6 Best Restaurants in Side Trips from Seoul, South Korea

A beautiful 80-year-old Korean home near Jeondeungsa Temple has been beautifully renovated as a cafe. The crooked wooden rafters that support the roof are especially beautiful, demonstrating the Korean preference to leave nature as it is. The drink menu features a wide range of espresso and latte variations, but also Korean teas such as jujube tea and chrysanthemum tea. There are plenty of charming retro decorations around the cafe, too.

Located in Heyri Art Valley, this beautiful gallery and cafe has a slick modern architectural design, its unadorned concrete walls striking a balance between lines, curves, and mass. They also serve a decent cup of coffee, with the usual choices of espresso variations, but also a decent selection of soft drinks and frappes. The courtyard has appropriately modernist yellow and blue couches for guests to sit and enjoy their coffee in the fresh air of Heyri.

While Ganghwa-do was always a popular destination for its historic sites, it was never considered hip—until Joyang Bangjik, that is. This abandoned textile factory from the early 20th century is now a cafe and bakery, albeit it one stuffed to the gills with so much retro paraphernalia it looks like an antique store. There's plenty of installation art to be seen, too. It's relatively quiet on weekdays, but Seoulites descend on the place on weekends. 

This hip coffee house in a renovated old residential home not only serves great coffee, but also offers fine views of Suwon Fortress and its Janganmun Gate, especially from its rooftop space. The menu features all your favorite espresso variations, including a rich latte made with black sesame. Snacks include scones and croissants.

A popular place near the ferry dock, Namiseom Kkokko Dak Galbi serves two variations of the popular Chuncheon specialty of its namesake, dak galbi (tangy chicken grilled or stir-fried). Chuncheon-style dak galbi is the stir-fried version, with minced chicken mixed with vegetables and noodles cooked in a spicy red pepper sauce; in the grilled version, marinated chicken meat is grilled over charcoals. Either way makes for an excellent meal.

Incheon's Chinatown is lined top-to-bottom with good restaurants, but in terms of longevity, few compete with Pungmi. Run by the same family for four generations, Pungmi serves fine old-school jjajangmyeon, or noodles covered in black bean sauce, an Incheon specialty based on a northern Chinese dish brought to the city by Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. They also serve several kinds of jjamppong (seafood noodle soup) as well as classic Chinese dishes like sweet-and-sour pork. As an added bonus, it's in an old Chinese townhouse with an appropriately Chinese ambiance. As a further bonus, just around the corner is the old Gonghwachun, a historic Chinese restaurant that is now a museum dedicated to jjajangmyeon.