Meat and fish hide in Korean cooking — anchovy or beef in the broth, fish sauce in the kimchi. Every place in the first list has a full meal without them, checked against its own menu rather than guessed; the second list is for pescatarians, who eat fish but no meat. None is certified, and kitchens change recipes, so ask when it matters.
No photos, no star ratings — just what I'd tell a friend. 123 places across 20 neighborhoods, from the same guide as the neighborhood pages.
Open the guideA humble local table: barley or gondeure (herb) rice, seasoned namul, and bibimbap.
The neighborhood's best breakfast: smoothie and Greek-yogurt bowls, salads, sandwiches, all from scratch.
Temple cuisine (사찰음식) in a Seochon hanok, all plant-based courses. Not my regular, but where I'd take a vegetarian.
Natural-levain sourdough with a Blue Ribbon; the jalapeño melting-cheese sandwich is the meat-free draw.
Haven't been, but it's a focaccia-sandwich kitchen on the Hong Geon-ik lane; the hummus plate's the veg pick.
Haven't been, but it's a tiny open-toast brunch spot that sells out and closes by four.
The Jogye Order's own temple cuisine as fine dining, once Michelin-starred; fully vegan, no garlic or green onion.
An organic-farm Korean table with a full vegan course, and years of Michelin Bib and Green Star behind it.
From Anam, the Michelin pork-soup house: Ulleungdo-thistle hangover soup by day, charcoal anju and soju by night.
Kaesong mandu, three generations of one family; touristy from a long Michelin Bib run, and worth it anyway.
A Michelin star on piknic's third floor, and the farm-to-table is real. Room and food both land.
Napoli wood-fired pies in the shell of the old Kyungilok seolleongtang; the margherita keeps it meatless.
A five-table place obsessed with its dough, name and all; the cheese and honey-sweet-potato pies keep it meatless.
Premium Korean bansang carrying a 50-year master's recipes into a modern, polished room.
A build-your-own Korean bowl, Subway-style, and it's all plant-based top to bottom.
Edition Denmark's Danish vegetarian brunch: rye-bread plates, seasonal veg, a good omelet.
An award-winning pizzaiolo's Napoli pizza, the first in Korea with Gambero Rosso's top mark.
A sharp, stylish wood-fired pizzeria where the pastas and starters are as good as the pies.
A big, high-ceilinged brunch room where the food leans vegetable-forward, with room to sit and talk.
Tokyo's New-York-slice brand landed in Seoul. Big folding slices by the piece, meat-free picks easy.
Really good sandwiches, with a proper vegan option too; the signature Butty is one I'd eat every day.
My favorite table in Sindang: jeyuk-bokkeum, barley bibimbap, and a spread of ssam greens.
A vegan place with a Michelin green star; the gosari (fernbrake) dishes it's named for all deliver.
My go-to Korean table in Hannam: clean, healthy cooking that every foreign friend I bring loves.
Regional Italian by an actual Italian, Michelin-listed; the eggplant plate is a properly vegetarian one.
One of Hannam's original salad spots, and I've gone for years; big loaded bowls that fill you up.
A stylish wood-fired pizza and pasta room where I've liked it all; the charcoal margherita's the meat-free pick.
Sicilian cooking; grab a few pastas to share, and the eggplant gratin's the meat-free one.
One of Seoul's standout vegan spots, relaxed but stylish. Order the hummus and a fermented ade.
Vegetable-forward European cooking off their own garden; seasonal and easygoing, in a minimal room.
Haven't been. A vegetable-first Hannam brunch cafe, not strictly vegetarian; I hear the fried yam is the dish.
Big, proper New York-style pizza, by the slice or the whole pie.
Wood-fired pizza with topping combos you won't see elsewhere; I want to order the whole menu.
Haven't been, but it's the vegan spot travelers hit first in Itaewon, plant-based since 2013.
Haven't been, but it's a long-running Haebangchon vegan kitchen, known for its lentil burger.
Haven't been — a fully vegan Chinese-leaning spot, a Michelin Bib pick two years running.
Pajama Deli's park branch: sandwiches, coffee, and a table right inside Hyochang Park.
A small, likeable sandwich-and-coffee cafe; the park branch is a treat too.
The best mukeunji-tuna gimbap in Seoul; a pilgrimage if you love gimbap.
Fresh, hand-made pasta at a little Namyeong table.
If tofu interests you, this is the house: made in-house, and it carries the menu rather than garnishing it.
Italian bakery that Italians vouch for: proper breads, pizza by the slice, a deli case.
Wood-fired pizza on soft, chewy dough; if Ducky's full, the sister cafe next door serves the same pies.
Haven't been, but it's a Michelin Bib Gourmand vegetable kitchen; one chef, lunch only, booking only.
Haven't been to this branch, but it's Plant, Seoul's best-known vegan cafe.
Haven't been, but it's the Seoul branch of an Incheon brunch deli; coffee and wine too.
Haven't been, but it's a New Jersey tomato-pie bar run by three Americans.
The pizzaiolo's a Naples master, Giustiniani family; ninety seconds in the wood fire and it's pizza.
Wednesday Food Talk put it on the map, but the 300-bottle Italian wine list is what seals it.
Ranked fourth pizza in Asia-Pacific for 2026, and its margherita took Pizza of the Year; the queue knows.
Wild-yeast dough into a wood fire, toppings you don't expect — pizza with fine-dining intent.
Haven't been. A small stone-pot bibimbap house in a Sangsu basement; the namul bowl is meat-free.
Haven't been, but it's a Blue-Ribbon Pyongyang-naengmyeon house; the brothless goldong is the meat-free bowl.
Fusion bunsik that watches what goes in, and the gimbap is why you come.
Haven't been, but it's a tiny solo-run pizza spot by the sports park, mostly takeout.
Fully plant-based brunch and natural wine, following whatever the season grows.
Asia's first vegan Michelin star; for vegetarians, it's this or bium.
Temple food from the chef with a Michelin star at Seventh Door; where I take vegetarian friends.
What I say first when a foreign friend asks about Apgujeong; eat through the noodles, vegan bowl and all.
A long-loved Italian kitchen in a hanok; the uni-and-bottarga pasta is the one everyone comes for.
My go-to for showing friends a real Korean meal: rice, soup, banchan, a main, grandmothers everywhere.
Haeundae's hitsumabushi (grilled eel over rice), now in Seochon; the Busan original is a Bib Gourmand.
A seafood pocha (a street-food bar) on the day-boat principle: nothing carried over, provenance on the board.
Order the sujebi (dough-flake soup) and barley rice comes free, or the reverse; either way you eat both.
A serious Japanese izakaya in a made-over hanok; a short menu of sashimi and simmered seafood, dinner only.
An aged-sashimi table near the palace, with different menus at lunch and dinner; a dependable Japanese spot.
A Southern-Italian seafood trattoria: fritto misto, fisherman's pasta, and the easy feel of somewhere in Italy.
Jeju produce, cooked Italian: the island's shrimp, octopus, and black pork across the pastas and mains.
Haven't been. A bar-seat izakaya on sashimi and sushi, booked weeks out; two-plus order a bottle, sake or wine.
Haven't been. A Tongin-dong izakaya on the day's sashimi and charcoal, open late.
Haven't been, but it's a wine-and-champagne bar on seasonal small plates, with oysters by the piece.
The clam kalguksu I keep going back to; the pajeon and kimchi are just as good.
Korean-filled onigiri in the Japanese style, made to order at a small counter.
Haven't been. A noodle house by Gyeonghuigung; chicken noodles are the signature, with plenty of seafood bowls.
A weekday-lunch-only kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) on anchovy broth, no meat in it, and a queue that never clears.
Buckwheat noodles on one side, fugu (pufferfish) on the other; the only meat dish is a pork bossam.
Fish roe, milt and innards done spicy, a drinkers' den with no meat anywhere, all seafood.
Hand-cut kalguksu in anchovy broth since the late '80s, the dough worked right at the door.
A seafood pocha in the former Daerimjang inn, old sign and all: raw fish, shellfish and soju.
Haven't been, but it's a soy-crab (ganjang-gejang) set house in a redone hanok; one seafood set, crab-first.
One fixed fish set at lunch, booked in two seatings; an izakaya at night, next door to piknic.
The 1953 house that started Ojangdong's Hamhung naengmyeon strip; the raw-fish (hoe) bowl is the order.
The neighbor that made it a rivalry, a Michelin Bib 2017–2022; the raw-fish (hoe) bowl stays meat-free.
Anchovy-broth kalguksu and pork bossam together since 1972; locals order the two as a pair.
Decades of one dish for the print crews: hand-cut noodles in anchovy broth, cut right at the window.
A veteran odeng (fish-cake) bar at the golbaengi-alley mouth. Its real spine is East Sea sandfish.
Haven't been. One owner's blowfish house since 1968, Daegu then Seoul, a state-certified Longevity Small Business.
A country grandma's cooking at market prices: mild sundubu, and earthy cheonggukjang to mix into barley rice.
Cheap home cooking made TV-famous by its cheonggukjang, in a room full of grandparents.
Seafood tacos in the old market, from the chef behind Asia's first Michelin-starred Mexican kitchen.
Hand-cut kalguksu since 1969; the noodle-cutting's a show, but the jeon are even better.
A casual standing oyster bar — big, premium oysters year-round; if you love oysters, just stop in.
The Culinary Class Wars 'Korean Taco King' doing modern Mexican; the fish and shrimp tacos keep it pescatarian.
Casual Korean sotbap (pot rice) built on fish and local produce; the cast-iron-cauldron room is Insta-famous.
Hand-cut soba from a thirty-five-year Japan artisan; fish dashi, no meat needed.
IZZA's taco spinoff — offbeat fillings, but the corn tortillas are the real deal.
A seafood kalguksu house; if the dongjuk-clam one's on, I'll order it any day.
Grilled semi-dried cuttlefish, dipped in their special sauce, and an actual 'wow' comes out of you.
A snug Japanese-French izakaya of aged sashimi and small plates over sake, for a proper sit-down dinner.
A Thai place I've gone to for years; one of my easy, no-fuss favorites.
Korean steamed fish that used to be a local secret; now everyone's heard of it.
Generous home-style Korean, seasonal seafood and meat with a big spread of banchan; all of it good.
An old-school room that's always full; seasonal seafood and drinks, plenty for a pescatarian.
Straw-fired freshwater eel over rice, an easy pescatarian pick — the firing takes time, so don't arrive late.
Composed Korean cooking with a strong traditional-liquor list; the seafood plates suit a pescatarian.
A late-night cockle (kkomak) pocha with plenty of seafood, so easy for pescatarians.
Where I go when a spicy hoe- (raw-fish) or bibim-naengmyeon calls.
My regular for chewy bibim-naengmyeon, sweet and spicy, with a kettle of warm broth on the side.
Sourdough sandwiches and focaccia on an up-and-coming Huam-dong block.
Fat gimbap among Seoul's best; seafood rolls for skipping meat, and the spicy squid's the standout.
Gimbap the other way round: less rice, more filling, and a menu longer than you'd believe.
Rice is the main event: three kinds milled fresh, cooked in a gamasot (cauldron).
A 24-hour taxi-drivers' diner, once on TV's Infinite Challenge; these days everyone eats here, not just drivers.
Walls full of celebrity autographs, and in Korea the cheese donkatsu is the one to try.
My go-to for charcoal-grilled mackerel: deboned by hand each morning, with rice, soup and salad on free refill.
Gimbap stuffed past reason with pollack or fried tofu; more fillings than rice, a full meal from a tiny counter.
A Japanese late-night diner in all but address; small, warm, and the sashimi carries the no-meat table.
Mexican from scratch, down to the tortillas pressed in-house; the ceviche and fish tacos are the no-meat picks.
Australian brunch done right, and the shrimp bun is the one you came for.
Sanuki udon with the noodles cut on site; watch it happen from the counter.
Agujjim (spicy braised monkfish) and blue crab done the same way, forty-odd years in; finish with the fried rice.
A tonkatsu spot Gangnam's eaten at since 1986; the saengseon-katsu (fish cutlet) is the no-pork pick.
Haven't been, but it's a tiny Michelin-listed kitchen, seafood and veg, no meat.
For eating vegetarian across Korea — temple food, what to ask for, what to watch — there is a longer guide: Vegetarian & vegan in Korea.
What to order and how to get in — the hours, the queue apps, 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.
Seoul by moment: early mornings · on your own · vegetarian · late nights · with a view · for a date
Seoul by kind of place: cafes · specialty coffee · bakeries · desserts · tea · Korean barbecue · bars · natural wine · markets · museums and galleries · shopping · things to do