I started my morning in Seoul, South Korea with a 5AM breakfast from 7-ELEVEN before heading to Myeonseoul for their famous Michelin-recommended noodles.
Mike Chen explores the diverse culinary landscape of Seoul, ranging from high-quality convenience store staples and Michelin-rated traditional noodles to indulgent smashburgers and grilled offal. His journey highlights the city's balance between accessible street food and refined dining, while offering practical travel tips on digital security and navigating local restaurant ratings.
Hey guys, good morning. It's Mike Chen here in Seoul.
It's about 4.30 in the morning.
Still pretty jet-lagged from this whole trip, so
woke up to grab some breakfast.
You know, sometimes I do these jet-lagged breakfasts
because I can't sleep and I'm starving.
And there's never anybody else eating breakfast until today.
They're eating breakfast too!
That's cool to see. I'm not the only one.
4.30 in the morning.
7-Eleven breakfast. Let's go.
So, 7-Elevens in Korea.
Obviously very different than in Japan.
Let's start with the coffee.
Hey, look. Hello Kitty.
Strawberry chocolate latte.
King Matcha.
This is the 7-Eleven Select stuff.
Hey, look. Baskin-Robbins has ventured into juices.
Or mango water.
Also, got a cafe latte.
Food-wise, not too much prepared foods.
This is kind of a tiny 7-Eleven.
Ooh, 7-Eleven Select pasta.
There's this guy that looks like he means business.
The biggest difference between 7-Eleven Korea and Japan is
I'm definitely staying away from the sandwiches here in 7-Eleven.
Nothing wrong with them, I just don't like it.
Alright, it wasn't too much to choose from.
I was hoping they had some inners or something.
They did not.
Just a couple of meals.
Whatever the 7-Eleven pasta is.
I do love the 7-Eleven Select brand.
7-Eleven Select spaghetti and meat sauce.
I think this will be good.
You know this looks really good.
So after this comes out of the microwave,
you add on the cheese.
There we go.
Oh, now this is looking like a meal.
I feel like the rule of thumb is the more you have for dinner,
the hungrier you are for breakfast.
Let's get our drink ready.
So, my favorite thing to drink at 7-Eleven here in South Korea.
Oh, there's a lot of things I love but
one of my favorite things is drinking a bag.
Sweet, fresh coffee. Sweet iced coffee.
I'm a sucker whenever I see number one.
So, apparently it's number one.
It's good. I will recommend it.
It's really good. It's not even all that sweet.
That's really, really good.
Wow, it's delicious coffee. Wow.
I'm telling you guys, coffee in a bag.
Or any drink in a bag.
Oh, 7-Eleven brands.
Their foods, they rarely, rarely let me down.
This is awesome.
It's so good.
This is the kind of microwave stuff that
I wish they came out with in America back in the 90s.
Where I pretty much exclusively lived off microwave dinners.
You know, the hungry man is like,
I had that every single day.
I wish it tasted like this.
This is incredible.
This is some Italian restaurant tasting microwave spaghetti.
The sauce is good.
The texture of the pasta is great.
Put this in a real plate.
Serve it to me at a restaurant.
I'd give you five stars.
That's really good.
Maybe some garlic bread on the side.
Oh, what a fantastic meal.
Oh, I wish they had garlic bread.
It's a tiny 7-Eleven.
They didn't really have a lot of stuff.
This is so awesome.
This iced coffee is phenomenal.
I also got, cause I saw number one on the box.
It's a spam kimchi rice.
Oh.
I shouldn't have done that.
I thought this was the cover.
No, this is just the rice.
Inside.
Foldable spoon.
Sauce pack.
Seaweed pack.
I love how convenient everything is.
I feel like even the spoons get better and better.
Kimchi spam rice.
Really.
Oh my gosh.
I feel like this thing, I personally would rate it a 9.5.
But I don't think everyone will like it.
It's extremely sour and spicy.
Like the kimchi is very, very sour.
Like very sour.
Extremely sour.
Extremely spicy.
I say even for Asian spicy, it's up there.
Big old chunks of spam.
If you're not into very sour kimchi,
this might not be for you.
I am all in on this.
This is so freaking delicious.
Number one is right.
I'm gonna find this somewhere in America, hopefully.
H Mart hopefully has this.
Wow, the chili is changing my voice.
I'm gonna stock up on this.
This is so freaking good.
On a whim, when you're starving,
or you're running late for something,
this is amazing.
Like, amazing.
Also, you might not like spam.
I love spam.
So, this to me is the greatest thing.
Super spicy, super sour, and a little spammy.
I can't believe I've never tried this before.
Amazing.
You should try this if you ever see this around.
I'll show the packaging again.
I kid you not, this woke me up more than a coffee.
Let me try this mango water.
Oh my gosh, it's so sweet.
Not bad, just a little overly sweet.
Wow, it is a chilly morning, but
that warmed me up quite a bit.
It's only five o'clock in the morning.
I'm gonna hit the gym, and then we're gonna go do
lunch number one, or breakfast number two.
One of those.
See you in a bit.
And before getting to more food,
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This is gonna be lunch.
Some Michelin Korean noodles.
I'm really excited for this. Hopefully there's no line.
They don't open yet for another 30 minutes, but
let me see if I can find an ATM, need some cash,
and then hopefully get some Michelin noodles.
I always forget this, but a lot of restaurants
in South Korea, they have a wait list
that opens up, that you scan the QR code, join
the wait list. I remember last time, I didn't join
the wait list, and I ended up waiting like a couple hours,
and I couldn't get into the restaurant, so
this place has a wait list, and it opens up
30 minutes before it opens, so
if you do come here, join the digital wait list.
Okay, pre-sort out
dishes. So
perilla oil noodles,
flat broccoli
noodles. That looks great!
Spicy mixed noodles.
Everything looks so good. The noodles look
good, the dumplings look good, the pork
looks good. I think I over-ordered a little bit.
We'll see. By the way, five minutes after this place
opened, I'm just on phone. I ordered
at least two people's worth of food, and I'm
looking at the next table. I think there's some stuff I didn't
get that looks really good, including
like a, like some kind of soup.
Got four dumplings.
Kimchi comes with the dumplings.
Well,
you gotta be really gentle with these dumplings.
They're steaming dumplings, by the way. The skin
is so thin!
So these are pork dumplings,
and the reason why the
wrapper is so thin
and translucent is because this is
made with mung bean dough.
Mmm!
These are amazing!
Yeah, one bite, and you
know how good this is.
Mmm!
I think this is the first time I'll say
this about a dumpling. This is a melt-in-your-mouth
dumpling. I've said melt-in-your-mouth about
meat, seafood, ice cream.
Never dumplings.
Wow.
They're so gentle. And usually, for me, like a
super soft dumpling would not
be a good thing. This is
incredible!
The skin, you can barely taste it.
Breaks down immediately.
Mmm! The pork is
so fatty, and an
absolute umami bomb!
And you can taste the little bits of fat
and tendon in these dumplings
from the pork.
Yeah, kimchi's really good too.
This is their premium-aged pork cheek
and pork crown. I think you gotta
get this because this is limited quantities
every single day, and they
boil the pork. Look how
soft and juicy
this is. Look at this thing, it's absolutely glistening.
It's a thin little, light piece of
pork, and it's already trying to break apart
what I'm just holding with the chopsticks.
Guys, a must-get.
Dumplings a must-get too. This pork
is so good. Oh, this thing is
ridiculously tender. And
normally, I like things that has a lot of
flavor, you know. And the sauce,
dipping sauce, a little soy, a little chili.
This is a
piece of pork where I don't even need a dipping sauce.
Just the boiled pork itself, that's got
some amazing flavor on its own.
First of all, it is juicy.
It is tender. It is
fatty. And as you chew, you actually
taste the light sweetness of the pork.
Usually when you're boiling pork, that's when you taste
the gaminess the most.
Zero gaminess, so clean, borderline
sweet. Also,
I got two noodles.
Usually people get one, but I
really want to try both. I think this is their
signature noodle. These are white,
homemade noodles. And this is made
with a fermented soybean
paste that they fermented for ten
years. Ten years, not hours,
years. It's also got bracken,
which is the mountain fern that's in here,
and seaweed flakes as well.
All over chewy, flat
noodles. Okay, this looks so
crazy good.
This has got to be one of my favorite
noodles in South Korea. This is so right up my
alley. It's living there now.
First of all, these little ferns, if you haven't had it
before, it's a little chewy, and very
snappy. Kind of a nutty flavor.
Just the most
perfect amount of chew, with that heavily
smoky flavor from the sesame.
The fermented bean sauce
makes this dish so much richer,
more complex. It gives it such a nice
aromatic, earthy flavor.
That's what the sauce provides.
Every time you chew these
noodles, that flavor just grows.
That texture is absolute
perfection. Chase it with some kimchi.
Perfect. With some
kimchi.
I could eat this all day, every day.
Chase it with some pork, too.
I traveled over an hour to get here.
Worth it.
This is probably the most uniquely
delicious noodles I've ever had in South Korea.
10 out of 10.
This kimchi is so ridiculous.
All right, let's try this one.
This is their golden noodles.
So what's really interesting about this is, the poached egg on top
is from a chicken fed exclusively
with olives. So these are, again,
white noodles tossed with
seasonal greens, domestic
minced pork, spicy bird's eye
chili soy sauce. There's raw
perilla oil, aged soy sauce,
organic seaweed flakes.
After finishing most of this, we're supposed to mix in some rice.
I don't have any rice. Pop the egg.
Oh, that is so
pretty. Look at this color.
It's like a painting. And underneath,
the vegetables, the same
greens. You got some of the
fern from before, some mushrooms.
You got some of the, of course,
the minced pork. You see the chilies
now. Oh, look at this. There's a lot
of pork, a lot of stuff
going on underneath the noodles. What is this,
eggplant? There might be some eggplant.
This looks crazy.
Mix it all together.
This might be better than the last bowl
of noodles. I don't know. This reminds
me of a Maz Soba
with the amount of ingredients and the need
for rice after you're done with the noodles.
Oh.
That is plain zucchini.
I think the last bowl
is still my favorite, but this is right
up there. If the last bowl was a solid 10,
this is like a 9.9.
This one, way more going on.
You definitely taste a little heat from the chilies.
The pork is as clean
as the boiled pork that I got,
and adds even more fattiness
and umami to this dish.
The greens adds a tiny bit
of bitterness. This bowl, definitely more texture,
like I said, more going on. Like I said,
first bowl. You really can't go wrong with any of the noodles.
This one's a lot richer, too, from the poached egg.
I think this might be one of my favorite restaurants in South Korea.
Definitely
my favorite noodles. And maybe
the dumplings, too. Yeah, I can see how the minced pork
would be really good with rice as well.
I feel like that counts for
at least one and a half lunches. I'm gonna go walk around.
100% must try.
Here we go. This is a burger
place everyone wanted to come to. It's like
right next to the noodle place. It's almost like it's
meant to be. Seven patty burger.
Original cheeseburger.
Oh, it's a smashburger.
Oh, you can actually get seven
patties on your burger.
There's a shrimp sandwich as well.
I can't get a seven patty.
Oh, if I didn't get
the noodles, maybe I would have.
Let's get a combo. Like, I was gonna
get a double, but then she recommended
that I get the jalapeno.
Look at the size of the skirt
on this burger.
This is some crispy skirt, and the bun is
so toasty and soft.
This thing feels like an air cushion.
Tons of jalapenos, cheese,
sauce. This is a hefty
burger, too.
There are two
patties, and these are giant,
giant beef, crispy
beef patties. I might need to
put on some gloves for
this. I feel like this is gonna be a messy
saucy experience.
This looks like such an amazing smashburger.
Oh yeah, this is gonna be messy for sure.
This looks like this burger is sticking
its beef tongue out of you.
Oh my god.
This is freaking amazing. This is coming
from a person who just had two bowls of noodles,
dumplings, and some boiled pork.
Everything
about this burger is
legit. One of the biggest patties I've ever seen on a
smashburger.
No wonder they gave you
knife and fork for this place. I might do that next
time. Because this is
100% a messy burger. It's so
saucy and cheesy. The
patty is crispy on the outside.
Inside, it's so
juicy and nice. Fresh jalapenos
bring the cheese. So does that spicy
creamy sauce sitting on top of this
as well.
The sauce is awesome. Spicy, creamy,
a little hint of sweetness.
Fries are really good too. I told
you guys before, Korea, I mean
at least in the south, I don't know about the north,
has some incredible
burgers.
This is 100%
Look at how gooey this
burger is. This is almost too much flavor
in a burger. Yeah, you need gloves.
You might need a knife and fork.
That is so good. I know
this many jalapenos and that
spicy sauce is a heartburn waiting to happen.
I'll take the heartburn.
It's worth it.
If I'm telling you it's awesome
after the lunch I just had,
it's awesome.
This is an absolutely hefty
burger. I would recommend the jalapeno.
And it's also really different from the other
smashburgers I have. I had something like this in Japan,
like a giant smashburger with a huge skirt.
But the thing is, that thing was like super thin.
It was basically like a burger chip.
It was kind of burnt. The skirt is
crispy, but that middle is just
juicy, juicy meat. Add this to one of
the must-try burger places here in Seoul.
I'm seriously considering riding a bike
home after this.
About an hour and a half bike ride. I think I should do it.
This is a nice, quaint
little neighborhood. You never really see
this much greenery walking around Seoul.
Oh yeah, that's dinner right there.
Whoa,
what is this place?
Look how much blue ribbons they got.
That's a sign of a quality restaurant.
Also, this is a duck garbi place.
Man, must be really good.
I mean, I'll eat here. Look at this whole little
alley area. It's just
full of restaurants, like tons
of barbecue places. I wanted to go to
a Gopchang place, like
get some grilled intestines, you know?
But man, when you see those blue
ribbons, you gotta just stop for a second
and consider, that might be
really good. You know, maybe we should get some
duck garbi and some noodles. Those noodles look
really good too. Fortunately, they're not open right now.
I don't know what time they're open. Okay,
back to plan A. There's a lot
of places that serve
grilled intestines. Man, there's so
many good foods around here. Okay, this
place looks pretty busy for like a not
a busy time. It smells really garlicky.
Oh my gosh, look at this.
That's a lot of blue ribbons. Let's eat here. As soon as you
sit down, they bring over some banchan
and some tofu soup.
Oh man, so no matter what you're getting,
this is the first thing that comes to the table. Along
with a jug of cold tea. Get some
intestines. Oh, they got an English menu. Perfect.
Perfect.
Assorted intestines, small
intestines, entrails,
and hearts. That sounds delicious.
I think I chose a really good spot. This
is gonna be an amazing
dinner. I got two orders of
meat. We are gonna eat well
tonight. Banchan, there's some bean sprouts,
some scallions, pickled
cabbage.
We are gonna eat very well.
Tofu soup is definitely ready.
That's a solid tofu soup.
I love these restaurants so much.
You don't see restaurants
that focuses on
intestines and entrails
a lot in the United States. There's like
a few cities that have them, but
not many.
So when you are in South Korea,
you gotta come to a place like this.
And this place looks like it's gonna be amazing.
Look at all the blue ribbons on the door.
Even the
tofu soup is good.
This is a feast. This is freaking
beautiful. Chives in the middle.
All different types
of intestines and entrails
and tripe. I think this is
flour in the chives.
So what the flour is gonna do,
it's gonna give the gopchang a slightly
better texture and it's gonna prevent it from
sticking to the grill. And it absorbs some
of the fat so it doesn't splatter as much.
There's some rice cakes on here as well.
Some onions.
Oh my gosh. This all looks so good.
Some potatoes. I think this is some tripe
right here.
Mmm.
Garlic tripe.
That is amazing.
That is such a phenomenal chew.
It's so garlicky.
I'd eat two of these.
Mmm. They brought over some tartare.
Small intestines. There's a couple different
sauces. One is a chili sauce.
One is a spicy
sauce. The other, sesame oil with salt.
That's all it is. Oh this is so freaking good.
I wish places like this would be all over the US.
It's so good.
It's so clean. You don't
taste any of the funk
at all. Mmm.
This garlic
tripe is ridiculous.
Chase it with some of the
chives. Amazing.
Rice cake is good too.
That's a really nice
toasty rice cake.
Mmm. All you need
is some intestines, entrails,
some vegetables, chives, and you're gonna
be really, really happy. Tartare.
Tartare's not my favorite thing, but that's
pretty darn good. Just some sesame oil on top.
All you need.
It's one of my favorite things to eat
here in South Korea.
This place definitely offers more ingredients
than just the intestines. The chives,
the onions, the potatoes, the rice cakes.
This is the first time I'm eating all the intestines
with sweet onions and chives.
Oh, it goes so well. The small
intestines where the flavor is. That's all umami
in there. Organic umami.
Mmm. I see what the experts are
doing. They're putting the meat
on the sides so they don't get overcooked.
Oh my god.
My potatoes are sticking already.
I wish you guys could smell this place.
This is next level stuff.
Alright, my meat's getting overcooked. I gotta
focus and hurry up and eat. Be right back.
Probably one of the best intestines experiences
I've had in South Korea.
This place is awesome.
The onions are so sweet and the
chives go so well with that fatty
meat. I don't feel like it's overly rich.
Usually I feel like after one of these meals,
it's so rich, but not today. Like with all the
vegetables, this all went down
incredibly easy. I would do
two more of these. They're so good.
I love dinners where I feel like I'm eating a lot, but
it doesn't really fill me up.
The only thing I think I would've changed
was that there's no large intestines in there.
Large intestines are my favorite thing
at an intestines barbecue.
You know? Maybe that's why I don't feel like it's so rich.
That's usually the fattiest part.
Oh, that's my favorite part. I thought when it says
assorted intestines, it would've included a large.
It does not. Oh man, that's a shame.
Large intestines are so good. The heart
was a great addition. I never had a heart
at one of these barbecues before. That's amazing.
I would come back to this place again. This place is so good.
But next time, I will get large intestines in addition
to what I just got right here.
The garlic tripe,
oh, mind-blowing. Gotta get that.
I don't think I've had that before either.
That was an extremely satisfying
dinner. Extremely satisfying food day.
A good food day is pretty much just
any regular day here in South
Korea.
It's always all pleasant. One, two, it's down below
for you guys. Thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again,
see you later.
This plaza is amazing.
How many awesome food places.
I told you guys before, but this is a
solid indication of
if a place is good. These blue ribbons
that they have here. This is a barbecue place.
Okay, this plaza, just kind of
stumbled onto it by chance.
Oh, I'm gonna try this barbecue next time.
By next time, I probably mean tomorrow.
The garbi place, this looks crazy
good. What is this? This is a
fish dish. See, the fish
is like a fish volcano.
More blue ribbon. This one's got a yellow and a red
one too. There's another barbecue
place, Tokyo
Grill. And right across the way from them,
another barbecue place with blue ribbon. This looks
like a pork barbecue. I'm gonna
call this Blue Ribbon Plaza.
I shall be back.