11 Best Restaurants in Hongdae, Seoul

A striking space built from a former shoe factory, this cafe opened its first location in Hapjeong-dong in 2010 and has since developed a reputation for its moody ambiance and aromatic coffees. Today, their signature beans—named after well-known writers Pablo Neruda, Natsume Soseki, and William Blake—can be found at several Anthracites across the city. Nearby is Anthracite’s Mangwon-dong location, a sunny, three-story cafe built into a residential home and furnished with polished wood furniture. Mangwon-dong’s quiet policy (speaking allowed in hushed voices only) makes it perfect for an afternoon with a book while the former is a better fit for an intimate coffee with a close friend. 

A long-time favorite of Hongdae partygoers, this Korean barbecue joint nestled alongside the long cheolkil (railroad tracks) focuses on galbi (beef ribs). Cuts of beef in your choice of sweetly marinated or lightly seasoned are cooked over wire mesh grills and served alongside their signature pot of bubbling doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew). The spacious two-story building accommodates large groups and you’ll often overhear reunions of high school friends or groups of co-workers celebrating with their favorite combination of meats and drinks. Open early and closed late, it’s a choice location to start out the night or grab an early breakfast as the sun comes up.

With its consistent taste and reasonable prices, Ddobagi Chicken has the respect of fried chicken fanatics the city over. Its close proximity to the Han River means that many order Ddobagi to go and have chicken and beer picnics in the park during summertime. Plates of chicken are available at ₩10,000 for a single flavor and an extra ₩1,000 for half-and-half combinations. One of the most common orders is half regular fried and half yangyum (sweet and spicy) or soy–glazed chicken.

Both a flower shop and cafe, Ver’s Garden is a green oasis owned and operated by plant-lover Kim Sung-soo. While floral design changes with the seasons, the two-story space is a constantly growing home to monsteras, ivies, and pilea that offers coffee, herbal teas, and desserts. The cafe’s quiet corners are ideal for studying or remote working, but if you’re coming on a warm day just to relax make sure to grab a seat outdoors. Shaded by overhanging white sheets billowing in the wind, the cafe has tables on the second floor terrace looking out onto the Gyeongui Line Railroad Park as well as seats in the garden on the first floor. Don’t forget to wave hello to resident dog, Bandal: the cafe is pet-friendly and you’ll often see one or two furry friends running around.

Although the humble gimbap (rice and various fillings wrapped in seaweed) is not typically a dish that one would go out of the way for, Yeonhui Gimbap in its Yeonhui-dong headquarters is worth going the extra mile. Known for its creative fillings like the extra-spicy squid and braised beef in soy sauce, the hole-in-the-wall gimbap joint has locations all over the country thanks to its success here. There are several locations in Yeonhui-dong alone and no seating at the original location, but the gimbap here is one of the best cheap meals in the city.

Though Yri Cafe offers little of the minimalist design and photogenic, colorful drinks that hip, new cafes in the area have begun to specialize in, the venue is one of the few places to encapsulate the independent, down-to-earth spirit of the neighborhood. Offering a simple selection of coffees and teas, the cafe is strewn with hundreds of books and local zines and decorated with portraits of Korean activists and intellectuals. Film directors, novelists, and painters still come here to meet in groups and on weekdays, you can see writers hunched over their laptops until the wee hours of the night. The cafe hosts a wide array of events such as book talks, art exhibitions, and film screenings.

With a seating capacity of 14 to 16, Bokdeokbang is a cozy restaurant that pairs every dish with makgeolli (rice wine). Bokdeokbang’s owner, Kang Sang-gu, handpicks only natural makgeollis (without artificial additives), coming to each table to explain the flavor profiles of each drink; he operates the restaurant with his head chef and mother, who takes a similar organic approach in the kitchen. Kang even handwrites the menu, which is seasonal. The bossam (sliced, boiled pork) paired with oysters and fresh kimchi is an early winter favorite.

Opened in 2009, Coffee Libre is a small, independent coffee shop owned and operated by Korea’s first Korean Q-grader, Seo Pil-hoon. Many in the barista community credit Mr. Seo for being one of the first to introduce specialty coffee into the country and consider it a coffee lover’s rite of passage to visit the original Yeonnam-dong location. The cafe is small and fits a maximum of eight to ten people at best, but the rich aroma of coffee fills every corner of the space. 

Inspired by the Korean cartoon W, this small coffee shop was designed to look like a two-dimensional drawing filled with black and white furnishings that resemble something out of an old-time comic strip. Since its opening in 2017, Greem has become an internet sensation that's been featured in a wide array of media, including the opening scene of Netflix hit To All The Boys: Always and Forever. No wonder its motto is “a cafe’s main characters should be the people in it.” In addition to coffees and lattes, they also serve chocolate and strawberry milks as well as macaroons.

The word “jopok” means "gangster" in Korean, so the owners of this tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) restaurant put up a sign that reads, “We’re run by innocent, average men with no affiliation to gangsters” to quell the rumors. Nonetheless, the catchy name has brought them over twenty years of business, and the restaurant is a student favorite for affordable meals of tteokbokki, Busan odeng (savory fishcakes from the Busan region) and twigeum (a variety of deep-fried vegetables). The restaurant stays open until 4:30 am, long after many restaurants in the neighborhood have closed, making it a last-stop for many partygoers. Jopok has one additional location closer to Hongik University Station.

Sometimes called Little Chinatown for its ties to the Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking communities, Yeonnam-dong has a few dozen restaurants that specialize in malatang, xiao long bao, and mapo tofu. Of these, Yeongyo stands out with its extensive menu of dumplings, braised meats, and stir-fried vegetables. Two must-try dishes here include the Shengjian mantou baozi (fried pork buns) and uyuk tangmyeon (beef noodles), both made more delicious with the Taiwanese fruit beer on the menu. The original Yeongyo location can get quite busy, but you can also try their second location, Yeongyo Dumpling, just around the corner. The latter sells a limited menu, focusing only on the star Yeongyo dishes.