Seoul's high-end address — labels, clinics, the fine dining
Where Korea keeps its high end: global fashion houses, the serious beauty clinics, the fine-dining rooms — the front row for K-fashion and K-beauty if that's what you came for. The glossiest run is around Dosan Park, flagship after flagship with the cafes and tables to match. Most of the country's name-chef restaurants sit within a few blocks of here.
No photos, no star ratings — just what I'd tell a friend. I live in Seoul and these are the places I actually go, 57 of them here.
Open it in the appTableware a ceramist, a designer and a chef make together, over a basement and two floors.
Everyday craft, four floors above Soil Baker: a pretty place, and a lot of pretty things in it.
One of Seoul's benchmark croissants, and the coffee holds its end up too.
Fifty years of charcoal galbi, and Gangnam grew up around it. The rebuild is airy and it works.
Sixth floor, shoes off at the door, room for about three groups — not what Gangnam usually does.
Bogwang's shaved pork belly, this side of the river, and it runs deep into the night.
Thirty years of Hamheung naengmyeon and galbi-jjim; where I take foreign friends without thinking.
The Chowon that never shuts. Same hanwoo jumulleok, whatever hour you turn up.
Forty years of hanwoo shabu in a clean, plain broth — pricey, and always full anyway.
Daepae-samgyeopsal (shaved pork belly) on a hot stone plate, with a cabbage salad to wrap it.
Maybe the most loved table in Gangnam. Don't stop at the kalguksu, though.
Haven't been. A hanwoo house that butchers and ages its own, sourced out of Majang-dong.
Haven't been, and there's barely anything written about it, so I'm just curious.
Home-style baekban the neighborhood eats at, and the celebrities quietly do too.
Whatever's in season, and a traditional-liquor list built to drink alongside it.
Haven't made it in yet. A Michelin-listed northern Italian doing fresh pasta, right above Dexter.
A snug, private French bistro and wine bar, and the food is as pretty as it tastes. A date place.
High-end tableware and craft, from a name potter to a young one, chosen by one eye.
Top-grade hanwoo around the clock, and it only gets better after midnight.
The beef house a lot of people call the one, and the tenderloin is why.
Temple food from the chef with a Michelin star at Seventh Door; where I take vegetarian friends.
Thirty years of hanwoo at any hour, and at dawn it fills with people finishing a long night.
Leesar's Cheongdam espresso bar, down a backstreet and full every time regardless.
Herzog & de Meuron's first Korean building: worth the trip for itself, and the shows deliver.
A Korean house better known abroad than at home: Korean heritage cut with Paris couture.
Haven't been yet. A basement wine bar cooking French on Korean produce, newly in the Michelin Guide.
Haven't been. Conflict's Cheongdam branch, running the same forty-odd coffees and the omakase.
Korea's three-star: traditional Korean cooking crossed with whatever technique serves it.
Still haven't made it in. A two-star Korean table on the fourth floor, and yes, there's a dress code.
Korea's first luxury select shop, and this is the far end of what that means.
Samsung's fashion arm, editing 150-odd Korean and foreign labels together, with a pop-up always on.
The Cheongdam branch of the Hannam thin-sliced-pork institution, and it adds stews the original skips.
Songtan-style budae-jjigae (army stew) with bacon they cure themselves, at any hour. I'm there a lot.
Second-best bar in Asia, built on zero waste: what gets thrown away becomes the drink.
Haven't been, but it's a calm ground-floor bar where the cocktails are all built on tea.
Haven't been, but it's #13 on Asia's 50 Best Bars now; entry's through a flower shop, down the stairs.
Haven't been — a regular on Asia's 50 Best Bars; entry's pulling a book off the shelf.
Haven't been, but it's a scent-led cocktail bar, named for a perfumer's flower.
What I say first when a foreign friend asks about Apgujeong; eat through the noodles, vegan bowl and all.
Where I send anyone who says they like streetwear; three floors, and it does tax refunds.
Haven't been — a 24-hour hanwoo butcher-counter where you pick the 1++ cut and they grill it.
Chef ran Benu's kitchen in San Francisco; the Michelin meal that stayed with me most this year.
Ask chefs where they've eaten best lately; this fermentation-driven room comes up, Michelin-starred now.
Haven't made it in yet — a new dessert cafe built around a latte-art world champion and Amazon cacao.
The bagels everyone queues in Anguk for, and here you barely queue at all.
Haven't made it in yet, but there's no sign; you take a narrow basement stair and ring the bell.
Korean mushroom shabu done right: a spicy maeuntang broth you keep feeding till it becomes lunch.
Mousse cakes made to look exactly like the fruit, and gone two hours after opening.
Charcoal-grilled pork specialty cuts in an old house off Dosan Park. God, this is good.
Sundubu and a dolsot straight off the stove, from eight — one of the few breakfasts around here.
Trendy bunsik (Korean snack food) by Dosan Park; the block's just too stacked to spend a meal here.
The ice cream and the desserts are worth the trip; it's the seating that's the problem, not the food.
The 'hidden genius' from Culinary Class Wars runs this Italian wine bar, and now you can get in.
The cream coffee, sweet cream on a bitter base; the brand's on its best run right now.
Still the first tonkatsu I name, even now the field has filled out.
The gml I'm in constantly, out by Dosan Park; this one does pastry, which Hannam skips.
Gentle Monster, Tamburins and Nudake stacked into one building; the compact Dosan original.
What to order and how to get in — the queue windows, the door moves, the booking that needs a Korean phone number — is in the app.
Bukchon is free, in full, so you can see whether you trust me before paying.