I don’t know how to say this without sounding extremely basic but I’m truly passionate about authentic restaurants. The reason is straightforward - I love fragrant food, always have. Coriander. Kkaennip (I ate this daily for months straight when I first came to Korea). Proper cheese. Cumin. And it doesn’t matter which cuisine it is, fragrance is the first thing that goes out of the window upon localization. Nothing left but to scour the earth for authentic restaurants to get my kick. Here’s the ones I’ve found in my decade in Korea. Zero money or services were received for writing about them blah blah you know the drill. I can barely communicate with the people running most of them anyway. Which is a good sign.

I beg you to share if you have any good additions to this list :)

Chinese

Prob my favourite cuisine, have been to a few dozen places in Korea with fully Chinese staff 😅

  • 샹샤오미중식당 - My #1 for Chinese, espec. Hunanese, but anything on their menu absolutely slaps. Just good cooks. Love their mapo tofu, different from other places in that it’s very heavy on “ma” and not really “la” at all. Zero Korean speakers. Area has lots of Chinese students, the target clientele.
  • 미선미식성 - Solid pick, wife’s favourite. Especially recommend their 카오위 (Kao yu, Szechuan style fish), best I’ve had anywhere including restaurants that only offer that dish. Also good for bigger groups, lots of seating, wide variety including lots of dishes for those not into spice, good for beginners. One Korean speaker but shes often not there, so expect 0.
  • 란주천면관 - Easily our favourite from the 건대 area. Really good, popular at dinner time, not for those who don’t like spicy. Closing days can be a bit random but there’s a dozen other Chinese places nearby as alternatives. Went here way back with colleagues, they can vouch. IIRC enough Korean skills to deal with basic restaurant stuff.

Vietnamese

  • 비엣포 - Dont be fooled by the generic name that makes you think it’s just another boring localized joint. Walking past it, I think I saw an A4 with some super broken Korean or some other indicator that told me, this gon be good. And it was! Can’t vouch for pho as I don’t eat it, but everything else crushes Korean “Vietnamese”. Slightly better Korean skills than the Chinese places. I keep going back here. Just check the menu and you’ll see how it’s different.
  • KAN한베식 먹어보자 - Most deranged restaurant name I’ve seen in a decade here, they were on some good stuff when they made it. The food’s also good stuff. Normally having some pretend Korean dishes on their menu would be a huge red flag, but here it makes no difference. Authentic to the degree that interior and service level can also be somewhat.. authentic.

Thai

  • 낫샤바셉 - Yes it’s in Daegu. Honestly it’s worth going to Daegu for. Going for Thai elsewhere in Korea just makes us miss this. Trying one of the soups (the Tom Yam Gung or Tom Ka Kai) is mandatory. The latter being 10,000 won is absurd. I tell my wife every other week, we need to franchise this into 성수, double-triple the prices, and there’ll be a 1km line. Whenever we go to Daegu, it’s not even a question where we’ll eat, it’s there. (And if you’re staying the night, we still haven’t found a cocktailbar in Seoul that lives up to 라비다로카)

Ramen

  • 우마이도 건대점 - Went to Fukuoka in 2016. Went to a tiny neighborhood ramen shop with a menu consisting of 2 lines of which 1 was “more noodles”. Loved it. Came back to Korea, didn’t like any of the ramen (espec. tonkotsu despite what I had in Fukuoka being that). Gave up on ramen here. Went to above place. Almost as good as Fukuoka. Appalled that they don’t have a location in every neighborhood. I’m genuinely baffled because it’s a chain (albeit with only 3 stores) yet IMHO it’s 10x closer to the Fukuoka hole-in-the-wall ramen than what I’ve had at any of the more “sophisticated” ramen bars here. This one could just be me though.

Tacos

  • 꿰레 - It’s no coincidence you’re likely to meet a group of Spanish speakers when you visit, despite their rarity in Seoul. Small, busy, dark one-man taqueria. Order a bunch of tacos and some tequila shots. Absolute bliss. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the only true taqueria in Korea (please share if I’m wrong :>). You may have to wait if you come at peak time. A gem. Run by a passionate Korean. Has Taco Tuesdays! Can’t necessarily vouch for non-taco menu items but they don’t matter. If anyone would read this blog I wouldn’t be sharing this place lest it becomes too popular.