without having to worry about photos. 🙂  ‘ The artfully presented food, made with 80% local ingredients, is respectful of the Paris-based chef’s creative style.”  Micheline Guide 2017 
• Jihwaja 지화자 – Korean royal court restaurant serving foods that were exclusively served to the King and his royal family. Korean royal court cuisine is mainly focused on two things – taste and promoting the health of the royal family. So Korean royal cuisine considers the medicinal properties of all foods prepared. See my previous post on Jihwaja for more info on this restaurant. Listed in Micheline Guide 2017 .
• Jaha 자하 – I discovered both Jihwaja and Jaha restaurant thanks to my friend Insook. Jaha has been making Mandu from recipes passed down from grandmother to owner’s mother. This Seoul style of dumpling is very different from the rustic Northern style that’s full of kimchi flavor. Most of the manudus burst with mild flavor combinations of meat and vegetables. Each Mandu come in different shapes and stuffing that are elegantly presented every time. They also sell frozen mandu too! More at  Micheline Guide 2017 .

Well, there’s still so much more but I think I will stop here for now. Hope you enjoyed this list and please share it with anyone you know who will be visiting Seoul or lives there.

Have a great week!

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Posted on 3 June 2018 at 8:59 am

We do have a few things in common… mutual friend, work category, interests and being the youngest of five.. haha

Posted on 3 June 2018 at 8:49 am

I got a business trip to Anaheim in a few weeks and wanted to see if you have any recommendations for korean restaurants. I plan on going with coworkers. Thanks!

Posted on 2 June 2018 at 11:03 am

Hi I got to your site from a mutual friend stephanie h. I am in IT as well and enjoyed your blog. 필동면옥 is my numero uno place to visit when i am there. Lol

Posted on 2 June 2018 at 7:02 pm

Oh wow!! What are the chances?!! Thank you so much for sharing that. Yes, 필동면옥 is the best, isn’t it? Too bad so many of these classic restaurants are disappearing everyday..

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The Best Restaurants in Seoul for Elevated Korean Cuisine

From our partners: Seoul’s fine dining scene reinvents tradition with extraordinary results.

By Irenie Forshaw

From the explosion of K-pop, to the rise of its vibrant art scene, Seoul is riding high on the global stage. Surrounded by mountains and dotted with ancient Buddhist temples, old meets new in South Korea’s capital: a city that never sleeps.

But for those lucky enough to visit, it is perhaps Seoul’s culinary delights that are the star of the show. The city’s fine dining scene is home to over 30 Michelin-star establishments, blending centuries of tradition with international influences and modern techniques. As a result, the best restaurants in Seoul deliver a truly unique dining experience that elevates authentic Korean flavors to dizzying new heights.

“The capital is slammed with marvelous gourmet restaurants, and at the same time, small teahouses and street food are abundant,” enthuses Andrew Evans, travel writer and National Geographic TV host, reflecting on his recent trip to Seoul. “You can pretty much get anything you want any time of day or night.”

The television writer and producer behind Everyone Loves Raymond , Philip Rosenthal, was also struck by the diverse nature of Seoul’s cuisine when he visited the capital to film an episode of his Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil . “Living close to Koreatown in Los Angeles, I was expecting the best versions of the Korean cuisine I’ve come to know, and I got that,” he says. “But then I was introduced to so many Korean dishes that were new to me, plus delicious food from everywhere, because of course, Seoul is a world city.”

With this abundance of choice, deciding where to begin can feel overwhelming. Consider contacting former hotelier, Korean cuisine evangelist and founder of Gastro Tour Seoul , Veronica Kang, to arrange a private culinary tour of the city; visit Noryangjin, one of the world’s largest fish markets; immerse yourself in the unique food and drinking culture of the city’s Jongro district; seek out some of the hippest eateries on the city’s West Side, and be sure to experience a traditional Korean teahouse.

Here, we take a look at some of the best fine dining restaurants Seoul has to offer, showcasing the very best in traditional and cutting-edge Korean cuisine.

Chef Kim Sung II prepares authentic Hansik cuisine with a contemporary touch / ©La Yeon

Located on the 23 rd floor of the five-star Shilla Hotel overlooking Namsan park, La Yeon was South Korea’s first restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars. Head chef, Kim Sung II, prepares authentic Hansik cuisine with a contemporary touch. Addictive seaweed crackers and dried sliced jujube (Korean red dates) are served at the start of the meal. Diners can choose from two tasting menus: the 10-course ‘Feast’, which includes seared beef rolls and seasonal fish, and the 11-course ‘Shilla’, featuring hanwoo beef for the main course, served with slivers of radish and pine nuts. Expect crisp white tablecloths, attentive but unobtrusive service, perfect wine pairings and spectacular views of the city.

Chef Kim Byoung-Jin uses fresh seasonal ingredients and local produce / ©Gaon

This Gangnam-based three-Michelin-star restaurant uses an abundance of local produce and fresh seasonal ingredients to celebrate traditional Korean cuisine. Chief executive chef, Kim Byoung-Jin, has been at the helm for over 15 years, creating elegant, thoughtful dishes inspired by the country’s rich history. The three-story restaurant is minimalist in design and the food is served on beautiful, handcrafted crockery specially designed by distinguished Korean potter, KwangJuYo. Delicious signature dishes from the set menus include radish kimchi with oysters, lobster naengchae, mint dumplings, grilled eel and hae-mool pajun – a thick pancake filled with scallops, squid and octopus.

The contemporary entrance to Mosu / ©Mosu

In 2017, head chef Sung Anh decided to move his renowned two-Michelin-star restaurant, Mosu, from San Francisco to the north side of the Cheonggyecheon River to be closer to his family. Born in South Korea, Anh grew up inspired by his grandmother’s traditional North Korean and Japanese style of cooking adopted during the Japan-Korea annexation. The talented chef uses modern techniques to create original plates of food that elevate the best of South Korea’s seasonal produce. Anh’s signature dish, Burdock bark, features a single dehydrated burdock root crisp coated in syrup. Other highlights from the menu include roasted sesame tofu in dashi, toasted acorn noodles and turbot with fermented vegetables.

mosuseoul.com

Kwonsooksoo

Classic Korean dishes are reinterpreted to create refined plates of food at Kwonsooksoo / ©Kwonsooksoo

Head chef Kwon Woo-Joong delicately reinterprets classic Korean dishes to create refined plates of food that incorporate rare and precious seasonal ingredients sourced from select producers. His specialty is making everything from scratch, from Korean paste and soy sauce, to Kimchi and Jang-a-chi (Korean pickle). In homage to traditional high-end Korean dining culture, guests eat from a dok-sang – a small single table placed on top of the conventional table. Highlights from the two-Michelin-star restaurant’s tasting menu include snow crab meat with Korean Osetra Caviar, morel mushrooms stuffed with striploin and served with a pine nut foam, and the famous grilled beef tteokgalbi. Make sure to sample Kwonsooksoo’s carefully curated wine list and selection of traditional Korean liquors.

kwonsooksoo.com

Hwanggeum Kongbat

Hwanggeum Kongbat specializes in rustic homemade bean curd, freshly made each morning / ©Hwanggeum Kongbat

This year, the Michelin Guide introduced its Green Star. The new distinction is awarded to restaurants that have made exceptional efforts to champion sustainable producers and practices. Hwanggeum Kongbat was one of two Seoul-based restaurants to scoop this coveted prize. Located in Ahyeon-dong, the establishment specializes in rustic homemade bean curd, freshly made each morning. Using ingredients bought directly from local sellers, the menu includes fish caught off Ikki Island in Tongyeong, pork from Jeju island and beef from the Sobaeksan Mountain. Any leftover pureed soybean is collected and sent to farmers to be reused as animal feed to minimize food waste.

guide.michelin.com

A Flower Blossom on the Rice

The laidback interiors at A Flower Blossom on the Rice / ©A Flower Blossom on the Rice

The other establishment in Seoul to receive the Michelin Green Star is A Flower Blossom on the Rice. Located in a quiet alley in Insa-dong, beautiful flowers, vegetables and herbs are planted in pots outside, in keeping with the restaurant’s mission to make the most of local produce. Ninety-five percent of ingredients come from regional farms that are certified organic, sustainable and pesticide-free. Traditional hand-made jang (Korean fermented soy sauce) is used to avoid chemical seasoning. One of the most popular dishes not to be missed is Bojagi Bibimbap: steamed rice and an assortment of sautéed vegetables, delicately wrapped in a layer of egg omelet and tied with a seaweed ribbon.

goodbab.co.kr

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Seoul Food Guide — 15 Korean Food and the Best Places to Try It

The ultimate Seoul food guide that’ll make you go mashisoyo! (delicious) 😍

Thanks to the Singapore South-Korea VTL scheme , we not only managed to revel in the country’s gorgeous hikes, iconic attractions and epic day trips but also, indulge in delicious local food.

So we’ve put together this Seoul food guide for all our fellow foodies — things you definitely can’t miss while you’re in town!

Read also: 7D Singapore-South Korea VTL Itinerary Under S$2.9k incl. Covid Expenses

1) Korean Barbeque

What’s a trip to Korea without some authentic KBBQ?

Best eaten traditionally by wrapping the meat in a lettuce leaf, some restaurants even offer eight flavours of samgyeopsal or grilled pork belly — such as wine, ginseng and curry.

But if you’re on a budget or prefer original flavours, Old House Charcoal Meat Restaurant in Hongdae (옛날집 참숯구이) is one of our favourite KBBQ spots.

We loved the thick and juicy pork belly, pork ribs, beef ribs, as well as other side dishes like the fluffy Korean Steamed Egg ( Gyeran Jjim 계란찜). Best part is, it’s open till the wee hours of the morning — perfect for a late dinner or supper!

*Pro-tip:  Book on Klook (min two pax) to skip the queue.

Cost:   From ~S$14 Opening hours:  4PM – 5AM Address:  169-6, Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu (Hongik Univ. Station, Exit 8)

2) Dakgalbi 닭갈비 — Spicy Stir-fried Chicken

Dakgalbi is a spicy stir-fried chicken dish mixed with rice cakes, onions, cabbage and cheese. Or as I like to call it, heaven in a pot.

Hong Chun Cheon Dakgalbi is a restaurant famous for this dish, with many outlets across Korea. Leaving hungry isn’t a possibility — the servings here are huge! But if you’re still feeling peckish, add on cheese fried rice. It comes with seaweed, sesame and of course, loads of cheese.

Cost:  From ₩10,000 (~S$12) Opening hours:   10:30AM – 11PM Address:  Hongik-ro 6-gil, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu (Hongik Univ. Station, Exit 9)

3) Fresh Seafood

Honestly, raw crab meat didn’t sound too appetising at first. But after trying, I couldn’t get enough of it. 🤤

The crabs served at Sunmine Hengbok Gejang in Dongdaemun  (순미네행복게장) are marinated in soy sauce and spicy sauce — no strong fish smell at all! The restaurant also provides aprons so you won’t dirty your clothes while eating.

*Pro-tip: Use the crab shell to scoop some sauce with the meat and eat it directly from the shell. It gives the meat a lot more flavour!

Cost: From ~S$23 Opening hours:  10:30AM – 11PM (Weekdays), 10:30AM – 10:30PM (Weekends) Address:  38 Eulji-ro 43-gil, Euljiro 6 (yuk)-ga, Jung-gu (Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, Exit 14)

4) Grilled Intestines ( Gopchang 곱창)

Photo credit: Klook

In Korea, gopchang refers to a cattle’s small intestines. Despite how it sounds, it’s actually really delicious.

The chewy salted and seasoned pork intestines come in a generous portion at Aunt’s Grilled Intestines (Gopchang Restaurant) (이모네 곱창) — also available on Klook at a discounted rate!

Cost: From ~S$15 Opening hours:  5PM – 10PM (Closed on Sun) Address:  131-1, Chungmuro 4-ga, Jung-gu (Chungmuro Station, Exit 8)

Read also: 23 Best Things To Eat In Seoul’s Most Popular Districts — Hongdae, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun

5) Dalgona Candy (달고나 캔디)

Popularised by K-drama ‘ Squid Game ‘, dalgona candy is a common snack in Korea made with melted sugar and baking soda.

You can easily find it anywhere on Seoul’s streets. We got ours at a street stall along the famous Myeong-dong shopping street , which comes in a ‘Squid Game’ casing!

Needless to say, we had to buy safety pins (we couldn’t find needles) from a nearby convenience store to try out the game. True to the show, the triangle design took little effort to cut out while the umbrella design cracked under a minute. 😭

Cost:  ₩4,000 (~S$4.60) How to get there:  Myeong-dong Station, Exit 6

6) Sundubu Jjigae 순두부찌개 — Spicy Soft Tofu Stew

Here’s the best dish to warm up your body during winter — spicy soft tofu stew.

Most restaurants serve this Korean staple, but we really loved the stew at this small eatery we chanced upon after hiking Naksan Park .

This cosy shop located near Hyehwa Station serves both affordable and delicious noodles and soups, as well as gimbap (seaweed rice roll). We’re not exactly sure of the shop’s name, but you’ll spot it right beside WANNA COFFEE cafe.

Cost: From ₩5,000 (~S$6) Opening hours:   10AM – 10PM Address:  2 Dongsung 2-gil, Donsung-dong, Jongno-gu (Hyehwa Station, Exit 2)

7) Tteokbokki 떡볶이 — Spicy Rice Cakes

You can find tteokbokki (rice cakes) everywhere in Korea, both in restaurants and street stalls. It’s a popular local snack, perfect for a quick bite as you brave the cold winters!

Most days, we couldn’t resist buying a plate of tteokbokki on our way back home for supper 😆

Cost:  ₩3,000 (~S$3) How to get there: Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, Exit 1/2 (We got ours at a street stall opposite Dongdaemun Design Plaza)

8) Samgyetang 삼계탕 — Ginseng Chicken Soup

Truly a chicken soup for the Seoul, samgyetang is a Korean traditional ginseng chicken soup meant to help cool down the body during hot and humid weather.

It’s made up of a whole chicken stuffed with garlic, rice and of course, ginseng. Tosokchon Samgyetang is a popular spot for this dish among tourists. It’s near Gyeongbokgung Palace , one of Seoul’s most iconic landmarks.

Cost:  From ₩15,000 (~S$17) Opening hours:   10AM – 10PM Address:  5, Jahamun-ro 5-gil, Jongno-gu, (Gyeongbokgong Station, Exit 2)

9) Chicken and Beer ( Chimaek 치맥)

Photo credit: @chickentwotwo via Instagram

No Seoul food guide is complete without the ultimate OTP (one true pairing) — chicken and beer 😍

Two Two Chicken is a popular chain with multiple outlets across Korea. Expect a large portion of crispy fried chicken with a variety of flavours such as soybean, teriyaki, garlic and green onion.

We stuck to the original, which was still finger-lickin’ good and juicy on the inside!

Cost:  From ₩17,000 (~S$20) Opening hours:   10AM – 1:30AM Address:  6-4 Namsandong 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu (Myeung-dong Station, Exit 3)

10) Budae Jjigae 부대찌개 — Army Stew

Also known as budae jjigae , army stew is a Korean hotpot filled with ramen, noodles, sausages, spam and rice cakes.

Indulge in a free-flow buffet of kimchi , ramen , fries and drinks at Nolboo Budae Jjigae and Cheolpangui restaurant — you’re sure to leave fully satisfied.

Cost:   From ~S$13 Opening hours:  11AM – 11PM Address:  33-43, Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu (Sinchon Station, Exit 2) 

Read also: 7 Korean Dishes You Must Try Outside Seoul – Jeonju, Geoje and Yeosu Edition

11) Bingsu 빙수 — Shaved Ice Dessert

The number one dessert cafe in Korea has got to be Sulbing , which serves one of the best bingsu s (shaved ice dessert)!

You won’t have trouble locating an outlet — there’s more than 400 in Korea. Some bestsellers include the signature Injeolmi Sulbing consisting of shaved milk, red bean and rice cake, as well as Matcha Cocoa for green tea lovers. One serving is plenty for two people to share.

Cost:  From ₩7,000 (~S$8) Opening hours:   10AM – 11PM Address:  20 Myeongdong 10-gil, Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu (Myeung-dong Station, Exit 8)

12) Bibimbap 비빔밥 — Korean Rice Bowl

Photo credit: Myeongdongjeong

You can’t leave Korea without having bibimbap — a rice bowl mixed with seasoned vegetables and meat.

At Myeongdongjeong , feast on bibimbap like royalty in your very own private dining area. Feeling a little extra? Purchase the set meal on Klook — you’ll get to wear a hanbok while dining.

Cost:   From ~S$29 (2pax set) Opening hours:  11AM – 4PM (Lunch), 5PM – 11PM (Dinner) Address:  Seong Chang Building 1F (Parking lot beside Sejong Hotel), 299, Samil-daero, Jung-gu (Myeong-dong Station, Exit 10)

13) Pancakes ( Jeon 전)

Nothing beats freshly made Korean pancakes at the street stalls found along Sinpo International Market . We were surprised at how fluffy yet crispy the pancakes were, compared to the ones we usually eat in cafes!

The market has a history of over 100 years. Besides mung bean pancakes, it’s also known for dakgangjeong — a fried chicken dish glazed with sweet and spicy sauce.

Cost:  ₩1,000 per piece (~S$1) Opening hours:   10:30AM – 11PM (Weekdays), 10:30AM – 10:30PM (Weekends) Address:  11-5, Uhyeon-ro 49beon-gil, Jung-gu, Incheon (Dongincheon Station, Exit 2)

14) Traditional Korean Tea and Dessert

After working up an appetite from shopping at Insadong , treat yourself to tea and desserts in a cosy cafe!

What sets Banjak Banjak Bitnaneu apart from other cafes in the area is that it’s a traditional Korean tea house famous for handmade tea. Besides tea, there’s also fruit smoothies and desserts like rice cakes and bingsu .

Cost: From ~S$8 Opening hours:  11AM – 10:30PM Address:  28-1 Insadong-gil, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu (Jongno 3-ga Station, Exit 5)

15) Jeju Green Tea and Giant Pastries at Starbucks

Here’s something you probably can’t find in a Singapore Starbucks: Malcha (green tea, yes it’s spelt that way) latte from an organic farm in Jeju.

For someone who doesn’t really like green tea, the malcha or green tea latte was surprisingly my favourite drink on the menu. I loved how it doesn’t give off a very strong tea taste but rather, blends nicely with milk to create a really creamy taste.

The pastries were also considerably larger than in Singapore, with a thick and crispy crust!

Cost:  From ₩6,100 (~S$7) Opening hours:   9AM – 8PM How to get there: There’s a Starbucks outlet everywhere in Seoul

Bonus: Convenience Store Snacks

Convenience stores can be found at almost every corner in Korea. It’s here you’ll find some pretty interesting snacks!

Like the famous banana milk drink which comes in different flavours — vanilla, honey and strawberry. Or the super addictive corn chip snacks. And of course, spicy ramyeon is a must-have for late-night supper!

Cost:  From ₩1,500 (~S$2) Convenience stores to look out for: GS25, emart24, CU

Read also: 15 Korean Food You Must Eat in Seoul

Korean Phrases to Know Before You Go

It’s always helpful to learn the local language as some restaurants don’t have English menus. Here are some commonly used phrases:

While there’s no doubt Singapore is a food paradise , feasting in South Korea is always something we enjoy. There’s both familiar favourites and unique dishes you can’t find anywhere else — and we can’t wait to return to try them all 🤩

Foodies — check out these food guides for inspiration on your next trip: – Shanghai Food Guide — 15 Mouth-Watering Dishes You Won’t Regret – Ultimate Hong Kong Food Guide: 50 Best Eats Incl. Halal Food – Okinawa Food Guide — From the Unusual to the Unapologetically Delicious

What’s your favourite dish in this Seoul food guide? Share with us in the comments below!

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5 Essential Seoul Restaurants You Must Visit

Last modified: Oct 20, 2022 | 6 min read | By Sarah Wigg

South Korea is known to have a great variety of delicious cuisine. If you’re planning a trip to Seoul, the list of things to be excited about is a long one. Whether you’re most excited about meeting new people , learning more about Korean art and culture , or getting your groove on in a Seoul karaoke bar , you have the trip of a lifetime ahead of you!

Arguably one of the best parts of visiting Seoul is the restaurant scene. During your trip, you are going to experience some dishes that are unlike anything you’ve ever tasted , even if you’re a fan of Korean food.

Don’t worry — with all the walking around the city you’ll be doing, you can enjoy ordering all the amazing food that Seoul restaurants have to offer with minimal guilt! Ordering at Korean restaurants gets much easier the more familiar you are with Hangul, the Korean alphabet — check out our 90 Minute Challenge and see for yourself how easy it is to start learning!

Sit down, buckle up, and get ready for our top five restaurant picks that are essential to getting the most out of your time in Seoul . You should probably pack a couple of pairs of pants with an elastic waist, just to be safe!

• 1 Bukchon Son Mandu
• 4 Hadongkwan
• 5 Hansik Olbaan

Bukchon Son Mandu

How do you feel about dumplings? We’re assuming your answer was positive because dumplings seem to be a universal favorite no matter who you are! Dumpling lovers, rejoice — Bukchon Son Mandu will be at the top of your list of favorite Seoul restaurants by the time your trip is complete.

Whether you’re a sucker for the steamed or fried variety, Bukchon Son Mandu has a reputation around Seoul for bringing a dumpling game to the table that’s hard to beat. From the perfectly seasoned filling to the sauces that come on the side for your dipping pleasure, a meal at Bukchon Son Mandu will leave you satisfied and craving more delicious dumplings both at the same time.

Make sure you round out your lunch order with a bowl of buckwheat noodles — the flavor contrast is amazing!

While fried chicken may not immediately come to mind when you think of Seoul, you should venture down to Hanchu if you need a quick meal during your trip for an otherworldly fried chicken experience.

Wildly popular, Hanchu has minimal decor as you walk in, which helps convey that they’re serious about their fried chicken craft — they get down to business right away. Their fried chicken recipe calls for grated chili in the batter itself, so there is a slight inherent spiciness that will keep you coming back for more. The chicken itself is perfectly cooked with an every-so-slightly greasy but very crunchy exterior.

Whether you’re looking to pick up a fried chicken meal to go so you can get on enjoying your exploration of Seoul or you want to chat with new friends over a chilled beer and some fried chicken, Hanku should definitely be on your list of Seoul restaurants to check out!

If you’re on the adventurous side and you’re a fan of Korean barbecue, consider visiting Doramu during your stay in Seoul. Doramu has a very interesting approach to barbecue — it’s definitely Korean barbecue, but there is also a Mexican influence that makes their menu a unique one in Seoul currently.

At Doramu you’ll find all of the usual suspects at a Korean barbecue restaurant — namely, variations of deliciously seasoned and prepared meats, especially pork  — but the presentation and flavor combinations are fun and inspired.

Rather than the presentation you’d find at any run of the mill Korean barbecue restaurant, your pork will be served atop a tortilla for you to wrap it in, or if you’d prefer, a bit of seaweed. The name of their game is to surprise and delight, and they do just that!

Doramu doesn’t stop with barbecued beef and pork. No meal there is complete without complementing your meat selections with doenjang jjigae or a cold bowl of noodles to provide you some relief from the heat of the barbecue — the intense flavor is not for the faint of heart!

Although you’ll surely want to venture out to try different types of exciting and cutting edge street food and restaurants while you’re in Seoul, you should make an effort to stop by Hadongkwan for an unbeatable and authentic Korean meal while you’re in Seoul.

Speaking to Seoul residents, there are plenty of opinions as far as which restaurant serves the best Korean food in Seoul. While there are plenty of good Korean restaurants, Hadongkwan is loved by so many because the restaurant is a tradition that celebrates the best parts of Korean cuisine (and does an amazing job doing so).

Hadongkwan originally opened over seventy years ago, and while much of the restaurant’s menu and decor has changed (as well as the location itself), it remains a place where you can go to experience consistently wonderful Korean food.

Make sure you try the dish they are best known for, a beef and rice soup called gomtang — it will be the perfect meal to round out a day full of adventure when you’re feeling a bit low on energy because it’s meant to be eaten during periods of tiredness. Visit Hadongkwan and you’ll quickly realize why the restaurant has remained open for seven decades!

Hansik Olbaan

With traveling comes long days exploring new cities and meeting new people, and on especially tiring days you’re bound to be starving at the end of the day. Fear not — Hansik Olbaan has got you covered.

Hansik Olbaan is a buffet restaurant that features classic Korean dishes that can be found in most restaurants in Seoul. That being said, it’s so popular due to its use of fresh seasonal ingredients that transform each home-style dish into something elevated.

Whether you’re looking for barbecue, noodles, or Korean ice cream sandwiches, Hansik Olbaan is a mecca that will make sure you leave satisfied — perhaps too satisfied. It’s easy to go overboard at a buffet with a spread like this one, so make sure you pace yourself. You should also probably break out the pants with the elastic waistband you were smart enough to pack for your trip!

Do you have a favorite Seoul restaurant that you think is essential to visit? Let us know in the comments below!

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15 Best Restaurants in Seoul for Locals and Foreigners

Seoul is one of the largest and most bustling cities in the world, with a population of over 10 million people and counting. 

So, there’s no shortage of good food around. Because of Seoul’s international appeal, you can find any cuisine. 

There’s French, Italian, Middle Eastern, Greek and even Mexican restaurants amid a plethora of so many others.

This is the most comprehensive guide on the best restaurants Seoul has to offer. Because there are literally thousands of restaurants, we’ll keep the focus on Korean cuisine. 

These are the topmost ranked by locals and foreigners alike for taste, authenticity, price and presentation.

Whether you’re on a budget or you want to spend a night out on the town, there’s definitely something in this guide for everyone. 

From the fancy and luxurious to the more fast-food type spots, these are some of the most unique places at which to dine.

Best Restaurants Soul Quick Overview

The article goes into each restaurant in detail, but the table below provides a breakdown of what each restaurant offers, the general price range ($ is least expensive to $$$$ being most expensive) and it’s average rating out of five stars. 

You should always look into each restaurant before placing a reservation. Some require an advanced booking, while other accept walk-ins.

1. Mingles Restaurant

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Cuisine: Korean (traditional and modern)

Price Range: $$$$

Nestled near the Han River in the Gangnam-Gu district , Mingles Restaurant is one of the most popular eateries in Seoul. 

They have impeccable service and give their all with every customer. They take great pains to make every dish not only a traditional display of Korean culture, but also a dash of modernism

They pride themselves on how they devise, design and develop the menu. They use only fresh ingredients, which changes with seasonal availability. 

Everyone who has ever visited the establishment leaves feeling like the food was made with love and given the utmost care.

2. MOSU Seoul

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

Cuisine: Korean Fusion, Asian

MOSU Seoul is a quaint Korean-style bistro with a cute staff who aims to give topnotch hospitality. 

Their dishes are creative, artistic and meld many different worldwide cuisines with traditional Korean-style foods. They have eel, sea urchin, pork, abalone, tacos and a variety of vegan-friendly dishes.

The name MOSU comes from the cosmos flower as it is the basis for reminiscing about childhood happiness. 

Therefore, the owners strive for every customer to leave with not only an excellent dining experience, but also lifelong memories.

Cuisine: Korean Cuisine with French Presentation

Located in the Dongguk University area at Jangchung-dong as part of The Shilla, La Yeon offers quintessential Korean fare. 

It’s the pinnacle of haute cuisine with impressive presentation and to-die-for hospitality. Their niche, however, focuses on a French type of display, which makes it very upscale.

But what highlights La Yeon is the special attention paid to the ambiance inside the restaurant. 

Not only is it a luxurious, relaxing and gorgeous atmosphere but they also have breathtaking vistas of Seoul. No matter where you sit in the restaurant, you’re guaranteed to get an excellent view.

Cuisine: Contemporary Korean-European Fusion

Price Range: $$$

Soigné is a great restaurant that combines traditional Korean cuisine with various countries around Europe. 

This is one of the most ideal spots after doing a little sightseeing at Montmartre Park. The staff is friendly and eager to please with delectable food selections.

Their menu items combine Italian and French cuisines with a little influence from Spain and Germany to present what they call “storytelling dining.” 

It’s truly an experience to witness and difficult to write about. Words cannot describe what customers take away from their dining journey here.

Average Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars

Cuisine: Cold Korean Noodle Spot

Ulaeog (phonetically pronounced Woo Lei Oak), is a typical Korean noodle shop. But, it’s flavors are anything but average.

Located in the Gwangjang Market, it’s a great place to grab a quick bite for lunch or to enjoy an early supper.

This place is a staple in Seoul, being in business since the late 1970s. 

Ulaeog is famous for their bulgogi, noodle soups, pyeongyang naengmyun, buckwheat noodles and sesame-marinated kimchi. The broths they use are unusual but bursting with flavor.

6. Maple Tree House

Average Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars

Cuisine: Classic Korean BBQ

On the northern side of the Han River, very close to Seoul’s city center is one of the best classic Korean BBQ joints: Maple Tree House. 

Any trip to Seoul would be remiss and severely lacking without at least one trip to this establishment.

Their menu comprises all beef or pork options with a few items containing prawns or tofu. But, for the price, you get heaping portions of food. 

This includes the main dish along with sides. Because they’re considered a late night spot, they also have alcoholic beverages available.

7. Korea House

Cuisine: Traditional Full Course Korean

Price Range: $$$ to $$$$

For a true authentic Korean dining experience, Korea House is the place to go. 

Not only is their menu full of delicious, mouthwatering morsels but they also offer live performances during dinner. They also have a wedding hall and is the official government reception hall of Korea.

Therefore, you can get many Korean historical experiences all in one place. 

Their food, décor, costumes, performances and displays date back to Korea’s Joseon Period (1392 to 1892). Everything is very formal, orderly and managed. 

The atmosphere and the area are absolutely enchanting.

8. Seoul’n’Soul

Cuisine: Korean Fusion

Seoul’n’Soul is a bistro-style restaurant featuring classic Korean flavors with other international cuisines from places like Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Spain, to name a few. 

This is the unsung hero of our best restaurants list here. It’s close to the Sookmyung Women’s University too.

They offer beef, ox, shrimp, fish and chicken, with everyone having eaten there giving a glowing review. 

Each dish is simple yet personal, even though their menu is not very large. But it’s a great place for Koreans to take their foreign friends.

9. 7th Door

Cuisine: Modern Korean Featuring Fermentation

Price Range: $$

For “the ultimate journey to the heaven of taste,” 7th Door provides an unparalleled experience in Korean cuisine. 

They base their menu on the DNA of traditional food: fermentation and aging. Because 7th Door caters their menu to every reservation, you must book your table in advance.

Since the cuisine is for adults only, children under 13 years old are not permissible. Much of what they serve comprises fish, anchovies, seafood, caviar and rice. 

The whole restaurant and dining experience is a spiritual journey you can only understand with a hands-on approach.

10. Hangaram

Hangaram is a traditional Korean restaurant located very close to Seoul’s City Hall. They take great care in providing home-style vittles in an exquisite restaurant setting.

Almost everyone who dines there leaves feeling their bellies full of the chef’s love.

The goal is to use food as medicine, from the vegetables down to the herbs and savory meats. 

They serve all the Korean favorites and staples such as hotpots, bulgogi , kimchi and japchae . The portions are generous and the prices are fantastic.

11. Yang Good

Cuisine: Korean BBQ

Specializing in halal lamb from Australia, Yang Good is an excellent BBQ place. 

They also have beef, crab, eel, abalone and many vegan-friendly dishes as well. The flavors of the food dance on the tongue like an angel on the head of a pin.

The staff is inviting, welcoming and helpful; they’ll even offer to grill your meat for you so you enjoy the food properly. You can see their YouTube promo video here.

12. Myeongdong Kyoja

Cuisine: Cold Noodles

Situated in the heart of the Myeongdong district, Myeongdong Kyoja has been in the noodle business since 1976. 

Many people come for lunch and dinner to enjoy their array of cold noodles, noodle soups and other rice dishes.

They specialize in many traditional foods that foreigners and locals crave alike. They have kalguksu, mandu , bibimguksu and kongguksu. They even make their own special kimchi and ensure that every dish is healthy, well balanced and delicious.

Cuisine: Korean BBQ & Other Fare

The upscale Mayfield Hotel hosts several excellent restaurants, one of which is Nakwon, offering traditional Korean BBQ. 

They use mostly fresh ingredients that the hotel grows itself, aside from the meat of course.

Nakwon is also famous for its special and secret method for aging their ribs. They have a large menu with many options from which to choose. 

There’s also crab, chicken, pork, fish, octopus, tofu and squid. Aside from BBQ, they also have Korean standards like bulgogi, noodle soups and bibimbap .

14. Jungsik Seoul

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars

Cuisine: Modern & Contemporary Korean Cuisine

One of the most popular upscale Korean cuisine restaurants in Seoul is Jungsik. It is the ultimate experience in fine dining while encountering courteous and helpful staff. 

Their love affair with food has birthed a new category of dining altogether: New Korean Fine Dining.

With a team of highly prized and qualified master chefs, they devise a cornucopia of food options that make it difficult for customers to decide on which one to choose.

Cuisine: Traditional Full Course Korean Cuisine

For a high-end meal after a relaxing day at Soekchon Lake or Songpanaru Park, Bicena offers traditional Korean fare as full course meals. 

They have intricate and separate menus for weekdays and weekends as well as for lunch and dinner. Reservations are mandatory, but you can place them up to two months ahead.

They offer a wide array of foods on their menus and they cater each to the season. They offer caviar, soups, fermented foods and a plethora of meats. 

For instance, in the summer, their menus are rather light, serving things like chicken, fish, rice and fancy fruit salads.

While this is a huge list of some of the best restaurants Seoul has, it is by no means complete. There are thousands of restaurants offering quality foods to fit a wide range of budgets, tastes and dietary requirements. 

However, the ones mentioned are the most unusual and tantalizing ones we could find.

From traditional meals to noodle shops and BBQ spots, there’s something for everyone to try. 

If you want a high-end bistro experience or something more down-to-earth, Seoul Korea has it all. There are so many Korean fusion restaurants that you could lose yourself for days in them.

Regardless of where you go, you’re sure to get a memorable experience. Not only will the food be delicious but the staff will leave a lasting impression.

It’s why there are some people who will travel specifically to Seoul just for the food.

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Min Jin Lee’s 10 Favorite Restaurants in Seoul

• Restaurants
• Min Jin Lee’s 10 Favorite…

 “I know that art fills the bloody gaps in our hearts. As long as I can, I will continue to ask questions and get answers. I will continue to write about what I see and what I want to see.” – Min Jin Lee

Writer Min Jin Lee won the prestigious Manhae Prize for Literature this year and traveled to Seoul, Korea, to accept the award. She was accompanied by her family, including her father and mother, and took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the many wonderful culinary delights that Korea has to offer.

We asked Lee to share some of her favorite restaurants in Seoul and she delivered a wide range of wonderful culinary options. Here are some gems that need to be at the top of your next Seoul itinerary.

Min Jin Lee’s Favorite Restaurants in Seoul

1. woo lae oak (우래옥).

Woo Lae Oak (우래옥) is known to serve the best Pyeongyang Naeng Myun in Korea ( 평양냉면 , Pyeongyang cold buckwheat noodle) and BBQ beef in Korea since 1946. The beef broth is much meatier than at any other Naeng Myun restaurants in Korea and the noodle is perfectly cooked. Their BBQ beef is also spectacular and many cuts above standard BBQ, especially Bulgogi.

Woo Lae Oak

Michelin Bib Gourmand

62-29 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-2265-0151

Sunday: 11:30am to 8:30pm Monday: Closed Tues – Sat: 11:30am to 9:30pm

2. Jungsik Seoul (정식당)

A pioneer of modern Korean fine dining, Chef Yim Jung-sik is the leader of a modern and unique understanding of contemporary Korean cuisine that he calls “New Korean”. He opened his first restaurant Jungsik in Seoul in 2009 then opened his second restaurant in New York City in 2012. Both the original and the namesake have been acclaimed by diners and food critics alike, receiving two Michelin stars by serving elevated Korean traditional dishes that seem to come from another plane of existence. Each course is topped by the next and accompanied by an excellent wine list and remarkable service.

Jungsik Seoul

Michelin Two Stars

11 Seolleung-ro 158-gil, Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-517-4654

Sat – Sun: 11:00am to 6:00pm Mon – Fri: 12:00am to 3:00pm and 5:30pm to 10:00pm

3. La Yeon (라연) at Shilla Hotel

Located on the 23rd floor of The Shilla Hotel, La Yeon serves refined premium Korean traditional food with stunning plating and features an amazing view over Namsan Park. This high-end traditional Korean restaurant is the world’s first Korean restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Michelin Three Stars

249 Dongho-ro, Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-2230-3367

Sun – Sat: 12:00am to 2:30pm and 5:30pm to 9:30pm

4. Jangkkobang (장꼬방)

Jangkkobang is a famous red bean porridge cafe nearby Gangnam Station. They prepare red bean porridge every morning by simmering red beans in a large Korean traditional cauldron. Their red bean porridge is made with 100% Korean red beans. The most popular items are patbingsu ( 팥빙수 , shaved ice with sweetened red bean paste) in summer and danpatjuk ( 단팥죽 , sweetened red bean porridge) in winter.

Jangkkobang

27 Gangnam-daero 61-gil, Seocho 4(sa)-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-597-5511

Sun – Sat: 9:00am to 10:00pm

5. Hadongkwan (하동관)

One of the oldest restaurants in Seoul, Hadongkwan has been serving the best Gomtang ( 곰탕 , Korean traditional beef bone soup) since 1939. The soup is so pure and rich derived from simmering large amounts of best quality beef meat and bone for up to 16 hours. The kimchi here is out of the world perfectly accents their Gomtang.

12 Myeongdong 9-gil, Myeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-776-5656

Sunday: Closed Mon – Sat: 7:00am to 4:00pm

6. Gaeseong Mandu Koong (개성만두 궁)

Gaeseong Mandu Koong has been serving Gaeseong-style dumplings for three generations since 1970. Gaeseong is a city in North Korea well known for its tasty mandu. The dumplings here are huge and juicy and made by hand daily with the freshest ingredients. The meaty soup is made with a beef brisket broth that’s been simmering for hours, waiting to nourish and deeply satisfy diners. The restaurant is a hanok ( 한옥 , Korean traditional house) style which is so fitting and elegant.

Gaeseong Mandu Koong

11-3 Insadong 10-gil, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-733-9240

Sunday: 11:00am to 8:00pm Mon – Sat: 11:30am to 9:30pm

7. JS Garden Black 

JS Garden Black is a popular upscale Korean-Chinese restaurant where you can have quality course meals at very reasonable prices. Their popular dishes are seaweed and abalone soup, Sichuan eggplant and shrimp, and glutinous fried pork. They also offer more unique dishes like shark fin soup, golden xiao long bao, Peking duck, and king crab. 

JS Garden Black

96-3 Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-3444-4480

Sun – Sat: 11:30am to 7:00pm

8. Sambaekjip (삼백집)

Bong-soon Lee, the founder of Sambaekjib would only sell three hundred kongnamul-gukbap ( 콩나물국밥 , rice in bean sprout soup) bowls daily back in the day. When all three hundred bowls are sold out, the door was closed, even in the morning. As this rumor spread, many people started calling this restaurant Sambaekjip since this restaurant didn’t have a name back then, “sambaek” means 300 in Korean, and “jib” means house in Korean.

The restaurant first opened in 1947 in Jeonju, the southern part of Korea. Because of Sambeakjib’s famous soup, Sambaekjibs opened up all over Korea. You can now eat this mouthwatering kongnamul-gukbap in Seoul as well. Of course, nowadays, this popular venue sells many, many more than 300 bowls per day

Toegye-ro 18-gil, Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-6366-1300

Sat – Sun: 11:00am to 9:00pm Mon – Fri: 9:30am to 9:00pm

9. Bonjuk (본죽)

Bonjuk is one of the most popular Korean food franchise restaurants and you can easily find Bonjuk anywhere in Seoul. Its main dish is a jook which is the ultimate healthy Korean comfort food that Koreans eat on a cold day to warm their bodies or when they are sick to make themselves feel better. Their jooks are fresh, flavorful, and nutritious, most importantly deeply satisfyingly delicious.

10. The Hyundai Seoul Food Court (더현대 서울 푸드 코트)

Located in the basement of The Hyundai Seoul, the newest luxury department store in Korea, The Hyundai Seoul food Court has everything you could want in one place. Whether you’re feeling like Korean or Japanese or Chinese or Italian or American… coffee, tea, bakeries, or desserts, you can all find them here. This culinary experience is a many elevations above the standard American mall fast food cornucopia. Many famous restaurants around Korea opened their branches here so that The Hyundai Seoul’s visitors can come here instead of traveling all around Korea to taste many well-known establishments’ signature dishes.

The Hyundai Seoul Food Court

108 Yeoui-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

+82 2-767-2233

Fri – Sun: 10:30am to 8:30pm Mon – Thurs: 9:30am to 8:00pm

Author:  Hanyoo Park

Hanyoo Park is a writer and content creator for Best of Korea focusing on K-Dramas and Restaurants. She was born in Seoul and currently lives and works in Manhattan. She is a mom to a middle schooler and a proud maximalist who loves everything about Korean American life. Read More From Hanyoo Park

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Photo credits: Bicena Seoul

The Best 10 Korean Restaurants In Seoul

Explore Seoul's best spots for kimchi! From classic tastes to new spins, find where this traditional dish shines as a culinary masterpiece.

Updated on April 29, 2024

Ever dreamed of tasting authentic Korean food? Come with us on a journey in the heart of Seoul, where flavors burst and soothe in every bite. Crave spicy kimchi or comforting bulgogi? Our guide to Seoul's top 10 Korean restaurants is here to help. We've explored fine dining spots and hidden gems to give you an unforgettable meal. Dive into the world of Korean cooking where old traditions blend with exciting new tastes. Each place brings a unique vibe and special dishes to the table. Ready to explore new tastes? Let's dive in!

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Seoul Korean Restaurants

Photo credits: Bicena

Why we love it: Bicena Seoul is perfect for any event, whether it's a romantic night out or a big celebration. The setting is cozy and stylish, with soft music that makes the atmosphere calm. The menu mixes traditional Korean tastes with new cooking ideas for an exciting flavor adventure. With top-notch service, a meal at Bicena Seoul becomes a special memory to cherish.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Sincheon-dong, Olympic-ro, 300 롯데월드 타워 81층, Seoul

Photo credits: Solbam

What is it? Solbam , right in the heart of Seoul, offers more than just food; it's a deep dive into Korean dining. This friendly place blends modern style with a comfy feel, creating the perfect spot for a memorable food journey.

Why we love it: Solbam is all about the vibe. The lively music and welcoming setting make it great for hanging out with friends or a cozy date. It's a go-to spot where locals feel at home and travelers get a taste of real Seoul. With its great location and yummy food, Solbam stands out as a must-visit for anyone after the true taste of the city.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Dosan-daero 37-gil, 6 4층, 06026 Seoul

Photo credits: La Yeon

What is it? Discover the magic of dining at La Yeon , a top-notch spot on the 81st floor of The Shilla Seoul. It's not just food here—it's an amazing view of Seoul with every delicious bite.

Why we love it: La Yeon is more than great scenes. It's a mix of fancy and fun. Enjoy live music, a chic space for all events, and a blend of people from around the world all enjoying top food. La Yeon makes every meal unforgettable, leaving you eager to come back for more.

249 Dongho-ro, Jangchung-dong, Seoul

Photo credits: Mosu

What is it? Mosu is a special place in the heart of Seoul, on Itaewon-ro 55ga-gil. It offers a unique Korean food adventure.

Why we love it: Mosu is more than a restaurant; it's a whole experience. It combines modern style with a friendly vibe. It's great for quiet dinners or fun nights out with friends. The Korean meals are beautifully made, and the music adds a special touch, making every bite feel special. Both locals and visitors love it. At Mosu, you feel right at home, whether it's your first time or you're a regular. It's open from Tuesday to Saturday, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Every visit is a chance for new, exciting experiences.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Itaewon-ro 55ga-gil, 45 2층, Seoul

Photo credits: Joo Ok

What is it? Joo Ok is a cozy spot right in the lively center of Seoul. Walk in to find a place where style meets comfort. The light is welcoming, and the seats are soft, making it a great spot for any special time.

Why we love it: Joo Ok celebrates real Korean food but adds a fun twist. Whether you want smoky BBQ, hearty stews, or tangy sides, there's something for everyone. The gentle music makes your meal even better, perfect for dates, fun with friends, or work meet-ups. Both locals and visitors love Joo Ok. It’s known for its friendly vibe and tasty meals, making sure you'll remember your visit.

Sogong-ro, 119 3층, 04525 Seoul

Photo credits: Mingles

What is it? Mingles is a cozy spot in the heart of Seoul on Dosan-daero 67-gil. It mixes traditional Korean tastes with new cooking ways. This two-floor place is all about elegance and comfort. It offers a unique dining experience with soft lighting and simple decor.

Why we love it: Mingles is more than just a place to eat; it's a trip into Korea's rich food history with a fresh spin. The place is warm and friendly, inviting everyone like family. The chefs make stunning dishes that are a feast for the eyes and the palate. It's perfect for any occasion, from special celebrations to casual dinners. Mingles is a must-visit for anyone who loves food and wants to have an unforgettable taste adventure in Seoul.

Dosan-daero 67-gil, 19 힐탑빌딩 2층, 135-100 Seoul

Photo credits: Soigné

What is it? Soigné is a hidden gem in Seoul's lively Sinsa-dong area. It's a cozy spot on the second floor of Sinsa Square. It blends simple style with a warm city view and smooth jazz music.

Why we love it: Soigné draws in trendy locals and food lovers from around the world. It's perfect for dates, hanging out with friends, or celebrations. You'll love its European dishes, selected wines, and top-notch service. Here, luxury is not just offered; it's deeply enjoyed, making every visit special.

Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Sinsa-dong, SINSA SQUARE, 2F, 06027 Seoul

Photo credits: Onjium

What is it? Onjium Seoul is a cozy spot hidden on the 4th floor of Hyoja-ro. It's perfect for friendly meet-ups or romantic dates.

Why we love it: Onjium Seoul mixes cool vibes with a stylish look. You'll enjoy listening to soft jazz in the background. The food is where it really shines. It breathes new life into old Korean recipes with a modern twist, using top-notch ingredients. Each dish is a memorable journey. People come here for the great food and stay for the warm feeling. Once you visit, you'll want to come back again. Onjium Seoul is a must-see place in the city center.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Hyoja-ro, 49 4층, 03043 Seoul

Here's your ultimate guide to the best Korean dining in Seoul! Experience traditional tastes in Hanok-style restaurants or try new flavors in modern spots. Ready for a tasty adventure through Seoul's top eateries? Don't forget to share your experiences and check out our other city guides for more culinary adventures!

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The Best Korean Restaurants In LA

photo credit: Soban

June 3, 2024

Korean food is as essential to LA as sunshine and car chases, whether that's banchan-filled birthday dinners, ice-cold naengmyun on hot days, or an order of galbi jjim at 3am with friends. The sheer amount of fantastic Korean restaurants—in Koreatown and beyond—might seem overwhelming, but we embrace it with open arms (and stomachs). If you're looking for the best spots for Korean BBQ , we've got a dedicated guide just for that, but on this, you'll find everything else, from bossam to knife-cut noodles to marinated crab.

photo credit: Matt Gendal

Kobawoo House

Kobawoo House has been around since 1983, and while Koreatown has changed a lot, this place hasn’t. It’s still a tranquil, wood-filled restaurant that serves amazing jeon, steaming bowls of yuk gae jang, and the best bossam in the neighborhood. Each slice of Kobawoo’s boiled pork belly is half jiggly-soft pork fat, half juicy meat that breaks apart in one chomp. For such a rich cut of pig, it’s incredibly light, especially when you build ssam with salted cabbage, a dab of fermented shrimp paste, and sweet pickled radishes. Portions are huge, so come for the smaller lunch special if you’re dining solo. 

Soban is a triple threat on par with Cher or Hugh Jackman. Not only does this minimalist Koreatown restaurant have the most impressive banchan spread in town (over a dozen seasonal dishes by our count), their specialties like soy-marinated crab, spicy braised black cod, and short rib stew all are up there with the best renditions in the city. Keep in mind that Soban doesn’t serve alcohol, but they do give you a delicious fermented sweet rice drink to finish the meal. Also, this is where the cast and crew of Parasite celebrated their Oscar win.

Ham Ji Park

Ham Ji Park is an always crowded spot in the heart of Koreatown on 6th Street where grilled meat is the main attraction. Unlike many tabletop grill KBBQ spots in the area, however, the two dishes you’ll find on every table are cooked in the kitchen: spicy grilled pork ribs and pork neck stew. That might seem like a lot of pork, but the sweet spiciness of the ribs complements the fragrant perilla-seasoned stew perfectly. Portion sizes for both dishes rival a wedding banquet, so bring friends, or you’ll be carrying leftovers to the bar afterward.

photo credit: Jessie Clapp

In a town full of great Korean food, Perilla stands out for its fantastic seasonal banchan. But it’s the mini meadow surrounding this Chinatown spot that transforms a quick lunch into a substantial event. Formerly a pop-up, this daytime spot in Chinatown operates out of a tiny cottage where colorful umbrellas sway over patio tables, and people walk through a garden sipping housemade yuzu soda. The dosirak boxes filled with marinated cod or spicy beef here are executed with the obsessive perfectionism of a breakup text and exactly what you want to eat during an impromptu picnic in the sunshine. 

photo credit: Jakob Layman

Mapo Galbi is a quiet restaurant on the outskirts of Koreatown where everyone orders one thing: dak galbi. A simple dish of chicken, vegetables, and rice noodles stir-fried in a spicy sauce at your table, the flavors are so intense and complex that you’ll take breaks throughout the meal to permanently ingrain this moment into your mind. Then comes the second course—which involves a heaping pile of nori-topped white rice that’s smashed onto the same grill and cooked until it’s crispy. Spoiler: it’s just as good as the first round.

Arts District

LA is filled with tremendous traditional Korean spots, but less common are fine dining spots that add a new perspective to the cuisine. That’s why we’re thankful for Baroo. This upscale spot in the Arts District offers a never-boring,eight-course $110 tasting menu designed to be paired with their interesting list of wines and Korean spirits. Think milky makgeolli and yeast rice squares topped with ‘nduja and pichuberry, seaweed-battered skate wings, and lots of fermented vegetables. The chic, industrial aesthetic helps keep things breezy and casual. 

MDK Noodles (Myung Dong Kyoja)

This bare-bones noodle shop from Seoul is famous for its garlicky house kimchi, which is so potent that the restrooms are stocked with mouthwash. Vampire-slaying banchan isn’t the only reason to come, though. The hand-cut noodles and dumplings here are excellent, and everyone in the dining room, from large groups of coworkers to solo lunchers trying to find peace, has both on their table. When it’s hot, go for the spicy, cold, chewy wheat noodles mixed with vegetables. When you need some warmth and comfort, get the kalguksu with ground chicken and steamed pork dumplings.

Dan Sung Sa

On any given night, with the smell of grilled skewers in the air, Dan Sung Sa can feel like the center of Koreatown. This dark, all-wood tavern is regularly jam-packed with dates, coworkers, and concertgoers looking for warm food after a show at The Wiltern. We should note that ordering alcohol is mandatory here, but that’s usually not an issue since Dan Sung Sa’s menu pairs perfectly with cold beer. The giant kimchi pancakes are extra thin and crispy, the tteokbokki with ramen comes in a sweet-spicy gochujang sauce that burns your lips, and we’ve never met a skewer here we didn’t like, including the beef short rib, sweet scallop, and cartilage-y chicken gizzard.

Sun Nong Dan

This galbijjim specialist has two locations in Koreatown, but if it’s the wee hours of the night and you’re with a group, head to the 24-hour location on Western. Not only will Sun Nong Dan adequately feed everyone after the bars, but few late-night dining experiences in LA compare to this one. The table huddles around massive cauldrons of their signature spicy galbijjim: braised short rib, oxtail, rice cakes, and starchy vegetables, all simmering in a thick, fire-red sauce. Order it with cheese on top, and your server blowtorches it at your table until it’s melted and bubbly. And if you’re here alone or want to put something lighter in your gut, Sun Nong Dan serves various soups, including an oxtail with brisket soup that will help with that headache tomorrow morning.

Lee Ga in Koreatown is known for its chilled buckwheat noodles, mostly because they’re made fresh instead of coming out of a package. And while chewy noodles sloshing around in icy beef broth (and other spicier naengmyeon options) are absolutely a reason to come to this strip mall Korean restaurant, we enjoy the whole package here. Lee Ga’s combos come with seasonal banchan, huge, generously stuffed mandu, and marinated beef ribs that slide right off the bone. It’s an ideal meal on a hot summer day or really any day that you’re in the mood to eat well.

photo credit: Sylvio Martins

Eighth Street Soondae

If you’re into blood sausage and organ meats, Eighth Street Soondae is the promised land. And if you’re not, well, this humble Koreatown restaurant might change that. As the name implies, this family-run strip mall spot serves Koreatown’s finest soondae, Korean blood sausage stuffed with rice and glass noodles. Nearly every table orders the soondae combo that easily feeds two to three carnivores, which comes with a mound of sausage, slices of poached heart, liver, and tongue, a rich beefy soup, and a handful of banchan. From there, dip your sausage in salt or salted shrimp or spicy soybean paste, or throw it into the soup with purple rice. Repeat until blissed out. 

Jang Choong Dong Jokbal

Order the small jokbal platter at Jang Choong Dong, and you might think they made a mistake. This pile of chopped, braised pig trotters is a behemoth, but a stunning behemoth, nonetheless. The jelly-like skin glistens under the fluorescent lights and you can taste the brine in the tender pork: a little sweet, a little garlicky, and some pings of ginger in there. We suggest ordering something light on the side to strike a balance on the table, like Jang Choong Dong’s spicy cold acorn noodles that go down like a refreshing glass of ice water. 

Borit Gogae

If you want a banchan spread fit for a prince, order the barley rice set at Borit Gogae. For $30 per person—minimum two people—this Koreatown restaurant covers your table with little dishes of fried, fermented, and pickled things, like sea snails, spicy radish, mung bean pancakes, and more (we could keep going). The whole meal is DIY bibimbap with a communal pot of barley rice in the center, but the best part is the three soups included: a simple scorched rice broth, sweet pumpkin puree, and a creamy perilla seed soup that tastes like nutty chicken porridge. And somehow, after spooning up every bit of rice and soup, you’ll still walk out feeling as light and fresh as a kite in the wind.

photo credit: Jessie Cohen

Surawon Tofu House

There are lots of places to get spicy, bubbling cauldrons of soondubu in Koreatown, but Surawon is the best of them, especially since Beverly Soon Tofu is no more. They make all of their organic tofu in-house, and for $1 more, you can upgrade to black soybean tofu, which is a little nutty and super savory. Come by with someone you love on a cold night, order some soju and a couple of soondubu combos, and be sure to include a seafood kimchi pancake (here, they’re loaded with veggies and squid).

Jinsol Gukbap

Most people come to this traditional Korean spot on 3rd Street for one thing: gukbap, a clear pork-broth soup that arrives mostly unseasoned but with a big spread of banchan like kimchi, salted shrimp, and thinly sliced pork belly that you add in to kick it up. At lunchtime, older couples and people who work nearby fill the tables in this little strip mall spot because it’s a tasty, affordable option in the neighborhood. If you’re here with a group, however, we suggest adding on an order of char-grilled spicy pork ribs and the jokbal platter with sweet mustard sauce. 

Much like The Rock (the wrestler) or L. Ron Hubbard (the sci-fi author), Master Ha started out known for one thing before becoming way more famous for another. So, while you can order a very solid bowl of ox-bone soup at this stylish Koreatown spot, the best dish here (and the one on every table) is their sweet, briny ganjang gaejang, or soy-marinated raw crab. If you’re with a group, the best move is to order a huge mound of whole crabs to crack into. Otherwise, go for the personal-sized marinated crab combo, which adds quail egg-topped rice, soy-marinated shrimp, an egg, pickles, and sheets of nori to make little crabby handrolls.

photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto

Seongbukdong

Located in the same strip mall as Sun Nong Dan, Seongbukdong is a quiet corner spot that’s also known for galbi jjim. But if the braised short rib stew is a heavy metal ballad at Sun Nong Dan, the balanced, complex version here is a smooth jazz tune (we say that as big Kenny G fans). They also make a spectacular version of nakji dolsot bibimbap, which arrives in a sizzling stone spot with little snippets of octopus, lots of sesame and gochujang, and a layer of crispy rice on the bottom (the smell and sound hit you as soon as it emerges from the kitchen).

Hangari Bajirak Kalguksu

Even on weeknights, expect this classic soup shop in Koreatown to have a small crowd gathered outside queued up for hand-cut noodle soup. The chicken kalguksu is pure cold-weather comfort, but we usually go for the spicy seafood variation, loaded with clams, mussels, crab, and shrimp in a fiery anchovy broth. It’s an enormous amount of food, but we still find room to add either their chilled noodles in sweet, icy beef broth or a platter of their signature bossam (the mini size, available during weekday lunch, is plenty for two).  

Young King is an unassuming neighborhood banquet spot that’s been serving Koreatown’s best Korean-style Chinese food since the 80s. Once you pile into the pale green booths, know that there are a few must-order staples here: jjajangmen, a.k.a noodles in a sweet-salty caramelized black bean sauce, and the tangsuyuk, light-as-air crispy fried pork with sweet and sour sauce on the side. On weekends, the room will be filled with families sharing dinner, so you might have to wait a bit, but you can walk right in on weekdays.

When the temperature in LA tops 90 degrees for three months straight, head to Yu Chun. The bare-bones diner on Olympic is known for its chilled naengmyeon with arrowroot noodles and a near-frozen beef broth that’ll refresh you like nothing else. If you end up with a brain freeze (quite possible), there’s self-serve dispensers of the same broth but hot near the kitchen. Add some kimchi dumplings and grilled kalbi to make a mini feast, and don’t neglect the nose-clearing hot mustard and vinegar on every table.

Han Bat Sul Lung Tang

A meal at Han Bat Sul Lung Tang happens at warp speed. Before you put your jacket on the back of your chair, a waitress asks you what you want—an easy choice, considering there is basically one thing on the menu (sullungtang). Within a few minutes, a steaming bowl of cloudy white soup arrives stocked with rice noodles and long-braised beef parts  (we usually get the brisket), followed closely by the check, all before you’ve taken a bite. Don’t worry, your meal is not over—season the heavenly broth with salt, pepper, green onions, and radish kimchi, and experience why this place has been a local landmark for decades.

As much as we love nights out in Ktown, the best part about Korean drinking culture is the bar food—and Jilli serves the kind of crispy, saucy (and interesting) dishes we want while tossing back soju. This narrow sool jib in Koreatown blurs genres with creations like tteok twigim coated in gochujang and parmesan cheese and a rigatoni all kimchi vodka laced with guanciale bits. You can easily piece together a full meal at Jilli, but if you’re just stopping by for a glass of natural wine, order Chimmelier’s KFC. They double-fry their chicken so it’s moist and juicy inside and crispy-crackly outside.

From the outside, Yangban looks unapproachable. This upscale Arts District spot is dark, brooding, and expensive. But it’s also the restaurant that, for years now, has set the tone for what modern Korean-American cooking can be—i.e., fun and delicious. Yangban’s seasonal banchan is made with beautiful produce, makgeolli-marinated scallops are served on tiny toasts, and golf-ball-sized mandu are stuffed with schmaltzy matzoh. The creativity is what makes each visit to Yangban unique, but our favorite dishes are still staples that have been around for years, including their sticky soy-garlic chicken wings that single-handedly warrant a visit.

Dha Rae Ok in Koreatown specializes in duck, which you can order boiled, roasted in a clay pot, or, our favorite: smoked and eaten BBQ-style. It’s an indulgent KBBQ experience with enough juicy duck to feed three hungry adults. Around $120 gets you two rosy pink smoked breasts with a thin fat layer that melts like butter on the grill. The longer it sizzles, the more fat is rendered and caramelized, making it slice extra smoky-sweet. The rest of Daffy arrives later in a spicy duck soup with ramen and tons of green onions. It’s the kind of healthy sweat you need after putting more ducks in your mouth than a hunting dog.

Suggested Reading

Where To Get Great Korean BBQ In Los Angeles

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The Best Restaurants In Koreatown

Our 25 favorite places to eat in LA’s iconic Koreatown neighborhood.

The Best Noodle Soups In Los Angeles

20 delicious bowls to get you through a blustery(ish) LA winter.

The Best Sushi In Los Angeles

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Seoul's Mingles first in Korea to make World's 50 Best Restaurants list

M ingles became the first restaurant in Korea to land on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list on Thursday, placing 44th. [THE WORLD'S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS]

Mingles became the first restaurant in Korea to land on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list on Thursday, placing 44th. 

Related Article

Mingles named the best korean restaurant by 2024 asia’s 50 best, excellence on the menu at asia's 50 best restaurants ceremony in seoul.

The ceremony's host, Olivia Freijo, introduced Mingles as a restaurant “renowned for taking unsung local ingredients and blending them with global culinary influences to create an umami-rich menu.” Owner-chef Kang Min-goo accepted the honor in person at Wynn Las Vegas. 

Kang's establishment was the only venue in Korea named during Thursday's live unveiling.

Mingles is a contemporary Korean fine dining establishment in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The venue has two Michelin stars.

The restaurant  ranked 13th on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, an Asian spinoff of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, which was announced in March.

Kang also runs the contemporary European restaurant Festa by Mingoo inside Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul in Jung District, central Seoul, and Michelin-star Korean fine dining venue Hansik Goo in central Hong Kong. 

Celebrity chef Eric Ripert hails Korean temple cuisine as solution to reduce global warming

'you can't get this in korea': k-food finds a new, upscale identity in new york city.

Korean fine dining restaurant Atomix, in New York, was named The Best Restaurant in North America 2024 during the same ceremony, climbing two spots from last year to place sixth. The gastro rankings described owner chefs Ellia and Junghyun Park as “redefining the global perception of Korean food,” making their restaurant “one of the most influential worldwide.” 

Gaggan in Bangkok, Thailand, took the title of The Best Restaurant in Asia, ranking No. 9. 

Nabbing the No.1 spot on this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants list was Disfrutar in Barcelona, Spain, headed by chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas. 

Maido in Lima was named The Best Restaurant in South America at No. 5; Tresind Studio in Dubai was named The Best Restaurant in the Middle East at No. 13; and La Colombe in Cape Town was named The Best Restaurant in Africa at No. 49. 

Mosu, a temporarily closed fine dining establishment, and traditional Korean fine dining venue Onjium in Jongno District, central Seoul, both newly entered the extended 51-100 list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants announced last week, placing 86th and 96th. 

The World's 50 Best Restaurants launched in London in 2003. Held annually since, it reportedly compiles 1,080 votes from independent experts including food journalists, chefs and traveling gastronomes.

Mingles became the first restaurant in Korea to land on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list on Thursday, placing 44th. [THE WORLD'S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS]

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]

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This Korean stunner just got added to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list

NYC has the best resto in North America (duh).

Atomix isn't just considered one of the best fine-dining restaurants in New York City — now, it's one of the best restaurants in the world, full stop.

The upscale Korean favorite, a tasting-menu spinoff of Atoboy from husband-and-wife team Junghyun ‘JP’ and Ellia Park, has been ranked number six on  the World's 50 Best Restaurant list, rising two places from its 2023 standing and making it the top-ranked resto in all of North America. (And if you've had the team's beautifully composed plates, like cherry blossom trout with Korean mustard and rhubarb root or nettle egg jjim with sugar snap peas and freshwater eel, you're surely not surprised.) 

RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in NYC right now include dazzling newcomers and familiar favorites

Joining that New York dining room on the 2024 ranking—which includes venues from 26 territories on five continents, as well as three fresh newcomers making their list debut—is fellow American standout SingleThread, hailing from Healdsburg, California. The Northern Cali destination, led by husband-and-wife slash chef-and-farmer team Kyle and Katina Connaughton, renters the list at number 46, with its wine-country sensibility, unique Japanese cuisine and farm-fresh ingredients. 

A trio of U.S. restaurants  also placed on the extended 51-100 list, including two from New York ( Le Bernardin at number 71 and Cosme at number 99) and one from Chicago, newbie Smyth at number 90. 

Barcelona's Disfrutar led by the skilled chef trio of Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, was named The World’s Best Restaurant of 2024. The experimental Mediterranean restaurant clocked in at number 2 on the 2023 list but wowed its way to the top this year with its modern techniques and beautiful ingredients.  Disfrutar is followed in the ranking by Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo at number 2 and Table by Bruno Verjus in Paris at number 3.

Check out the full 2024 rankings for this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants list below: 

• Christina Izzo

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Top 7 places you can't afford to miss in South Korea

Feb 20, 2024 • 6 min read

It may be small, but South Korea packs a punch, from supersonic cities to hiking on Jeju Island © Joel Carillet / Getty Images

Though it may be fun-size compared to its neighbors China and Russia, South Korea more than holds its own when it comes to incredible landscapes, cultural attractions and a dazzling food and nightlife scene.

In fact, South Korea's size paired with its ultra-reliable public transit system is what makes it all so accessible. Travelers can go from mountaintop to beachside or from village to megacity – and back again – in a single day. Not that we recommend rushing your journey – with so many unique places to visit, you could dedicate an entire trip to one spot. Start your travel to-do list now with our seven favorite places to visit in South Korea.

Best place for nightlife

Home to half of South Korea's population, Seoul  is also the most popular city for tourists to visit. The capital has an electric vibe at any hour of the day or night. Between the city's low-key watering holes, high-end cocktail lounges and always-fun noraebang (karaoke bars), Seoul has something to offer every late-night reveler.

Some of the newest trendsetting bars are located in Euljiro, while many longstanding favorites are in the tried-and-true nightlife neighborhoods of Gangnam , Hongdae and Itaewon . Gangnam is where the most expensive clubs are concentrated, while Hongdae is a more affordable option for budget-conscious travelers and university students. Itaewon has a reputation for drawing an international crowd.

Best place for maritime culture

Situated on the southern coast, South Korea's second city, Busan , overflows with a maritime culture as lively as it is varied. Setting the tone is Busan Port, the oldest and largest in the country (and also the sixth-busiest in the world), handling some 80% of South Korea's container cargo. The nearby Busan Modern History Museum tells the story of the port's pivotal role in South Korea's history. From there, up and down the coastline are any number of beautiful beaches, parks, observatories, villages and even a temple, Haedong Yonggungsa , one of the country's only oceanside temples.

At Jagalchi , South Korea's largest fish market, the day's catch is arranged in stall after stall of fish, eel, crabs, sea squirts, abalone, and more. Shoppers can select their seafood on the ground level and then take it up to one of the restaurants on the floors above, where the staff will expertly de-scale, de-shell, gut or filet and then cook it for you. For other scrumptious seafood bites, look for restaurants along the beach specializing in jogae gui , grilled shellfish served with a variety of dipping sauces like chogochujang (vinegar red pepper sauce), soy sauce with wasabi, and melted butter with onions.

3. Gyeongju

Best place to discover ancient treasures

As the capital of the Silla Kingdom, when the city was called Donggyeong ("eastern capital"), Gyeongju is a treasure trove of ancient relics, religious to royal. Gyeongju National Museum houses a fair number of them – including ornate jewelry, earthenware jars, prayer bells and Buddha statues – but even more artifacts lie beyond. Gyeongju is known as South Korea's museum without walls.

See the royal tombs of Tumuli-gongwon ; the oldest astrological observatory in East Asia, Cheomseongdae ; the Buddhist grotto of Seokguram ; the picturesque palace of Donggung; and the temple halls, pagodas and bridges of Bulguk-sa . Woljeonggyo, a covered wooden bridge with striking red columns, green roof beams and two end towers, might be the prettiest bridge in all of South Korea – even more so at night when it's illuminated with lights.

Best place for contemporary history

Regarded as the birthplace of Korean democracy, Gwangju was the site of the May 18 Democratic Uprising of 1980, the 10-day-long armed resistance against Chun Doo-hwan's authoritarian military regime. After the brutal repression of some 600 university student protesters, the people of Gwangju stood up and joined in rebellion, resulting in state massacre and torture. Despite the movement's suppression, it's seen as a turning point in South Korea's struggle for democracy.

To better understand this pivotal event in the country's history, go to the May 18th Memorial Park and National Cemetery . You can also take a walk down Chungjang-ro, a now-converted shopping and entertainment street that was once ground zero of the uprising.

Best place for beaches and waterfalls

South of the Korean mainland in the Yellow Sea, Jeju-do  is blessed with a balmy subtropical climate, making it the country's most popular vacation destination. The island is in such high demand that the flight between Seoul and Jeju City is the busiest air route in the world. Just one glimpse of Jeju's glittering white-sand and black-sand beaches, crystal-clear waters and volcanic topography of calderas, cones and tuffs, and it's easy to see why so many mainlanders flock to the island for a bit of R&R.

While Jeju's beaches make the perfect natural setting for lounging oceanside with a book and a cocktail, the island has plenty more to do than just relax. Aside from climbing the country's tallest mountain, Hallasan, outdoors adventure seekers can go surfing at Woljeongri or Jungmun beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving at Munseom Island, spelunking in the Geomunoreum Lava Tube System, waterfall chasing at Jeongbang Pokpo or Cheonjiyeon Pokpo , or tewoo rafting aboard a traditional Jeju boat at the Soesokkak Estuary.

6. Gangwon-do 

Best place for winter sports

The site of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Gangwon-do is home to the best ski resorts in South Korea. For skiing and snowboarding, head to top-rated Yongpyong , the country's oldest and largest ski resort, or High1 , featuring a casino and revolving restaurant. Other popular options are Phoenix Park, Vivaldi Park and Alpensia.

The frosty fun doesn't stop there – Gangwon also hosts several winter festivals, including the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival , where participants can try ice fishing, curling or sledding, and the Taebaeksan Snow Festival , which puts on enormous ice sculpture and ice fountain displays.

Best place for celebrating folk traditions

The capital of Gyeongsangbuk-do , Andong is also referred to as "the capital of Korean spirit." It is the country's Confucian culture capital, where you'll find traditional wooden masks and soju, the Korean national drink. At Andong's UNESCO-listed Hahoe Folk Village , the most famous folk village in South Korea, visitors can immerse themselves in the old Joseon-era way of life. Peek inside the village's workshops and its special choga homes, distinguished by their straw-thatched roofs, and even book an overnight stay in a guesthouse.

At the Hahoe Mask Museum , you can view the region's quintessential masks, carved into animated expressions to portray characters like aristocrats, servants and monks. Every fall at the Andong Maskdance Festival , you can see them in action in play performances. You can also tour notable Confucian academies, try traditional soju (local vodka) at the Soju Museum or a local restaurant, and sample Andong's signature soy-braised chicken dish, jjimdak .

This article was first published Aug 3, 2022 and updated Feb 20, 2024.

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A Pitch-Perfect Ode to Korean “Drivers’ Restaurants”

By Helen Rosner

A whiteboard affixed to the glass door of Kisa, a Korean restaurant that opened recently, on the corner of Allen and Houston Streets, lists approximate wait times for parties of varying sizes. On a recent evening, rolling up at the geriatric hour of 5:30 P.M. , I learned that the wait for a party of two would be around forty-five minutes; by the time I finished my meal, the estimates had grown to an hour and a half for two people and nearly three hours for a group of five or six. (At especially busy times, the board simply reads “Waitlist is closed.”) Kisa does not take reservations, only walk-ins, an uncommon approach in this era of cutthroat online machinations , though it makes perfect sense: Kisa is a diner, and a fairly bare-bones one. Operated by the duo behind the sceney NoHo restaurant C as in Charlie, the Korean-born restaurateurs David JoonWoo Yun and Steve JaeWoo Choi, and a partner, Yong Min Kim, the restaurant is an homage to South Korea’s “drivers’ restaurants” ( kisa sikdang ), no-frills establishments whose limited menus, speedy service, and affordable prices are perfectly tuned to the needs of taxi drivers. Why would an exhausted cabbie want to play the Resy game just to grab dinner between fares?

Like the restaurants on which it’s modelled, Kisa offers baekban (home-style, though it literally means “white rice”) set meals, featuring a centerpiece entrée—your choice of bulgogi, spicy pork, spicy squid, or a vegetarian option—rounded out with rice, soup, and an array of banchan . The emphasis, it seems, is on getting good food, and lots of it, out quickly, and cheaply: where C as in Charlie is sleek and stylish, the room and the food and the party-ready people in it all seemingly dying to be photographed and talked about, Kisa is utilitarian, almost austere. It has the unpretentious patina of a restaurant that’s been there forever and has no time for the fripperies of social media or best-of lists or heatmaps. There are walls colored in landlord off-white; haphazardly positioned wall art and tchotchkes; an ancient cuboid CRT TV sitting on a high shelf in a corner of the dining room, permanently flickering. Even the restaurant’s sign, a marquee running along the outside trim with messaging entirely in Korean—“Southeast Intersection Driver’s Restaurant,” facing Allen Street; “Famous Driver’s Restaurant,” along Houston”—feels like a holdover from some earlier era, when the neighborhood was a locus of Korean-immigrant culture.

Except that it never was. The most marvellous thing about Kisa is the comprehensiveness of its artifice, its truly astonishing feat of sprezzatura: despite its worn-in feel, the entire restaurant is in fact brand new. The address’s previous tenant, a mediocre Cuban restaurant, was slick and snazzy; the Lower East Side, for all its global melting-pottery, has never been a Korean enclave. If you know what to look for, you’ll find that Kisa’s narrative immersion extends beyond the restaurant’s walls: stickers adhered to nearby power boxes and lampposts advertise (again, entirely in Korean) a “Driver’s Restaurant,” with Kisa’s phone number beneath.

This level of meticulous world-building is nothing new in restaurantland. Diners are used to being transported, via the meticulous construction of space and vibe, to the faraway, the unfamiliar, the nostalgically yearned-for. Normally, though, the atmosphere is designed to dazzle, telling a story of glamour and grandeur—the sultry greenery of the Caribbean, Positano in the fifties. What’s intriguing (and, to me, incredibly fun) about Kisa is that it applies the same aesthetic rigor in the opposite direction, away from the aspirational. Generally, when a buzzy restaurant’s food is of humble origin—like, say, the Indian roadside fare served at Jazba, a glossy, newish restaurant in the East Village, or the “street food” at the fancy new Tribeca steak house Beefbar—we tend to clumsily refer to it as “elevated,” a celebration of the everyday dressed up with a hip soundtrack, fancy tableware, pricey cocktails, and oligarchic ingredients. (Beefbar’s quesadilla, which includes Wagyu and truffle, is twenty-eight dollars.) Not so at Kisa. Call it a glow-down—an unphotogenic room, clashing and utilitarian signage, low-key food and service. The result is a slightly uncanny, tremendously compelling tension. The illusion is so straight-faced, so documentary, that an unknowing diner, wandering past, could sit down for a meal and have no idea that they were on a stage set and not in some off-radar, hole-in-the-wall discovery. I kept looking around for some kind of cool-kid tell: a secret list of high-end Champagnes, or a hidden door to a V.I.P.-only basement bar.

This conceit could easily have landed wrong, slipping perhaps into a distasteful sort of blue-collar cosplay. Kisa pulls it off, however, thanks in part to the obvious affection that the restaurateurs have for the diners to whom they pay homage. The old-school fan mounted to the wall, the printed-fabric cushions tied to the seats of the chairs with bows, the faded baby photos in frames—these details feel like they could only have come from a loving hand. Perhaps more important, the food is simply terrific. The prices, while not Seoul-cheap, are modest by the standards of the high-traffic Lower East Side—each thirty-two-dollar meal includes rice and soup (tofu and greens in a gently fiery broth) and seconds on the banchan . The kitchen, overseen by the chef Simon Lee, produces meals both excellent and abundant. When the food arrives, it presents a real-life geometry problem: how to position the bowl of rice, the bowl of soup, and the tremendous circular metal plate on which the rest of your dinner is arranged, your entrée of choice in the center, with little bowls of banchan arrayed around it like petals on a flower. On one visit, sensing the need for strategic dishware placement, I tried to be helpful and moved my water glass and chopsticks to make room. My server stopped me, with the soft forbearance of a person who’s gone through this dance a thousand times before. “I know how to make it work,” he said, and quickly Tetris’d everything into a staggered layout in which somehow, barely, every dish and cup and utensil fit on the slightly-too-small table.

Helen, Help Me! E-mail your questions about dining, eating, and anything food-related, and Helen may respond in a future newsletter.

I ate at Kisa two days in a row, and I would gladly have gone back for more. Lee’s jeyuk (spicy pork) is sliced whisper-thin and grilled to a caramel sweetness; the ojingeo bokkeum (spicy squid) is charred and chewy, the heat of chilies given an edge of green thanks to fresh scallions. The vegetarian entrée, a bibimbap-style assemblage of pickled and steamed vegetables, is a bit bland, in both heat and flavor, but that mellowness is offset by joyous, colorful banchan —seven varieties, on my visits, including cabbage kimchi and sheets of roasted seaweed. There were slices of fluffy rolled omelette, wiggly strips of mung-bean jelly tossed in a seaweed purée, and sweet raw soy-sauce-cured shrimp, with mushrooms. The potato jorim , braised in sweet soy sauce, with tender hunks of beef, could serve as a meal on its own; the sotteok sotteok —skewers of alternating chewy rice cakes and cocktail weenies, brushed with gochujang—are sticky and savory and perfectly silly. There’s no dessert menu, but, after paying the bill at the end of the meal, you’ll be handed a quarter for the vintage automatic coffee machine by the door, which dispenses your hot chocolate, black-bean latte, or milky coffee into a paper cup that holds just enough to last you a half block beyond Kisa’s cabdriver fantasy—a little souvenir, hot and sweet, to bring back with you into the real world. ♦

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By Justin Chang

The 50 best new restaurants to visit in Seoul

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1 Jungsik Seoul

2 Tosokchon Samgyetang

3 Myeongdong Kyoja Main Restaurant

4 gwangjang market.

6 Hadongkwan

7 samwon garden restaurant, seoul.

10 MOSU Seoul

11 balwoo gongyang, 12 woo lae oak (uraeok), 13 tuk tuk noodle thai, 15 찰스 h charles h., 17 si. wha. dam, 18 tartine bakery seoul hannam, 20 somunnan gamjatang (pork bone soup), 21 jinmi pyeongyang naengmyeon, 22 yonggeumok, 23 l'impression, 24 namdaemun market, 25 noryangjin fisheries wholesale market, 26 maple tree house, 27 gogung myeongdong, 28 korea house, 29 manjok ohyang jokbal (city hall branch), 30 passion5, 31 plant cafe seoul (itaewon), 32 gaeseong traditional dumpling house, 33 fritz coffee company dohwa, 34 budnamujip, 35 유 유안 yu yuan, 36 born and bred, 37 myeongdong street, 38 tongin traditional market, 40 pyeongando jokbaljip, 41 hansung kalguksu, 42 hapjeongok, 43 coffee libre, 44 bonjuk myeongdong branch, 45 namdaemun market food street, 46 tartine bakery dosan, 47 woosung galbi, 48 the ninth gate, 49 dooreyoo, 50 pp seoul, top searches in seoul, popular road trips from seoul, what's the weather like in seoul.

It depends on when you visit! We've compiled data from NASA on what the weather is like in Seoul for each month of the year: see the links below for more information.

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San Antonio Report

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Cypress Cafe owners follow their American dream to new location

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Mimi Lee couldn’t sleep Thursday night even though the past two weeks had been very busy, with only she and her husband, Chang Lee, running Cypress Cafe, the restaurant they opened 24 years ago. 

Friday would be their last day in the basement of the H-E-B Cypress Tower building downtown, a place she considers “home.”

The restaurant owners received an eviction notice from H-E-B in May. The San Antonio-based grocer wanted to limit entry to the building to H-E-B employees only.

When word spread that the restaurant was closing, Lee’s customers came in droves during its final weeks. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll follow you,” she said they assured her. In exchange for their patronage and loyalty, some lucky customers also walked out the door carting a piece of restaurant decor — knickknacks Lee handed out as parting gifts.

After all, she won’t need them in the next location. 

The popular Korean restaurant is moving one mile west to the Lombrano Food Hall at 427 Lombrano St. where Lee will cook for takeout and delivery orders. There is no dining room.

Married 34 years, the Lees’ story began in their home country of South Korea where Lee said she was a “housewife” and learned to cook from her North Korean mother-in-law. 

After visiting Lee’s sister in San Antonio in 1999, the couple emigrated to the United States with their two young sons in 2000. They bought Cypress Cafe, a sandwich shop at the time. 

But because the office building was sparsely occupied, the Lees needed to attract more customers to their restaurant. 

Lee steadily began adding traditional Korean dishes like bulgogi, bibimbap, fish dumplings and chicken gangjeong to the menu, then making and selling jars of kimchi. The couple also started a delivery service. 

When H-E-B took over the building, their business grew and Lee said she’s grateful for their support. Customers also appreciated the homestyle food and location.

“It was a hidden spot for good, affordable food and a quiet place for a lunch meeting,” Teresa Talerico said.

John Peña used to eat at Cypress Cafe during his lunch break when he was a student intern at Opportunity Home San Antonio. “I didn’t know of the place … but my co-workers at the time put me on the Korean food trend,” Peña said.

At first, Lee was “shocked” to get the eviction notice only a few years ahead of when the couple planned to retire. But she said she understood H-E-B’s decision.

Her husband worried. But Lee told him, “God has another plan … geogjeonghajima,” or “don’t worry” in the Korean language.

Cypress Cafe customers suggested new locations for the restaurant. But most were too expensive to rent, Lee said. The food hall is the least costly option and it also simplifies things. 

“Over there, it’s just the kitchen,” she said, and no dining room with tables to serve. Customers order online and retrieve their food from a locker. 

The Lombrano commercial kitchen is large with a dozen other restaurants and has a walk-in freezer. Lee can focus on what she loves most: cooking. “I’m so happy,” she said. 

The H-E-B Cypress Tower location closed for good on Friday. 

The Lees plan to start serving food from the food hall in about a month, offering lunch and dinner, takeout and delivery. Lee said she will post to Instagram when the new Cypress Cafe opens for business.

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Shari Biediger has been covering business and development for the San Antonio Report since 2017. A graduate of St. Mary’s University, she has worked in the corporate and nonprofit worlds in San Antonio... More by Shari Biediger

The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City in 2024

Our critic, Pete Wells, drops his annual ranking. See what’s new, what moved and what left the list.

By Pete Wells

I should have seen it coming last year when my editors put the following headline on my attempt to name the city’s greatest places to eat: “ The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City 2023 .”

That “2023” implies doing it again in 2024. Still, when they told me that’s exactly what they wanted, my first reaction was surprise. This was followed by the realization that I had a lot of eating to do.

Twenty-two places in this edition of “The 100 Best Restaurants in NYC” are new. I’ve eaten at all 100 in the past 12 months, except for La Piraña Lechonera and the Queens Night Market, both of which are currently closed for the season. (I don’t accept free meals from restaurants I write about.)

New York is a big city, and I tried to find 100 restaurants that represent its neighborhoods, its people and the rewards it has in store for hungry, curious eaters. The list is a tour. If you take it, you’ll see all five boroughs and a wide array of cooking and serving styles.

There are hushed counters where fewer than 10 people at a time enjoy the marvels a great sushi master can conjure, and open-air stalls where jerk chicken soaks up the smoke of hardwood charcoal. And quite a few restaurants in between.

Not many people will eat at all of them. But if you read about them, I hope you will start to see New York the way I see it whenever I look at my options and ask myself where I am going to eat next.

— Pete Wells

Showing all 100 restaurants.

Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi

Le Bernardin

La Piraña Lechonera

Superiority Burger

Una Pizza Napoletana

Jeju Noodle Bar

The Four Horsemen

Trinciti Roti Shop

Jean-Georges

Casa Mono and Bar Jamón

Queens Night Market

Café Carmellini

Shion 69 Leonard Street

Gramercy Tavern

Szechuan Mountain House

Forever Jerk

Clover Hill

Gage & Tollner

Shaw-naé’s House

Yoon Haeundae Galbi

Mercado Little Spain

Great N.Y. Noodletown

Village Cafe

Falafel Tanami

Barney Greengrass

Le Crocodile

Chongqing Lao Zao

AbuQir Seafood

Birria-Landia

Hainanese Chicken House

Mark’s Off Madison

S & P Lunch

Mariscos El Submarino

Temple Canteen

Foxface Natural

Hakka Cuisine

188 Bakery Cuchifritos

Hav & Mar

Hamburger America

Laghman Express

Mapo Korean BBQ

Cka Ka Qellu

Vendors at Junction Boulevard

Shopsin’s General Store

Hyderabadi Zaiqa

Zum Stammtisch

Ewe’s Delicious Treats

Randazzo’s Clam Bar

1. tatiana by kwame onwuachi.

Randy Smith for The New York Times

Go ahead, ask Resy to ping you when a table at Tatiana becomes available. You might as well learn Icelandic while you’re at it, because you’re going to be waiting a while. Deep into its second year, after much of the hype about Mr. Onwuachi’s spirited rundown of Black cooking styles in New York (Southern, Caribbean, West African, bodega-esque) has blown over, Tatiana remains among the very few places in town where reservations are truly hard to come by. It’s quickly becoming an institution. Is it maturing, too? The truffled chopped cheese is now a satisfying and rather lush steak sandwich, a more fully realized recipe even though it may no longer quite qualify as a chopped cheese. Service can still register as under-rehearsed. Yet the people working at Tatiana, many of them newcomers in the restaurant trade, convey genuine warmth and enthusiasm, which I’ll gladly take over the chilly formalities that prevail in other restaurants that charge this much or more for dinner. Mr. Onwuachi clearly wants you to have fun at Tatiana, but I suspect he also wants you to ask why there aren’t more places like it.

When the tasting counter in Roberta’s backyard finally reopened in January, it had something to show for its unusually long pandemic break: a new chef, Victoria Blamey. She works with Carlo Mirarchi, Blanca’s owner, within the nominally Italian outlines he established in its first decade: the esoteric raw seafood plates, the unexpected vegetable courses, the spare and thrilling bowls of pasta, the remarkable cuts of meat aged on site and painstakingly cooked over Japanese charcoal. But she builds on that structure, adding the intense flavors she loves (often from fermentation, as in the yuzu sauerkraut draped over raw surf clams) and some dishes drawn from the Chilean cuisine she grew up with (like tortilla de rescoldo, a flat and nearly black bread traditionally baked in ashes). Her far-reaching and forward-looking menu is served to a soundtrack provided by an open turntable and a stack of LPs. This has to be the only restaurant in the world where you can play side B of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” while you wait for the pheasant course.

3. Le Bernardin

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

You can drop in for a fairly quick lunch, not the whole multi-installment chef’s tasting megillah, just a simple three courses for $127, in and out, no big deal, and still the cooking will make you feel as if tectonic plates were shifting under your feet. In January, what did it for me was the fluke. Boring old fluke, served all over town, where’s the thrill in that, Eric Ripert? And then one of the servers fills the white space around the fish with a sauce the color of saffron. It smells like fennel and lobster. The inspiration is bouillabaisse, right, but (tremor) why is it so briny and (rumble) rich and hey, um, is that (people run for cover …) sea urchin?

Daniel Krieger for The New York Times

At this point Manhattan must have more Korean tasting counters than kosher delis. Atomix remains the one to beat, though, the leader in finding new ingredients (locally foraged pineapple weed and maple flower are on the spring menu), grounding its experiments in tradition and putting its meals into the larger context of Korean ceramics, fabrics and even chopstick design. The concrete dining room is more chilly than cuddly, but it has little of the pretension that afflicts some other tasting counters. Its earnestness is surprisingly appealing.

5. Via Carota

Nico Schinco for The New York Times

Maybe you waited two hours for a table, maybe you lucked into a bar stool, maybe you took a reservation at one of those in-between times that are the only ones that ever seem to be offered. (At 4:15 p.m., are you having lunch or dinner?) In any case, as you hold up the broadsheet menu with its drawings of artichokes and figs, the old favorites compete for your attention: the crisp olives stuffed with pork, bruschetta under mounds of butter with a folded silvery anchovy on each mound, the slick tangle of tonnarelli studded with explosively fragrant peppercorns, the spreadably soft garlic cloves with golden sections of fried rabbit. There may not be another restaurant in town where so many dishes are indisputable classics, where, just when you think you’ve made up your mind, your eye falls on the meatballs sweetened with raisins and pine nuts …

6. La Piraña Lechonera

Lanna Apisukh for The New York Times

Each winter, the rickety, boarded-up trailer on East 152nd Street looks as if it won’t survive the next strong breeze. And each spring, Angel Jimenez unlocks the door, heats the deep fryer, powers up the salsa music, sharpens the machete and brings the city’s greatest expression of Puerto Rican eating back to life for another season. The frituras, little shrimp-filled pastelillos and shiny golden bacalaitos, are superb. So is the cold octopus salad, crunchy with diced peppers and olives. But the reason we wait all winter for La Piraña’s return is the roast pork. Rubbed with garlic and pepper, splashed with milky garlic sauce and, if you like, some vinegar-and-chile solution swirled in an empty rum bottle, it is the closest a New Yorker can get to a plate of slow-cooked lechon up in the mountains outside San Juan.

Dish picture: Karsten Moran for The New York Times. Interior picture: Lisa Corson for The New York Times.

The city hasn’t quite caught up with Semma yet. To some extent we can blame the Unapologetic Foods group, which opens restaurants faster than Guided by Voices puts out albums. But the real issue is that we haven’t seen anything like Vijay Kumar’s interpretations of South Indian food before. Mr. Kumar doesn’t just toy with the distinction between refined and rustic; he obliterates it. The North Fork snails he sautées with tomatoes and tamarind would be cooked over a campfire in the rice paddies of Tamil Nadu, yet they get along with a glass of Pouilly-Fuissé from the Mâconnais as readily as any Burgundian escargot.

8. Superiority Burger

Diner, vegetarian hangout, greenmarket evangelist, laboratory, improv collective, museum of East Village ephemera — ever since it moved to Avenue A last year, Superiority Burger has been trying out new personas, without discarding any of the old ones. The exceptional, airy focaccia that is the focus of a sizable cult is now sold by the slice, but only at the bar on Monday and Tuesday. Grab-and-go veggie burgers, “hippy poutine” and fried tofu sandwiches that turn every preconception about bean curd on its head are available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday after 11 p.m. (During this “Night Shift,” you can also eat a pie from the celebrated Chrissy’s Pizza pop-up, as long as you ordered ahead.) There is no time of day when you can’t get gelato and sorbet in freethinking flavors like saffron-labneh or tahini with fudge swirl. Waffles and other breakfast foods now materialize on weekends. Is this any way to run a hamburger stand? Yes, it is.

Evan Sung for The New York Times

At his counter on the Bowery, Tadashi Yoshida can wow you into submission before he hands you the night’s first piece of sushi. Your omakase dinner might begin with a small cocktail of caviar and bigfin reef squid in sweet and tender strands. Mochi might follow, grilled over charcoal until crisp and chewy, then wrapped around sun-dried mullet roe, briny and intense. During certain weeks of the year there could be white sacs of cod milt. Or oysters and tilefish in a rich, breathtaking soup made from hairy crab. Mr. Yoshida’s appetizer repertoire seems to be endless. By the time he fills a brazier with live charcoal to sear the mackerel sushi that is his signature, showstopping dish, your surrender is complete.

10. Torrisi

Torrisi is now turning out the most dazzling and accomplished cooking of all the Major Food Group restaurants. (The distinction used to belong to the Grill, which this year slides to No. 55 in my ranking.) Who knows what the future holds? But Rich Torrisi, standing in one corner of the open kitchen, conducting a crew that is equally adept with Vietnamese octopus as with tortellini folded as gracefully as a silk pocket square, certainly looks like a chef who has found his forever home.

Interior picture: Ben Russell for The New York Times. Dish picture: Ed Lefkowicz for The New York Times.

The food seems slightly more familiar than it did when Ignacio Mattos brought Estela to Houston Street in 2013. One reason for this is that small-plates restaurants across the country have helped themselves to its unexpected flavor harmonies and unforced visual aesthetic. Some even lifted entire recipes. Never mind the imitators, though. An Estela dish can still knock you over with originality. Where else can you get orange segments under a floss of dried shrimp and Thai chile threads? Nowhere, yet.

12. Una Pizza Napoletana

Dish picture: Evan Sung for The New York Times. Interior picture: Daniel Krieger for The New York Times.

A couple of years ago, Una Pizza was half-empty so often that its owner, Anthony Mangieri, was thinking of pulling up stakes. Then he did an about-face — or maybe we did. Now, he and his pizza are acknowledged downtown institutions. Fans buy Una Pizza-branded apparel, extra-virgin olive oil and panettone; they begin lining up half an hour before the doors open; and they’ve made reservations among the city’s most scalpable. The source of this fevered loyalty is the five standard pies and a weekly special, all of them with a fat, tender, char-speckled Hula-Hoop of dough surrounding a low valley of tomatoes or cheese or both. There’s not much else on the menu, but the fire-roasted peppers are worthwhile and the sorbetto can be stunning.

13. Ci Siamo

I know people who refused to try Ci Siamo for a while because it’s located in Nowheresville — the concrete future-scape known as Manhattan West. Then they went, and they got lost. They complained about the schlep before, during and after the next visit. But when they found themselves planning a third meal, they were forced to admit that Hillary Sterling has put Nowheresville on the map. There are other chefs in town with a wood-burning hearth and a love of rustic Italian flavors, but Ms. Sterling’s menu may have the highest percentage of dishes that are flat-out fantastic.

Liz Barclay for The New York Times

It can be depressing when restaurants are cloned, but for Jean-Georges Vongerichten there were undeniable advantages to making a branch of ABCV out of his vegetarian hide-out, Seeds & Weeds, in the Tin Building. For one, an outright copy can be better than a halfhearted imitation. ABCV’s executive chef, Neal Harden, has spent years studying interesting ways to eat grains, roots, fungi and so on. His food is so much more advanced than it is at other, similar places that eating there can be like time-traveling and discovering that the post-livestock future turned out extremely well. If ABCV can be cloned successfully, we may not need to clone meat.

The cooking of Jiangnan, including Shanghai and the cities of the southern Yangtze Delta, gets the nuanced treatment it deserves at CheLi. Instead of, say, scorching chiles or other powerful seasonings, Jiangnan uses Shaoxing wine to provide subtle, invisible emphasis in many dishes, like chilled wine-soaked crab and stir-fried loofah. Dragonwell tea scents the soft curls of sweet Longjing shrimp, which come to the table enveloped in dry-ice fog. Delicate is probably not the best word for CheLi’s mao xue wang, a majestic stew of ham, beef, shrimp, intestines and congealed duck’s blood, all bobbing under a quarter-inch or so of chile oil. But it’s not wrong, either.

16. Jeju Noodle Bar

Cole Wilson for The New York Times

Getting a table is no easy feat, but apart from that, Jeju is one of the city’s most accessible modern Korean restaurants — a crowded category that has more than its share of tasting menus with triple-digit prices. The quietly marvelous mushroom ramen, with Parmesan foam and a squeeze of lime, is a meal in itself, and costs $27. For about the same price there are seafood appetizers, such as rosy cubes of raw kinmedai and clams in a dill- and chive-scented broth, so carefully considered they could be airlifted right into a 12-course degustation, although they’d probably have to be a tenth the size.

17. The Four Horsemen

John Kernick for The New York Times

Whatever picture floats through your mind when you think of a rock star’s restaurant, it probably doesn’t resemble the Four Horsemen, owned in part by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. There is no grandstanding, no concert memorabilia and very little debauchery unless you count the four-top of wine-business insiders in the back drinking magnums of organic, wild-fermented Champagne from Georges Laval. What the restaurant does have is a low-key obsession with excellence. You see it in the attention to brewing tea and coffee, in the basket-drained ricotta made daily in kitchen, in the unfussy seasonality of Nick Curtola’s menus, and in the way the servers seem to know all about the wines but aren’t in a rush to prove it. Like everything else at this serious little restaurant, it just seems to happen naturally.

18. Trinciti Roti Shop

Sometimes when I land at JFK, I am tempted to make the 10-minute drive to Trinciti so I can refresh myself with two or three Trini chicken curry doubles and a couple of aloo pies, slit open and filled with shrimp and tamarind chutney. But the sad truth is that I’m always too tired from traveling, and there’s no place to sit at Trinciti. Plus, you need your wits about you simply to order, particularly on the weekend, when there is one line for bake and shark, another for all the other food, and a third to pay. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the only days you can get bake and shark — spicy, sweet, tangy and crunchy in about five different ways, it is the greatest fish sandwich in the five boroughs. So I treat Trinciti as a destination of its own, worth a separate trip.

19. Jean-Georges

By this point, Jean-Georges Vongerichten shouldn’t have any tricks left up his sleeve. But a six- or 10-course dinner at his urbane, understated restaurant on Columbus Circle is almost sure to deliver something you didn’t quite see coming. Wagyu tenderloin with braised endive might look like a simple steakhouse riff, but how can that sticky and intensely fruity hoisin sauce get along so well with a jus that carries the fragile perfume of bergamot? How can citrus segments, spicy Fresno chiles and shiso oil be piled on top of raw scallops without crushing their sweetness? Sean Considine, the pastry chef, makes sure the surprises start up again with dessert and continue through the final barrage of marshmallows, pâtes de fruits and chocolates.

Mam is still something of a rough draft, but it is looking more and more like a serious restaurant. True, the miniature kitchen, miniature dining room and miniature plastic furniture were part of what made Mam so charming in its early days on Forsyth Street, when Jerald and Nhung Dao Head were dishing out Hanoi-style bun dau mam tom to a small audience at what seemed to be a pop-up. The crowds grew as word got out about the housemade fried tofu, the blood sausage, the fish mint and other Vietnamese herbs, and the fermented shrimp sauce that made everything taste better. But crowds and small quarters are not made for each other. Last year, the Heads signed a lease on a space next door. Meanwhile, Mr. Head has been adding to his repertory, applying his obsessive, detail-oriented attention to, among other things, a pho bo that rivals his bun dau mam tom.

21. Casa Mono and Bar Jamón

According to the second law of thermodynamics, exciting young restaurants are doomed to become less exciting with age. At 20 years old, Casa Mono and its wine-bar annex next door, Bar Jamón, gracefully defy that law every day. Andy Nusser hasn’t lost his appreciation for the strong, elemental flavors of Spanish cuisine: smoky eggplant purée beneath fried baby squid; the paprika blast of the raw, spreadable pork sausage sobrasada, to be smeared on golden toast with waxy chunks of honeycomb. The nose-to-tail fad has come and gone, and Casa Mono sails on placidly, flying the flag of lambs’ tongues and pigs’ ears. The wine list has grown to about 600 Spanish bottles: serious Cava, aged Rioja and avant-gardists from all over.

Colin Clark for The New York Times

There are no bad seats at Kono, a dramatic, black-walled yakitori on an alley in Chinatown. The stools on either side of the grill, though, have the best view of the chef, Atsushi Kono. He never stops moving. All night he’s turning, poking, relocating and examining chicken skewers, placing one over searing heat, letting another rest above a cooler patch of charcoal. His hypervigilance produces degrees of tenderness and juiciness and crunchiness that can make you feel as if you’re eating chicken for the first time.

23. Queens Night Market

You sometimes hear that you can find every cuisine on earth somewhere in Queens. That’s not true yet, but the first place to check would be the lawn behind the New York Hall of Science, where the Queens Night Market runs every Saturday from April to October. Vendors this year will be making cassava leaf stew from Sierra Leone; Fujianese oyster fritters, popularly known as UFOs; ducana, the Antiguan mash of sweet potato and coconut wrapped in banana leaves; and a few dozen other local specialties. As usual, nothing will cost more than $6.

24. Café Carmellini

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times

At Locanda Verde, the Dutch, Lafayette and Carne Mare, Andrew Carmellini’s personal cooking style is buried so deep in the mix that you could eat at all of them and still not be able to say just what an Andrew Carmellini restaurant is. At Café Carmellini, you get to hear his voice. He’s cooking in an elaborate, technically adroit style that he hasn’t used much since his days working for Daniel Boulud. We tend to connect that style with dusty old recitations of haute cuisine, an association the silver domes and somewhat stilted service don’t quite dispel. But there’s nothing antiquated about Café Carmellini’s food. It’s fresh and sharp; he’s having fun showing off skills you don’t often see these days. Even when he blends French and Italian cuisines, not exactly an earth-shattering concept, he puts them together in his own way.

One appetizer at Sailor is a tribute to the chef Judy Rodgers, an antipasto plate of anchovies, celery slices, black olives and pieces of Parmesan that was a fixture on Ms. Rodgers’s menus at Zuni Café in San Francisco. It is as close to a manifesto as we are likely to get from April Bloomfield, the gifted and non-loquacious chef at Sailor. What it might be saying: Creativity is overrated, details are everything, the best cooking is invisible, and the best cooks know when to get out of the way. You might come to the same conclusions on your own when you eat her roasted potatoes stuck to crisp wafers of toasted cheese, her warm hunks of celery root basted with melted butter, her smoked pork shoulder collapsing in on itself and her mahogany-dark caramel sauce clinging to crisp puffs of profiteroles.

For years, Persian food aficionados dreamed of finding a respectable tahdig in the city, or even an acceptable khoresh fesenjan. Today Sofreh, in Prospect Heights, makes those and other dishes in a traditional, homestyle form, while Eyval, in Bushwick, reimagines them as modern restaurant dishes. You can eat well in both restaurants, but when the mood for black lime and saffron strikes me, I’m more likely to head for Eyval. I appreciate the way Ali Saboor uses his wood oven to pin down the smoky character of Iran’s street food. I like the way his boranis repurpose yogurt as a foil for seasonal vegetables. As for the tahdig, it’s been edited down to the crunchy, golden quarter-inch at the bottom of the pan, exactly the thing that makes tahdig worth dreaming about.

Sasha Arutyunova for The New York Times

Participles are all over the menus at King: “crushed celeriac,” “smashed borlotti beans,” “torn Taggiasca olives.” If it was your first time there, that menu would tell you the food is going to look handmade and a little messy, in an appealing way. You’d know, too, that the chefs, Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer, have noticed the way rough edges make things taste better. Much of the inspiration is southern French or northern Italian, but the, sensual allure of the food comes directly from cooks who know the value of crushing, smashing and tearing.

28. Le Coucou

Danny Ghitis for The New York Times

The slender white tapers, the soaring toques and the quenelles de brochet refer to New York’s historic Le and La restaurants more than they do to anything in the France of today. (Paris hot spots like Clamato just look like Brooklyn.) The menu brings the domed plates of haute cuisine into the modern world, paying more attention to vegetables and flavors that were unknown at Le Pavillon. The tart and slightly funky counterpoint to halibut in a satiny beurre blanc is provided by a bed of fermented daikon, and the roast venison loin comes with a side of cabbage, draped in smoked cream, that’s sort of astonishing.

29. Zaab Zaab

Portrait picture: Will Englemann. Dish picture: Adam Friedlander for The New York Times

In the two years since its sharply focused larb ped udon and other Isan dishes began drawing enthusiastic crowds to Elmhurst, Zaab Zaab has changed chefs and gone on an expansion tear. Today Zaab Zaabs can be found at the Essex Market in Manhattan; a new retail-residential development in Flushing, Queens; the James Beard Foundation’s food hall on a Hudson River pier; and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, under the name Zaab Zaab Talay. Now led by Kannika Kittipinyovath, the kitchen of the Elmhurst original may have grown stingy with fresh herbs like holy basil, which once made Zaab Zaab’s kapow so thrilling. On the other hand, there’s no shortage of dill in the hor mok, bundles of catfish steamed in banana leaves. And the cooks still throw chiles around like there’s no tomorrow.

Seven years on, with Seoul Salon, Naro and Atomix in their portfolio, the first restaurant Ellia and Junghyun Park opened is still the best introduction to their vision of modern Korean dining. The prices are higher — instead of three courses for $36, you now get four for $75 — but there are rewards. The hard surfaces in the coolly minimalist shoe box of a dining room aren’t as noisy as they were, and the cooking is more self-assured and coherent. Atomix is the place to go if you want to blast off into orbit with the Parks, but Atoboy shows there is a lot of fun to be had back on earth.

31. Houseman

They are becoming hard to find, chefs who put their energy into a single restaurant the way Ned Baldwin does at Houseman. This used to be the goal of many cooks. It still is the dream for a certain kind of diner, those of us who wander Manhattan searching for a neighborhood joint where each detail has been considered, from the day’s weather to the temperature of the butter; where the roast chicken and the burger are prepared with the same care as, say, a slow-roasted short rib served with a casual Cognac-cream pan sauce and a Yorkshire pudding the size of a kitten; where, if you go back again, your next meal won’t be worse than your last — and might be a little better.

32. Shion 69 Leonard Street

Is there another sushi master in town who gets as excited about seafood as Shion Uino? “Forty-six pound grouper from my hometown,” he says, beaming, as he carves pieces of sashimi from the side of an enormous, alabaster-colored fish. A few appetizers later, he serves a tall, meaty hunk of broiled fish under a thin, crisp shell of golden skin. “White grouper, very rare!” He is a student of the Edo style, rarely adding anything to his nigiri. The appetizers are virtually unadorned, too, like the heap of chilled snow crab salad dressed, barely, with vinegar.

33. Gramercy Tavern

Interior picture: Francesco Sapienza for The New York Times. Dish picture: An Rong Xu for The New York Times.

A night at Gramercy Tavern is about as close to a sure thing as Manhattan provides. Michael Anthony’s platings always look colorful and playful. In due time, they reveal that nothing about the way they are put together is accidental. The kitchen always seems to get more out of the Union Square Greenmarket than anyone else in town. The servers never seem to be going through the motions. And, the most bankable of New York City certainties, if you eat in the dining room, you will be sent home with something for breakfast.

The restaurant’s move down the street and around the corner finally happened last summer, and none of the calamities the regulars feared came to pass. The woodwork, the Oxford-cloth shirts, the candles burning on top of the bar and the Negronis mixed at a rate that sometimes approaches one for each customer — all unchanged. There is the rabbit roasted inside a crisp sheath of pancetta, the Cornish hen grilled to a crackle, the lasagna with its sheets of pasta stacked like pages in a book. Give or take a couple of bar seats, the relocated I Sodi is exactly the same restaurant spread over two rooms instead of one, and going there is a little like seeing your favorite movie on the big screen for the first time.

The kitchen at Daniel looks far and wide, and won’t think twice about weaving ingredients like Sea Island peas, Minnesota wild rice and burrata into the menu. Still, the cuisine of France remains the through line of almost every meal you might have in the grand colonnaded dining room. Of his generation of French chefs in the United States, none illuminates the flavors of his home country more faithfully than Daniel Boulud. And nobody works harder to help you see the light, even if it takes a whole plate of the city’s best madeleines to make the bulb click on.

36. Szechuan Mountain House

Its most famous and photographed dish is called “swing pork belly,” steamed bacon strips and bands of shaved cucumber thrown over what appears to be a tabletop laundry rack. You twirl these up with your chopsticks and drag them through a dipping sauce of minced raw garlic in a bowl of chile oil. It may not be the best thing on the menu, but it is pretty great, and it illustrates the inventiveness and subtlety that sets this restaurant apart from legions of Sichuan competitors. Of course, you can get fiercely spicy versions of mapo tofu and Chongqing chicken, too, but meals at Szechuan Mountain House become more interesting when the standards appear side by side with what the menu calls, a little optimistically, “modernist cuisine.”

37. Koloman

The New York dining scene has what diplomats call a special relationship with Europe. The painstakingly high-church Mittel-European cooking of Koloman would seem absolutely bizarre in Miami. On West 29th Street, Emiko Chisholm’s domed cheese soufflé with intense mushroom jam and Markus Glocker’s teacup of duck liver parfait under a clear jelly of trockenbeerenauslese riesling from Alois Kracher are able to slip into the ground floor of an Ace Hotel and pass for casual dining, or something like it.

Interior picture: Daniel Krieger for The New York Times. Dish picture: Colin Clark for The New York Times.

A small, awkward East Village basement that couldn’t seem to get a permanent liquor license doesn’t sound like the place you’d want to plant a world-class wine bar with a powerfully technique-driven kitchen. But this is post-pandemic Manhattan, where our real-estate compromises are even crazier than before. Joshua Pinsky is one of those cooks who pours effort into making things taste better than you think they will. Then he covers up the signs of effort so the deliciousness takes you by surprise. The exception is the devil’s food cake. You can tell from the other side of the room that it’s going to be like shooting pure dopamine into your skull.

39. Rezdôra

There is a full menu, of course. You can order, say, an antipasto and a main course, and tack on a creamy housemade gelato before you go. But those other courses aren’t what you’ll remember later on. That will be the pasta. Which might be considered a reason to skip the other stuff and dive right into the pasta tasting, five in all, each one a specialty of Emilia-Romagna, starting with tiny tortellini in a 12-hour capon broth.

40. Okdongsik

Adam Friedlander for The New York Times

This 13-seat Korean counter on East 30th Street is as good an argument for one-dish restaurants as we’ll ever get, never mind that it actually serves two dishes. One of them is mandoo. They are stuffed with minced pork, tofu and glass noodles, and they are great — no afterthought. But the dish that makes Okdongsik one of the most valuable addresses in New York dining is its dweji gomtang, a clear pork broth. Each bowl, outfitted with almost-firm grains of white rice and very thin slices of simmered pork shoulder, gestures toward transcendence, or as near as you can come to it across the street from a Best Western.

An Rong Xu for The New York Times

If you spotted Misi’s floor-to-ceiling windows while cruising down Kent Avenue on a pedal-assist Citi Bike at the maximum speed of 18 miles an hour, you might mistake it for one of the generic minimalist trattorias that seem to have come out of some gentrification starter kit. But on a closer look you can see the intelligence that organizes Misi’s hard surfaces, including the glass room where cooks roll out ravioli and spaghetti alla chitarra as if they’re on display in a big pasta aquarium. There’s intelligence at work in Missy Robbins’s menu, too. It focuses almost solely on vegetables and pasta, yet the ingredients and seasonings are so appealing you never feel that anything’s missing.

42. Frenchette

West Broadway has two major brasseries, one for each side of our appetite. The Odeon, well lighted and reliable, gives us what we know we want. Frenchette, shadowy and mysterious, gives us things we may not have started to desire yet: a peculiar Loire red that will seem casual one minute and dead serious the next, meaty cod cheeks in red bread crumbs spiked with Espelette pepper, or calf’s liver pinned to a pink sheet of prosciutto and sautéed, like saltimbocca.

43. Ernesto’s

When Basque Country entered the travel plans of people who arrange their vacations around their dinner reservations, it was because of the efforts of Mugaritz, Arzak and a handful of other experimental restaurants. Their forward-thinking cuisine is not what you eat at Ernesto’s. You eat the burly, elemental food that for generations has been passed down, essentially unchanged, by taverns and asadores where sardines are cooked over an outdoor fire. This being New York, the grill on which Ryan Bartlow cooks early spring calçots, whole Montauk fish and juicy cutlets of Ibérico pork is inside the kitchen. But the brawny spirit is the same; even things like white asparagus and a tortilla española with caviar have a rustic touch.

44. Forever Jerk

Clay Williams for The New York Times

Jerk is outdoor food at heart, and the best jerk cooks around the city work on sidewalks or in the street, sometimes with the benefit of a tent or tarp, sometimes without. The king of New York jerk cooks is Oneil Reid, who designed Forever Jerk’s oversize charcoal-fueled rigs to pump smoke into chicken and pork without scorching them. His jerk is tender and juicy, a goal that eludes many chefs. The jerk sauce achieves a taut balance of sugar, sourness and spice, and even seems to have caught some of the smoke itself. The impressively large rig on the side of Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn, also used to roast ears of corn and whole sweet potatoes, is the center of the Forever Jerk universe. The location on Guy Brewer Boulevard is an indoor restaurant, which is to say it’s not quite the same.

In the city’s Japanese restaurant scene, udon is the forgotten noodle. It isn’t as popular as ramen or as revered as soba, which can be made well only with a certain amount of practice. This may explain why the two Raku udon restaurants and their chef, Norihiro Ishizuka, aren’t more widely recognized. They do have a loyal following, though. Raku’s fans appreciate the tensile elasticity of the noodles, the sparkling lightness of the dashi, and the delicate and greaseless tempura. For such small restaurants, the menus range widely, swooping from kitsune udon, relatively easy to get here, to less commonly seen varieties like the Japanese adaptation of Chinese zhajiangmian, called ja ja.

46. Clover Hill

Many of Charlie Mitchell’s peers in the rarefied arena of multicourse, multi-hundred-dollar tastings (dinner at Clover Hill is $305 a person) think they’ve met their seasonal/local quota if they strew the petals of some wildflower picked last week around a fish dish they’ve been serving for months. In Mr. Mitchell’s kitchen, the seasons are central; this time of year, this week, is the subject of his menus. In high spring, he might lead off with a horseradish-dusted asparagus tart, the size of a communion wafer; then bring asparagus back a short while later in the company of Hokkaido scallops and puréed nettles; and surround a rich, oily piece of shark-skinned flounder with “a celebration of peas.” He’s as fond of Japanese seafood as he is of local greenery, which is a bit puzzling. But his belief in what he’s doing is total, and it comes through on every plate.

47. Aquavit

Sasha Maslov for The New York Times

Aquavit was gently pushing Swedish food and drink before anyone put the words “New Nordic cuisine” together, and has outlived several exponents of that style. Emma Bengtsson’s kitchen has kept its grip on the old ways — at lunch, the Swedish meatballs and the herring platter are still hard to equal. The rest of the menu is modern, although it avoids the avant-primitivism of Noma in favor of gentle harmonies like salmon with a saffron-tinted swirl of lobster bisque.

48. Gage & Tollner

Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

The 19th-century dining room had been out of commission for so long that when Gage & Tollner finally came back in 2021, almost everybody who came to eat was getting a first look at its marble, mahogany and converted gaslights. Now the place has a reputation again, and those who are lured by its oysters and Parker House rolls, fried chicken, crab cakes and baked alaska are likely to be return customers. That doesn’t mean heads have stopped swiveling.

49. Don Peppe

The jockey silks and other Aqueduct memorabilia on the walls don’t do much to dress up a bluntly monochromatic and overly bright dining room. If you want atmosphere, take a deep breath and smell the garlic. The kitchen must go through bales of it every day. There are no small plates at Don Peppe, where the minimum order of pasta is one pound (before cooking). So make room on the table for a sloshing platter or two of linguine with clams; shrimp Luciano with its own side of spaghetti; and anything on the menu with the name Don Peppe on it, including a salad the size of Cleveland. The food is overflowing not just with garlic, but with the aromas of Southern Italian cuisine in the deliriously intense form it took in the hands of New York City cooks.

50. Shaw-naé’s House

Show up at this Staten Island soul-food restaurant before your table is ready and you’ll be invited to sit in “the living room,” a pair of sofas facing a coffee table next to the orange glow of an electric fireplace. Will it feel like home? It may, if home is a place where a pitcher of rum punch appears at the drop of a hat, where two immersions in a deep fryer produce a whole red snapper that’s juicy down to the bone, and where everybody is eating “soul fries,” a bonkers remix of nachos in which mac and cheese, fried chicken and collard greens are piled over French fries.

51. Barbuto

It’s been 20 years since Jonathan Waxman opened Barbuto, dedicated to the idea of making it all look easy. Easy to make the one true kale salad in a world full of pretenders. Easy to blow people away by spooning salsa verde over a chicken roasted in a pizza oven. Easy to make chocolate budino that has the same relationship to regular pudding that espresso has to coffee at a Nebraska truck stop. But before you decide it must, in fact, be easy, just remember that this kind of accidentally perfect Italian food has been Mr. Waxman’s whole deal since the 1970s

52. Yoon Haeundae Galbi

Cole Saladino for The New York Times

It used to be possible to argue in a good-natured way about where to get the best Korean barbecue in K-town. Since Yoon’s short rib appeared, though, it has really been the only answer. The meat is scored in diagonal slashes, breaking down the connective tissue and carving a network of grooves for the marinade to travel in. The slashes also allow the helmet-shaped tabletop griddle to sear the meat in skinny, deeply browned ridges that are wonderful with Yoon’s ssamjang and seasoned salt

53. Foul Witch

What kind of name for an Italian restaurant is that? At least it lets Sam Pollheimer and his kitchen chase something a little more unusual than penne and tiramisù. You might want a rolled pasta called spaccatelli with braised pheasant that’s been dry-aged to a deep funk, followed by goat shoulder roasted in the wood oven with turnips. Bay leaf ice cream could be cool. But what about that black-pepper gelato with brûléed lardo?

54. Dhamaka

Exterior picture: Emon Hassan for The New York Times. Dish picture: Jenny Huang for The New York Times

A year ago, Dhamaka replaced most of its original menu with new dishes, not the move you’d expect from a place that is turning away diners every night. I’m sure some customers are still mourning their old favorites, and there were many things on the starting lineup that you simply couldn’t find anywhere else in Manhattan. But the truth is that in its first years Dhamaka focused very heavily on chile-laden meats, to the point of redundancy. It’s easier now to put together a meal that has a little rhythm and variety, and you can still arrange to finish with the Champaran meat, a mutton curry so fiery it could light a cigar.

55. The Grill

When the Grill was new, it reimagined midcentury American dining with a stylized sense of theater while managing to hit every single technical mark. The complete mess it made of an $85 chicken potpie, among other glitches at a recent meal, made last year’s top-10 ranking here impossible this year. But so much about this restaurant remains confidently excellent, starting with the cocktails and ending with the layer cakes stacked so tall they look as if they’re trying to fit in among the towers of Park Avenue.

56. Contento

If you get discouraged about the direction of the restaurant business, the fastest antidote is dinner at Contento. It can restore your faith to watch as the staff makes sincere efforts to welcome people in wheelchairs, or those who need specially designed flatware, or diners with visual impairments, or their guide dogs. But there are less obvious ways in which Contento overachieves. The wine list is longer and more interesting than most restaurants this small would attempt, and Oscar Lorenzzi’s cooking can convince you that you should be eating Peruvian food every night.

57. Mercado Little Spain

Ellen Silverman for The New York Times

One of many mysteries of José Andrés that scientists should study is the man’s ability to run New York’s most rewarding food hall when he doesn’t even live here. It is true that Mercado Little Spain is better for snacking than dining, but that’s true of almost all food halls, few of which cover as much ground. You can wander from kiosk to kiosk, grabbing a sugar-crusted xuixo for breakfast, a sack of churros with bittersweet chocolate sauce, a soft tortilla española right out of the skillet, gambas al ajillo sizzling in their fragrant oil, a glass of pretty much any kind of wine you’re in the mood for as long as it’s Spanish. The market’s newest stall, Mr. Lopez, makes the pressed sandwiches called bikinis along with chistorra dogs and smashburgers topped with jamón Ibérico.

58. Le Rock

Can anybody resist Le Rock’s snails, each in its own cup with its own hot bath of garlic butter and its own piece of toast? Or the tender leeks vinaigrette, which the servers unwrap from a cloak of dark outer leek greens as ceremoniously as if they were presenting poularde de Bresse demi-deuil? Or the baba carved tableside and then hit with a healthy glug of génèpy or Chartreuse? Well, occasionally I’ll hear from a reader who went to Le Rock with high hopes and felt ignored, lost in the shuffle, assaulted by the decibels. I’ll apologize about the service and say that in my experience the room does seem to be getting quieter. But, I tell them, any good homage to the French brasserie needs to be a little loud for verisimilitude.

59. Great N.Y. Noodletown

When the dining room is busy, which is just about always, it will be full of old Chinatown locals from Hong Kong, couples who think of Noodletown as their place, young social-media explorers ticking restaurants off their bucket list and older but equally clued-in tourists. These groups will overlap considerably with the soft-shell crab followers, the salt-and-pepper squid obsessives, the suckling pig appreciators, connoisseurs of Cantonese char siu, slurpers of wonton soup, and devotees of the restaurant’s much-imitated ginger-scallion sauce.

60. Village Cafe

The part of Brooklyn between Prospect Park and the Atlantic Ocean is a treasure land of food from the former Soviet republics. At Village Cafe, as with many other restaurants in the area, the kebabs are the backbone of the menu. But the Azerbaijani offerings extend well beyond meat on a stick: There are platters of plov, sweet with dried fruits; flatbreads stuffed with minced greens and fresh herbs; the daunting hash of livers, kidneys, hearts and testicles known as djiz-biz; and fat belts of pasta dressed with chopped lamb cooked in its own fat, a noodle dish that seems to stand exactly halfway between China and Italy.

Of all the restaurants washed up on the city’s shores by the first wave of enthusiasm over New Nordic cooking, the most original, thoughtful and lasting has been Aska. Fredrik Berselius, raised in Sweden, built his own kitchen vocabulary by combining Scandinavian flavors with ingredients farmed or foraged around New York. His intricate, gentle tasting menus show a poet’s feel for fleeting moments and the beauty lurking in nature. One long-running appetizer is a frond of fried bladderwrack daubed with drops of mussel emulsion that look like the plant’s natural balloon structures. A wavy cup assembled from shaved walnuts makes an edible shell for a walnut tart. Even his caviar dishes seem to have been discovered somewhere in Middle-earth.

62. Txikito

When Txikito struck out for Basque Country in 2008, a lot of New Yorkers were still fuzzy on the whole concept of Spanish regional cuisines. Instead of starting out slowly with an introductory Gildas for Dummies course, Alex Raij and Eder Montero immediately complicated the picture, inviting ingredients from China, Japan and beyond into the kitchen. Is there another Basque restaurant in the country where the Russian potato salad is augmented with bonito flakes and the boquerones are laid out over spearlike leaves of rau ram?

One downside of being widely imitated is that, years later, your original ideas can read like copies. This has been Craft’s fate, and if you are eating there for the first time, you probably won’t be bowled over by the dangling filament bulbs, the Chilewich place mats, and the copper pans in which meats and fish are carried to the table. But nobody has figured out how to mimic Craft’s ability to get maximal flavor with minimal means. The been-there-done-that feeling ends when you start eating.

It’s hard to know what to make of a restaurant that gets rid of its single best feature, as Lodi did by closing the bakery that produced destination-quality breads and a flauto al cioccolato so precisely made that its lamination might have been designed by an architect. True, Lodi gained a few tables. Now it is easier to stroll in for elegant cafe dishes like bison tartare and chestnut gnocchi. And yes, drinking a spritz or a sbagliato while sitting on or looking out at Rockefeller Plaza produces a distinctly pleasurable shiver of the kind that only the world’s great cities can provide. But we’re still going to need some time to forget about that flauto.

65. Falafel Tanami

The strange concrete bunker askew from the street grid looks even stranger now that a simple wooden porch has been hammered together. Yet this unprepossessing structure is a titan in Midwood’s highly competitive pita-sandwich scene. There is no shawarma here as at Olympic Pita, no schnitzel as at Corner Street Food. This leaves Tanami free to concentrate on its marvelous pita and its falafel, which have brittle fried shells protecting a hot interior that is bright green with herbs. The sheer number of bins of chopped vegetables and salads can induce panic attacks, and many customers just ask for everything. A screaming yellow streak of amba sauce is probably mandatory.

66. Barney Greengrass

Circle framed picture: Karsten Moran for The New York Times. Rectangle framed picture: Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

The place is a cyclone of smoked-fish commerce on weekends and before any major Jewish holiday. On certain other days, a diner at Barney Greengrass can achieve a state close to serenity. There are eternal questions to contemplate: Sour cream or apple sauce? Nova or sturgeon? Toasted or untoasted? There are minor rituals to be observed — the most sacred of all is laughing at the servers’ jokes. Staring at the faded antebellum scenes of the French Quarter on the wallpaper can lead to the sensation that time has stopped moving forward. By your third cup of coffee and second order of latkes, it should be clear that you are sitting at the spiritual center of the Upper West Side.

67. Le Crocodile

Gage & Tollner is where Brooklyn goes to observe birthdays and anniversaries. Le Crocodile is where it celebrates smaller milestones, like living to the end of another day when the whole damned world didn’t fly to pieces. The brasserie menu is full of standards lifted above the routine by little niceties of craft and imagination, with a few unexpectedly flourishes like a truly good vegetarian pâté and a Waldorf salad liberated from mayonnaise at last.

68. Chongqing Lao Zao

Lanna Apisukh

The many, many people loyal to this Flushing restaurant are happy to wait two hours and sometimes more for Sichuan hot pots in the fiery and numbing style of Chongqing. The spicy broth is ferociously hot; even the mild has been known to draw tears from brave women and men.

69. AbuQir Seafood

Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

Meals at AbuQir, a homage to the seafood stalls on the Mediterranean coast outside Alexandria, begin with a consultation over the whole fish and other seafood stretched out on ice in the back. You should probably walk in with a plan. But if the man who takes your order tells you the grilled scallops are excellent today, or if you were thinking baked porgy and he recommends the blackened branzino, you should throw your plan out the window. A sloshy, garlicky plate of baba ghanouj is a fine thing to dip bread into while your fish cooks; in fact, anything with eggplant is a good idea.

70. Birria-Landia

Jenny Huang for The New York Times

New York has never been a food-truck town. But the meteoric ascent of the Birria-Landia fleet, which now cruises the boulevards of the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, points to a better and more delicious future. It comes as a relief to find that the beef is still as tender and deeply flavored as a fancy French chef’s short ribs, that the consomé hasn’t been watered down, and that the rich perfume of spices can still turn heads half a block away.

71. Shukette

Your first impulse as you take in Ayesha Nurdjaja’s menu, which bounds from dips to four or more kinds of bread straight from the oven, from salads and pickles to the table-dominating Fish in a Cage, may be to ask for one of everything. Reveling in the brighter, fresher side of the Levantine canon, Shukette takes advantage of the energizing effects of sumac, citrus, yogurt and green herbs.

72. Hainanese Chicken House

The poached chicken in the dish called Hainanese chicken rice tends to confuse people trying it for the first time. The ideal texture, which can strike novices as flabby and undercooked, is more important than the flavor, which is supposed to be mild verging on dull. The expectation is that the customer will go to town with the house sauces, which should not be dull at all, and that the chicken flavor that seems to be missing from the chicken itself will be supplied by the rice. The success of the dish, in other words, depends on a series of bank shots, which is one reason it’s exciting to find it prepared as well as it is at Hainan Chicken House. For all that, this is not a one-dish specialist but one of the most impressive Malaysian restaurants New York has seen in years. The name may sell the kitchen short.

73. Mark’s Off Madison

Portrait picture: Joshua Bright for The New York Times. Dish picture: Daniel Krieger for The New York Times.

Anybody who believes a restaurant needs to tell a simple, easily understood story clearly hasn’t been to Mark’s Off Madison. The only concept plausibly tying together the Italian American favorites and Jewish classics and diner staples on Mark Strausman’s menu is that Mr. Strausman knows a good recipe for all of them. You can eat matzo ball soup, or a tuna melt, or a block of lasagna. You can’t eat a story.

A mural in its original Bay Ridge site shows Palestinian children behind bars under the Aqsa Mosque, between the phrases “down with the occupation” and “live in peace.” As Ayat has multiplied locations, it has kept up its paired messages of peace and support for the people of Palestine. For some New Yorkers, Ayat’s family-dinner mainstays, like the lamb stew mansaf, soured with dried yogurt, and the carefully layered chicken and vegetable dish called maklouba, will open new windows into Palestinian culture. For others, obviously, they will taste like home.

75. Dirt Candy

The great thing about tasting menus is that they act as a blank page that a chef can write anything on. The tragedy is how many chefs have nothing to say. Amanda Cohen does, though. Her five-course meals are like a night of one-act plays, or even comedy sketches, on the theme of vegetables. The cooks work on each dish until it’s a self-contained routine. Crunchy Buffalo collard leaves are sprinkled with powdered hot sauce and served with celery and blue cheese dip, and a savory croissant with a mushroom mousse filling comes with a glass of cappuccino that turns out to be mushroom soup. It’s dinner disguised as a continental breakfast.

76. Llama Inn

Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

It may be easier to see Erik Ramirez’s creative streak at his other restaurant, Llama San in Greenwich Village, where he free-associates on the ways Japanese and Peruvian food do, or potentially might, intersect. At Llama Inn he mostly sticks with translating traditional dishes — beef-heart anticuchos, scallop ceviche — into modern restaurant terms. But he works well when he’s staying within the lines, and there’s no question that the space in Brooklyn is roomier and more comfortable, despite being a truncated triangle under the B.Q.E.

77. Oiji Mi

Oiji Mi summons the spirit of New York’s midcentury supper clubs more effectively than places where that’s the explicit aim, like Swoony’s or Monkey Bar. It has leather seats, velvet curtains, deeply curved banquettes and a swooping marble bar. All that’s missing is a cigarette girl. This is not exactly the expected setting for a modern Korean restaurant, but it helps bring out the plush and culture-spanning comforts of Brian Kim’s five-course, $145 menus.

78. S & P Lunch

I am not going to tell you that S & P’s tuna melt is one of the greatest sandwiches of all time, or that it will change your life, or that it is one of the 25 or 50 or 1,000 foods you have to eat before you die. But one day you might find that you must have a tuna melt and that nothing else will do. On that day, I hope you remember to go to S & P, where you will be served a version made with terrific respect, from creamy and soft tuna salad on substantial rye bread. It will be better than you hoped, without deviating in any particular from what you were picturing. And this is true of almost more things on S & P’s menu that you can count, including the Reuben, the meatloaf sandwich, the chopped liver, the pancakes and the egg and cheese on a roll with Taylor ham.

79. Mariscos El Submarino

Last year, Alonso Guzman and Amy Hernandez followed the success of Mariscos El Submarino by opening a second restaurant, Mystica, in Greenpoint. It shows growth and ambition, with its careful plating and long-cooked pork shanks, and suggests these two restaurateurs could be around a while. But Mariscos El Submarino is still their shining contribution to the city, our most detailed and comprehensive tour of Sinaloa-style raw seafood. The aguachile negro, dark with soy sauce and undeniably spicy, has become something of a cult object, but the other aguachiles deliver jolts of their own, and there are equally good arguments for the ceviches, tostadas and tomato-red seafood cocktails in tall plastic cups.

80. Temple Canteen

Circle framed picture: Hilary Swift for The New York Times. Rectangle framed picture: Christopher Lee for The New York Times.

If we wanted to quibble about the South Indian cafeteria in the basement of a temple to the Hindu god Ganesha, we might say that having to listen as order numbers are called out endlessly can gnaw at the nerves. We might also ask whether the vegetable sambar isn’t a little watery. But then we’d remember that nothing on the menu costs more than $10, that the coconut chutney does seem to get better the more of it you eat and that the variety of dosas is sort of stunning, from chewy rava dosas to ice cream cone-shaped ghee roast dosas to paper dosas so long they sprawl from one end of a cafeteria tray to the other.

81. Foxface Natural

You have probably heard that Foxface Natural is a narrow, loud restaurant on Avenue A where deer heart or elk chops or kangaroo might be on the menu on any given night. But Foxface is not simply a purveyor of oddball species; the restaurant’s defining feature may be its pursuit of ingredients that Sysco doesn’t carry. So when the chef, David Santos, cooks octopus Bolognese, the octopus will have been trapped in a clay pot in a sustainable Spanish fishery. When he roasts a turnip, it will be the elusive Gilfeather turnip, which for decades was cultivated exclusively by a secretive Vermont farmer who refused to share its history or its seeds with anyone.

Maybe you got a little confused the last time you tried to remember the difference between gibanica and zeljanica. Perhaps you hesitated when somebody asked whether you prefer sopska or srpska. Or, at a recent wine tasting, you had trouble distinguishing between the Serbian tamjanika and the Slovenian malvazija. If you have experienced these or similar symptoms, it could be an indication that you are overdue for a meal at Kafana, Alphabet City’s rustic, majestic Serbian tavern.

83. M. Wells

Few restaurants take advantage of holidays and occasions as avidly as M. Wells. In the past few months it has served rabbit mole for Easter brunch, whipped up three kinds of fondue for a party in honor of Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day, and put on a Thanksgiving dinner that started with braised turkey legs and pig trotters, though of course it didn’t end there. Certainly it’s the only restaurant in Queens that celebrates the start of maple sap season by staging a hockey game on the dining room floor. If you happen to go on a day when nothing in particular is happening, you’ll still find dishes that seem to have been conceived for a feast like mortadella mille-feuille or half of a roasted piglet head on a plate.

84. Hakka Cuisine

It’s been a while since the arrival of a new dish in Chinatown caused as big as stir as the Hakka blossom chicken at Hakka Cuisine. It looks like a chicken that was flattened in some enormous panini press and then cut into squares. Those pieces have golden chicken skin on the top and bottom, but when you pop one in your mouth you discover that the soft and springy filling is made of taro and shrimp paste. Where did the rest of the chicken go? You can look for the solution to this mystery as you work your way through the other fine and elaborate Hakka specialties and Cantonese banquet dishes.

85. Wildair

The past year was a time of retrenchment for Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra, who closed Contra, their statement restaurant, along with Peoples, their small wine bar in the food hall below Essex Market. Wildair, once a casual extension of Contra, has become their chief laboratory for ideas like an éclair with the flavors of a pissaladière inside and a series of Saturday collaborations called Donuts with Friends (exactly what it sounds like). Wildair was a little well-behaved early in life, but now it’s living up to its name.

86. 188 Bakery Cuchifritos

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Few sights in the Bronx, or anywhere else for that matter, can stir the gears of appetite quite like the exterior of 188 Cuchifritos. There is a smiling pig in a bow tie in the sign above the door. A partial list of Dominican and Puerto Rican specialties spelled out in half a dozen different colors of neon. In one window, trays stacked with fried pork skin, chicken and other fritters being kept warm by the heat of bare, greasy lightbulbs. There are approximately 1,000 other things on the menu, but this gives you some idea what you are in for.

87. Hav & Mar

Marcus Samuelsson’s latest project is not like the other seafood restaurants. There are Black mermaids everywhere, and the flavors can come from just about anywhere, with Ethiopia making especially frequent contributions. That’s Berbere spice blend in the cured salmon; the fluffy young fermented cheese ayib is in the beet salad, and injera crisps are provided with the tuna tartare. The combinations never feel superficial or confused, and the servers always seem as if they expect a party to break out at any moment.

88. Eulalie

Chip Smith and Tina Vaughn are immune to trends. He cooks in the regional-American style that flourished at the end of the last century. Nobody’s nostalgic for it yet, but Mr. Smith can make you wonder why not; he cooks it sensitively, and with conviction. Meanwhile Ms. Vaughn runs the dining room with the authority and familiarity only a proprietor can command. Her methods, which involve learning the names and preferences of all her customers, are long out of style, and nobody has written customer-database software that comes close to doing what she does with a pen, a hard-bound reservation book and her memory.

89. Hamburger America

Will George Motz, the hamburger historian and documentarian, want to spend the rest of his life behind a hot griddle, pressing on ground meat with a spatula until he judges the time is right to cover it with a yellow blanket of American cheese? It’s hard to imagine, but he does seem to be enjoying himself. For sure everybody else in the place is having a good time eating subtly but distinctly different burgers made with good beef and historical pedigree. It’s the geeked-out burger stand New York didn’t know it needed.

90. Laghman Express

The menu is not large and mostly focused on different ways of putting together lamb, onions, bell peppers, cumin and noodles made in open view of the dining room. Some noodles are strands so long that you will search and search for a beginning or an end, others are as wide as seatbelts, and the knife-cut pearl noodles are irregular stubs resembling diamonds, squares, pencil erasers — anything, it seems, except pearls. They’re all wonderfully tense and springy and fun to chew. The dark chile-garlic oil is especially good with noodles; it’s probably good with anything.

91. Mapo Korean BBQ

Dish picture: Evan Sung for The New York Times. Exterior picture: Karsten Moran for The New York Times.

This longtime institution across from the Murray Hill station on the Long Island Rail Road is the Peter Luger of Queens: gruff, brisk, straightforward and so thick with the aroma of sizzling beef that the air is almost solid. Pork and even seafood are available, but almost everybody orders galbi, which is grilled over tabletop baskets of charcoal by efficient women wielding sharp scissors.

92. Cka Ka Qellu

The city used to be full of small, amber-lighted, nostalgic restaurants where servers wore Old World costumes, melancholy folk tunes played in the background and everything on the menu evoked the country the owners had left behind. Cka Ka Qellu uses this method to summon Albania. Both locations look like roadside inns from another century, and after putting away platters of veal sausages, creamy dips, stewed beans, soft polenta and Albanian tres leches cake, you may be disappointed to find out there are no featherbeds and fireplaces waiting upstairs.

93. Vendors at Junction Boulevard

Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times

After the city evicted all but a small fraction of the Mexican and Ecuadorean vendors from Corona Plaza, the Junction Boulevard stop took its place as the most rewarding street-food destination under the No. 7 train. At the foot of a staircase descending from the tracks, Tacos El Borrego is an impressively well-equipped stand where the most compelling choice is the tacos al pastor, hacked from a spinning trompo the size of a young bluefin tuna. Just off the intersection is Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile, where eight tortillas at a time are softened in hot lard and splashed with red and green salsa, then stacked up like pancakes. There are vendors ladling out atole and cafe de olla, cooks pressing fresh masa, flashing and whirring toys for sale for a couple of dollars, and on the other side of Roosevelt, a Bitcoin A.T.M.

94. Shopsin’s General Store

There are a number of restaurants across Essex Street from the I.C.P. but Shopsin’s is the only one that points this out on its website with the helpful footnote “Stands for International Center of Photography (Not Insane Clown Posse).” This is a joke that happens to be true, which you could say about most of Shopsin’s menu. The macaroni-and-cheese pancakes are famous by now, as are the somewhat Mexican-ish eggs called Blisters on My Sisters. Then we come to the Do-Rag pancake, the Bastard and the Wiggly Pete, and this is just on the first of the menu’s two single-spaced pages. Every dish, no matter how weird it sounds, will turn out to be good, at a minimum, and a surprisingly large percentage of the goofiest ones have a stealthy sort of culinary intelligence. Shopsin’s takes nothing seriously and takes everything seriously, a philosophy to contemplate while slowly drinking a Nutella Fluff malted milkshake.

95. Hyderabadi Zaiqa

Here we have an anomaly: a new, tiny, fearless, overachieving Indian restaurant that doesn’t belong to the Unapologetic Foods group. Biryani is the pride of Hyderabadi cuisine and the point of Hyderabadi Zaiqa. More than a dozen are available, from a staunchly traditional and ferociously spiced dum biryani augmented with slow-roasted goat to the Chicken 65 biryani, featuring a spicy, lava-red chicken invented several years ago at a hotel in Chennai. There are curries as well, terrific fried okra and a fish dish that is a close cousin of Chicken 65. How all this is produced is a bit of a mystery. The kitchen can’t be much bigger than a rowboat, and the dining room gets crowded if more than five people decide to eat there at the same time.

96. Caleta 111

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Expanding into the space next door transformed Caleta 111 from a narrow ceviche counter to a full-fledged and cheerful Peruvian restaurant. Now you can sit at a table set inside a long narrow boat, nursing a plum-colored chicha morada and looking through the picture window into the kitchen, overseen by Luis Caballero. He makes Chinese Peruvian classics like lomo saltado and seafood fried rice; causas that turn mashed potatoes into an art form; and choritos a la chalaca, chilled mussels dressed with a relish of fresh peppers and tomatoes. But above all, Mr. Caballero is a master of the citric, spicy, cloudy, ginger-spiked liquid that is the base of all his ceviches. One sip of his leche de tigre and you know why you are here, even if you’re not quite sure why you’re sitting in a boat.

97. Zum Stammtisch

Queens lost another remnant of its German legacy in February when Morscher’s Pork Store in Ridgewood closed. You’d never know that the old ways are fading, though, when you’re inside the timbered Bavarian confines of Zum Stammtisch in Glendale. Pilsner is still poured into steins, the giant fresh pretzel comes with two kinds of mustard, and beef goulash over spaetzle is considered an appetizer. There is nothing wrong with the schnitzel, but why resist the wursts? They’re made in the restaurant’s own smokehouse.

98. Lakruwana

Circle framed picture: Dave Sanders for The New York Times. Rectangle framed picture: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times.

The cooking of Sri Lanka that emerges from Lakruwana’s kitchen is tropical, lush, saturated with coconut and chiles. But dinner or lunch there is not just a meal. It’s a cultural immersion. Over the years the Wijesinghe family, who own the restaurant and usually stand guard in the dining room, have filled the dining room with Buddha statues, carved furniture, clay pots, weapons and shields, and about a hundred other objects shipped from Sri Lanka.

99. Ewe’s Delicious Treats

The deeper I get into Ewe’s repertory of Nigerian dishes, the more impressed I am. The egusi and ogbono stews are deeply flavored and complex, and the fish pepper soup has a strong aromatic backbone that is the sign of a careful hunt for ingredients. Chile heat is an accent, but it’s not used timidly, and don’t go looking for relief in the jollof rice, which is an event in itself. The restaurant recently got its beer and wine license, and a bottle from the refrigerator can make a useful companion when the Scotch bonnets make their presence felt.

100. Randazzo’s Clam Bar

There is chowder to start, along with freshly shucked clams and oysters. You can get lobster fra diavolo or linguine with clam sauce, red or white, and a couple dozen other classics of Italian American seafood cookery. But Randazzo’s was put on this earth to serve fried calamari. If you don’t understand how such a pedestrian dish could be the organizing principle of an entire restaurant, you probably haven’t tasted the calamari at Randazzo’s, or dipped it into the hot tomato sauce that seems to have been bubbling on the back of the stove all day, or wondered how the hunk of friselle, a kind of crouton buried under the pile of squid, somehow manages to be dry and wet at the same time.

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