Eat
Plan the trip around the food.
Korea eats seriously and late: barbecue houses with the grill in the table, market alleys where the stall is the kitchen, royal court dishes and temple food, fried chicken delivered to a picnic blanket on the riverbank. Start with the food events, then learn the formats worth travelling for.
The formats worth knowing
Korean barbecue. The defining group meal: samgyeopsal pork belly and galbi beef grilled at the table, wrapped in lettuce with garlic, ssamjang and kimchi, the banchan side dishes refilled as fast as they empty. Every district has its street of barbecue houses; follow the queues of office workers.
The markets. Gwangjang Market in Jongno is the classic: bindaetteok mung bean pancakes fried on iron plates, mayak gimbap, yukhoe and knife-cut noodles, eaten shoulder to shoulder at the counters. Mangwon and the neighbourhood markets do the same job with fewer visitors.
Fried chicken and beer. Chimaek, chicken and beer, is a national institution: twice-fried chicken plain or in yangnyeom sauce, delivered anywhere, including the Hangang parks, where ordering chicken to a picnic spot is a standard Seoul evening.
Royal and temple food. At the formal end, hansik fine dining rebuilds royal court cuisine course by course, and temple food, vegan by Buddhist rule, is served at restaurants near the temples and opposite Jogyesa in Jongno.
Street food. Tteokbokki in spicy sauce, hotteok pancakes hot off the iron, fish cake skewers in broth, and the pojangmacha tent stalls that set up at nightfall: Korea's street food runs late and cheap.
The districts worth the trip
Jongno: Gwangjang Market and the old restaurants around the palaces. Hongdae and Yeonnam: the young city's cafes, dessert shops and small restaurants. Gangnam: the polished dining rooms and the barbecue institutions south of the river. Busan: Jagalchi fish market, the seafood restaurants of Gwangalli and Haeundae, and milmyeon wheat noodles, the local signature. Jeonju, an easy KTX trip: the bibimbap's hometown, where the stone bowl version is the standard.