Myeongdong and Namdaemun

Lotte Department Store

I can't say I did a lot of shopping at the Lotte Department Store in Myeongdong.  Located on green line 2 at the Euljiro 1 it has it's own entrance on the same level as the subway. It has a wide variety of brand name items. Brand name which would make it like prices you would find at typical American stores like Nordstrom or Neman Marcus. Shopping for more of the upper class people but what they do have for everyone is a full scale market and food court with a huge variety of different foods.

Mandoo and Fish cake wrapped hot dogs and Sushi

The food is also a little higher then what you find outside but they have a such a wide variety and it is very neat, clean and well presented. Very visually pleasing to make you tempted to try just about everything there is. Here are a few of the foods we tried. We tried a sushi dish with some California rolls and kimbaps, mandoo with kimchi and regular pork kind, a mixed fishcake wrapped in hotdog, and some spicy honey chicken with sweet potato.

Chicken with Sweet Potato and sushi pack

What it looked like was pretty much just street food in a fancier place. It was still really good. I think because everything just looked so visually appetizing it made it taste even better. The chicken was similar to the kind you can get on the street just more honey flavored with sweet potato pieces instead of tatar-tots. Also the hot dog was really good snack kind of like oden or fish cake you get on the street was what it was wrapped in.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Americano

To finish the day we ended up at Homestead Coffee which is one of many cafe located in the Lotte Department store. I got an Americano and we also got a small frozen Yogurt with Strawberry which for 3,000 between four people wasn't bad but we did not realize it was so small so we ended up with only a few bites each still it was worth it because it was pretty good.

Myeongdong Gyoja Restaurant 
(Popular noodle Restaurant)

This restaurant mentioned here on the Korea Tourism Website is a pretty well known restaurant in Myungdong that makes homemade noodles and has a really good broth. They basically have a small menu pretty much everyone eat the mandoo and the mandoo kooksoo and that's pretty much it. It is really simple but really good.

Myungdong Gyoja on Korea Tourism Website

Mandoo

Mandoo Kook Soo

Shopping Around Myeongdong & Namdaemun 

Some Shopping I did around Myeongdong and Namdaemun in the area and around the station. The First item in the picture I got a grey zip up wallet at "Redeye" a small shop in the station to Myeongdong for 9,900 won and I also got Hot Burning Cream which supposedly is suppose to help you lose fat and what not if you put it on areas while you exercise. Still in the process of finding out if that's true with that I got a few sample of different cream and cottons for make up remover. All this was from Missha in Myeongdong.

Wallet fro RedEye and Hot Burning Cream from Missha

Namdaemun Market is one of the best places to shop to get a good deal on clothes, souvenirs, jewelry, hats, household item and Ginseng. They have a wide range of vendors selling all different kinds of things. I didn't find too many things I really really wanted to buy because it was really choosing what I wanted to buy because there were so many cute things.  What I did get were these Tory Burch Faux shoes for 15,000 and a Hat that was a faux of one that the cast of the variety show sbs Running Man wore for 15,000 won as well.

Tory Burch Shoes from Namdaemun

Running Man Faux Hat

Bonus !! Depending on who is adverting the brand sometimes store will have magazines or postcard with kpop idols on them that people can take. I happen to get Hats On postcards with B1A4 on it and a sports brand that had ZE:A magazines. Also took a picture of the Pancoat sign which also had picture of Idols wearing their brand clothes.

Pancoat with KARA, INFINITE, ETC..

ZEA and B1A4

Yogaae (요가 에) Kalbi Restaurant in Sincheon

Yogaae (요가 에) Kalbi Restaurant

Side Dishes and Soup

This Restaurant is called "요가 에" but to most foreigners its the Kalbi restaurant. It is located in Sincheon. However I believe there is others located through out Seoul. I saw one the other day in Myungdong. This restaurant has a lot of dishes that are cooked right on your table and at very reasonable price. For us we got a fried rice with chicken and kimchi and some other vegetables like green onion and white onion.  Although it was mostly only rice it was pretty filling and fed four of us all for I think 15,000 won which is really cheep for the amount of food there was. I think this was also four orders of the rice so a lot of good food for really good price.

Kimchi, Onions and chicken added first 

Rice added in second

Final Product of Fried Rice

Bars in Sincheon

Bar #1

The first bar is Wara wara which is a chain here in Korea I saw two in Sincheon and One in Hongdae but I assume there are more through out Seoul. This place was pretty good especially their Soju which is made with fresh blended fruit. They literally bring the Magic bullet with the fruit inside and blend it at your table then mix it all in for you. We tried a Strawberry Lemon,  pineapple and mixed berry soju. They also do the same thing with makgeolli too.

Berry Soju

Pineapple Soju

New Spring Menu

There is also a wide variety of food which is really good not just generic food to eat while you drink. We got a fried kimbap and a fried chicken both which came with fries that was pretty good. They also have like different types of nacho type things and other fried dishes that look pretty good and everything is pretty manageable when in a group so your bill isn't too expensive.

Fried Chicken with Fries

Fried Kimbap and Fries

Bar #2


This is the second place we went in Sincheon. It says in english 2ND but is written in Korean sounded by the letters. It isn't hard to miss almost diagonal of Warawara with raindrop lighting in front it is located on the third floor I believe. I am not too sure what the name was I assume it was a generic bar not a chain like Warawara.  It had a pretty neat design with a water pond kind of going between all of the booths of seats. All of the seating areas were pretty private too, not so much a private room like some places but still enough to feel like you had your own space. The down side people smoke here like any other bars unlike warawara where it is not allowed.

Fried Potato set

Peach Crush

Theses are the drinks we ordered a pineapple soju and a Peach Crush. They were both pretty good but the soju couldn't really compare to Warawara since this one was just more like juice rather than the actual fruit. I believe for the pitcher of soju it was cheaper then Warawara but you really pay for what you get and it wasn't as good. Also in order to get drink you are required to get a food dish and this is what we got because it was the cheapest thing but even then it was 13,000 or 14,000 won for just french fries pretty much I was a little disappointed that the quality was very good.

Pineapple Soju

Coffine Gurunaru in Hongdae

Coffine Gurunaru in Hongdae

This Coffine Gurunaru is a chain here in Korea and there are a bunch all over Seoul. This one is special located in Hongdae right below the Eatyourkimchi Studio. It was actually pretty empty when we went we were the only people there. Though in the daytime Hongdae in this area isn't very populated.

Inside of the Cafe

It was similar to a lot of the chain coffee cafe here in Korea as were the prices so they were a little pricy just for drinks. I ended up getting a blueberry muffin which said it was cream cheese though sadly there wasn't any inside it still wasn't bad.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffin

Also got a Chocolate Honey toast which is pretty much just bread with all of the toppings. It was okay nothing too special just the same like other coffee places but still a nice treat.

Chocolate Honey Toast

Bistro Boy in Edae

Bistro Boy restaurant in Edae

This small restaurant is located maybe 5 minute walk near Ewha Womens University. It was pretty unique and cute restaurant. All of the walls were just covered in Post It notes and little knicks and knacks of little figurines and toys kind of decorated through out the place. It had a really homey feel. The food was also very homey. They have different kinds of pastas and fried rices. We got I think a pork kimchi fried rice which was really good and pretty cheep around 5,000 won or less. I t is located near the big pink shoe near Ewha and the down one of the alley ways on that street.

one of walls with many post it notes

view of inside of the restaurant some what small but relaxing

Fried Rice with pork and kimchi

Chef's Noodle in Edae

Chef's Noodle in Edae

The Chef's Noodle restaurant in Edae is a small noodle restaurant that specializes in home made noodle according to out korean peace buddy and they also do something pretty unique to their restaurant involving sushi.

Chef's Noodle in Edae

Although we didn't order it I noticed it was pretty popular with a lot of the people that came in. What they do is bring you sushi with raw beef on top and the torch and cook the beef right at your table.

Found here is a review of the restaurant with pictures of the dish and directions

Chef's Noodle in Edae

Front: Mandoo kooksoo Back: Chef's Noodle specialty

Here are some of the dishes we had which were the chef's noodle special and a mandoo kooksoo. The price range was about 5,000 won or so for a pretty large portion of noodles.

Mandoo Kooksoo

Our Eatyourkimchi experience

Our adventure to Eatyourkimchi Studio in Hongdae

Went to find the Eatyourkimchi Studio today in Hongdae which is located on a third story building right before the clubbing district and at the end of what is the so called art district. It is on the third story right above Coffine Gurunaru.

It was pretty awesome took some pictures and posted it to twitter and what do you know were retweeted by eatyourkimchi who said "sorry we weren't in today". Pretty cool retweeted our tweet at the studio with our picture. I'd day that was a pretty successful adventure.

Retweeted by Eatyourkimchi

ReTweeted by Simon and Martina said" sorry we weren't in today"

our picture retweeted by simon and martina

Found in Hongdae right before clubbing district 

Eatyourkimchi Nasty Studio 

Located in Hongdae on third floor

Bonus!!

Found the Sign with the best engrish from the Ewha women's university Eatyourkimchi WANK.

"No one say NO when you face on a nice baked deli sandwich"

YG Entertainment Building + MANdoo from Eatyourkimchi

First Stop: Atwosome Place dessert Cafe

First stop of the day was Atwosome place which is a chain coffee shop here in Korea there are many all over Seoul and they are popular because of its appearance in many Korean dramas. The desserts here are really pretty and very elegant. However the prices are a little high for some of the drinks and desserts. For me I has a cookies and cream latte which was pretty sweet  more like a sweet mocha with little cookie crumbs in it. That was a little over 5,000 won for a small size. One thing that was cool that you don't see often back home the buzzer they give you to wait for your drink has tv ads playing like a mini ipod or something, very high tech.

Cookies and Cream Latte

Waiting Buzzer with tv ads

Adventure at YG Entertainment Building 

Directions to YG  

1. Take line the Green Line, Line 3 to Hapjeong Stop and exit 8

2. From here yo will be walking straight for about 10 minutes or so depending on how fast you are going. The area around YG isn't very busy so keep that in mine there isn't much to do.

3. From here there is a gas station on the right you keep walking and then there will be a Hotel Circle on the right which means your on the right path. 

4. Keeping walk and you should be at a cross to keep going straight and there should be a coffee and beer place in front keep walking straight pass that.

5. Next there should be a Statue on the left overlooking the Hangang park you keep walking and there should be another small place to cross the street again but here you turn right onto that street and you should be able to see the building from there.

6. Head toward the building and look of the GS 25 convenient store right in front of the building.

GS25 right in front of YG

Writings on convenient store wall.

MANdoo from Eatyourkimchi FAPFAP
Although I don't think this was the same one that was in the video. I'm guessing that maybe there were different shop location but this was pretty close to the same mandoo shop that was in the FAPFAP. This FAPFAP is in Hongdae but I think this one is more Hapjeong then Hongdae but pretty close.

This set we ordered had three different types of Mandoo and was around 7,000 won really good, it was nice and fresh.