So I went for a short trip to Seoul with my girlfriends and it was my first time there. I always wanted to go and saw Seoul as a food haven and with all the Korean food culture sprouting up locally- i wanted to taste it there myself and see what the hype is all about.
Be warned though, if you've been to Japan you might get a bit dissapointed as you tend to compare.
As it was a short trip- I only visited Seoul and Nami island and here are some of the food that I managed to eat while i was there.
Isaac toast.- This is a popular street food among tourist and you can always see a long que. It's just basically toast with cabbage and mayo and the filling of your choice. My friends had chicken while i had shrimp. It was filling and reasonably priced. Nothing fancy- just good old homely toast.
Cafe de Paris- I googled a few places and this came up as the dessert “must try” place. A bit dissapointed though. I've had better desserts in Malaysia. The chocolate drink with brownie was a dissapointment. It was runny and we couldn't even finish it. There was nothing special about the choc cake either
Bingsu is a must when in korea- so I went to the popular one in town and it was Sul.bing Cafe. I tried the mango cheese snowflake sherbert bingsu and the popular injeolmi toast. It was not as sweet and creamy as i wanted it and honestly i still think our bingsus are way better. ( my fav cheotnun )
Myeongdong street food- this 'pasar malam' like food haven is open daily at night. Its a must go. You will be able to see an array of street food and all kind of vendors. Local and non local. My friends tried the famous Korean fried chicken - which they said was a bit chewy and obviously not spicy.The egg bread (gyeran-bbang) was good as it was more of sweet and savoury. The korean grilled cheese lobster is a must - this was around RM50 each but it was delicious. The rice cake with baked cheese was also good and filling. You can actually have you're entire dinner meal here.
Ossuloc- We bumped into this place when we were walking towards the temple. And we immediately walked in as it had a pretty decor. We had the green tea cheese cake with the green tea ice shake topped with green tea ice cream which was really good. This place actually originated from Jeju but they have outlets throughout Korea and I would really recommened it if you're a green tea lover.
Noryangjin Fish market- There's so much hype about this place. If you want to eat here, its better to go in a big group because it's pretty pricey. Order your seafood at the wet market and pick yourown restaurants at the top floor to cook it. For the faint hearted- dont try the raw squid. you'll puke and its a waste of money. We went and tried the squid, its so chewy and it sticks to your palate. I couldn't even swallow it.
Rose ice cream- we often see this in pictures. Cute but tastewise its a dissapointment. The ice cream isn't creamy and the cone is soggy. We realized most of the street ice cream has a soggy cone.
Local coffee chain- Ediya and Angel in us. Its a must for me to try local coffee when i travel. but there was nothing special. The price was equal to the local starbucks and the bagel/ dishes served was just average.
Passion 5- I saw this on a few blogs when I typed “desserts in Seoul”. This cafe is situated in Itaewon and is a bit posh compared to other dessert cafes. Reachable by train. When we arrived, it was like Disneyland. We were wide eyed and spoilt for choices. They were sooooooo pretty. We took a few cakes and pastries and also tried the seafood chowder. Our verdict, don't trust your eyes. Looks can be deceiving. Some of the pastry were ok but the seafood chowder was too thick- and the bread too chewy.
Nami island- nami has a lot of muslim friendy eataries as they have loads of muslim visitors. We tried the bimbimbap which was pretty good and it had the right amount of spice and of course free flow of kimchi and veggies. We also had the ice cream but the cone was still soggy!
Local convenient food store- This is a must for me too when travelling and i think its easy and convenient. I had the famous banana milk drink. It was ok but reminded me of antibiotics. The local carbonated drink “milkis” was light and refreshing. Local coffee wasn't that great and the sambap gimbap ( similar to onigiri ) wasnt bad.
What i got from this trip was- Korean isn't a dessert haven. We have it all here locally and some of them taste even better here. Maybe its our tastebuds and our local Korean stores tweaked it to adapt to ours. But do try their street food/ vendors because there's a lot to choose from. Mashikeh- mogoseyo ! ( enjoy your meal! )