Foodie Places

Convenience Stores

7Eleven is of course the most well known one, but there is also GS25, Nice CU, and Emart. All of them are relatively similar in pricing and in what they have, but there are some variations. In my mind, the thing that separates them the most is what they have as x+1, typically 1+1 or 2+1 (basically a BOGO).

What is an x+1 can vary by the day, one day Chilsungs might be a 1+1 and the next they aren't but the Sprites are and so on.

From Wecostay Myeongdong, there’s a 7Eleven across the street and one down the road on both sides. The nearest GS25 is on the way to the station (을지로 4가 - Eulji-ro 4-ga) to school and the nearest Nice CU is down the road as well on the way to the station (충무로 - Chungmuro) to Myeongdong.

Street Food

If you wanna go to a night market, the closest is the one in Myeongdong. It starts around 2 P.M. and goes on for a long time! There’s lots of good food from dumplings to various types of skewers and sweets from tanghulu to mochi. They also have some Halal food too.

Because Myeongdong is fairly touristy, many of the vendors do know English so no worries about not knowing what to say. In Korean you could also say “food name 주세요 (joo-say-yo)” (ex. 잡채를 주세요 [jab-chay joo-say-yo]).

As is the case with many night markets, they pretty much only accept cash. I’ve seen one or two vendors accept card, but almost all vendors only accept cash. Also, they may be able to break a 50,000 won bill, but use the smaller bills predominantly since it’ll be easier to break.

A few other places that have night markets are Hongdae, Namdaemun, and Dongdaemun.

Restaurants

As someone who likes poke a lot, I typically tend to go to Slow Cali Poke & Grill. There’s one in the building next to the 을지로 4가 (Eulji-ro 4-ga) station and one that’s about a 10-minute walk away in the other direction. The one at the station seems to have more inconsistent hours compared to the one that’s about a 10-minute walk away, but the station one seems to be open only on the weekdays and closed around 5 P.M. (even though their sign says open until 20:00 P.M.)

A couple of food places on the way to campus that I like are K-Food 식당 (Restaurant) and 이家네 (I-ga-ne).

K-Food 식당 is an udon place and my favorite is the Udon Curry Chicken, but I know my friends enjoyed their other food as well.

이家네 (I-ga-ne) has a lot of Korean food, with bulgogi, pork cutlet, and others that I and my friends love getting.

If you have dietary restrictions, learn what they are in Korean so you can know what to avoid.

Allergens

Is there dietary restriction in food item? = __food item__에 __dietary restriction__이/가 있어요?

Ex: Is there egg in the bibimbap? 비빔밥에 계란이 있어요?

Some of the allergens/dietary restrictions I know in Korean are:

milk = 우유

eggs = 계란

fish (such as bass, flounder, cod) = 생선

lobster - 랍스터

shrimp - 새우

peanuts - 땅콩

If there’s meat, the word in Korean may have 고기 in it, like pork being 돼지고기.