Vegetarian in Seoul

Heading back to Seoul

After spending 3 days in Jeonju, it was time to head to Seoul.

From Jeonju, there are buses from the Inter City Bus Terminal that go Seoul southern bus terminal (Nambu).

From the express bus terminal, there are very frequent buses to the Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam as well as several services to the eastern bus terminal (Dong Seoul).

There are two fares for express service to the Gangnam station: express (gosuk 12,800 won) and premium (18,700 won).

I had planned to buy the cheaper tickets, but when I bought the tickets, I forgot to tell the counter staff I wanted the "gosuk" tickets. I just got the next bus and it turned out to be the more expensive ones.

For the relatively short journey (2 hours and 40 minutes), it wasn't necessary to pay for the 6000 won extra.

Oh well.

Buffet at Seaon's Table on a rainy day

The weather had been very pleasant for the past few days, but it started to rain when we got into Seoul.

One good way to spend an afternoon on a cold raining day is to eat buffet! That was exactly what we did. We headed over to Season's Table in Insadong for buffet.

It was about 2pm when after we checked into our hotel. But we didn't have to rush as the lunch buffet runs up to 5pm. (After 5pm, it would be charged as dinner).

Since it was a weekday, the lunch buffet was really cheap! It was only 14,900 won per person!

For lunch, there were no cook-to-order options. But the buffet spread was big enough.

This is not a vegetarian restaurant but there are plenty of vegetarian dishes, on top of the salad bar and fruit bar.

There is a bibimbap corner where you can make your own bibimbap. There is also traditional Korean desserts. I was intrigued by the mugwort ice cream and tried it (and regretted).

We ate till 4pm. We were so full we skipped dinner that night and just had some street snacks.

Season's Table is a very value-for-money buffet in Seoul, especially if you go during weekday lunch. It is a great option for vegetarians travelling with meat-loving friends.

I found out later that there's a branch at the Seoul tower too. It is just slightly more expensive. That would also be a nice location to have a meal.

First round. The potatoes and the tofu was really good. Didn't like the chapjae.

DIY bibimbap!

Chilli and garlic to go with the food. The green chilli had not much heat

Mugwort ice cream. Yucks!

Saw a poster at Seoul Tower advertising their branch there. Note, it is located on the 4F of the tower plaza, not the tower itself. The buffet on the 4F of the tower is another restaurant.

Gyejeolbapsang (계절밥상) Bibigo Season’s Table (Korean Buffet)

Weekday lunch KRW 14,900 (11:00 to 17:00)

Dinner and weekend lunch KRW 22,900 (17:00 to 22:30)

Insadong branch (196-10, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul)

Basement 1 of Insadong Maru along the Insadong Street

Very busy on weekends and Friday evenings

Oh Se Gye Hyang

This is restaurant is practically a must-go for any vegetarians visiting Seoul. You get the real deal vegan Korean food and it's all very tasty.

This is a restaurant I will not miss whenever I'm in Seoul.

My non-vegetarian partner fell in love with the jjajang myeong. The Korean version of jjajang myeong (it is Chinese in origin and introduced to Korea by Chinese immigrants. There is a Jjajang Myeong Museum in Incheon's Chinatown if you are interested) is really a great comfort food.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how good the mandus were. I had never order mandus here before because I thought they were a little expensive (4 for 4000won making it S$1.25 per piece!). They turned out to be really good.

I try the deonjang jiggae for the first time here but didn't like it that much. It had too much deonjang (fermented soy paste). But the side dishes were all good as usual.

We had a great feast here

We order 2 jiggaes, a jjajang myeong and half order of mandu. The bill was about krw 30,000. It was a great meal. I like the side dishes that came with the meal.

.

I have not tried jjajang myeong anywhere else (difficult to find vegetarian ones) so I do not if there are better ones else where. It's a simple dish but makes a great comfort food

I tried biji jiggae for the first time. Sundubu (soft tofu) jiggae is better.

Their version of doenjang jiggae had too much doenjang (fermented soy paste). I prefer the clear and lighter version I had over the past few days that came with dolsot bibimbap.

I've seen complains about their service on Happy Cow. Don't let that deter you. The food is good. They are quite short handed. There's only 3 staff. So don't mind the service and just enjoy the food! And don't go any later than 8:30pm for dinner!

Oh Se Gye Hyang

14-5 Insa-dong 12-gil, Jongno-gu

(11:30am-3pm, 5pm-9:00pm)

http://www.go5.co.kr 

Jeoksubang (滴水坊)

Jeoksubang is a cafeteria run by the Taiwanese temple Fo Guang Shan Monastery (佛光山). It is located at the basement of its temple.

This is another of my favourite in Seoul. The food is predominantly Taiwanese home-cook food with some Korean dishes. Food is very tasty and wholesome.

It is also conveniently reached by subway line 3 (Dongguk University Entrance Station), just three stops from Jongno 3ga station. The temple in the alley on the left just a few steps away from the station exit 2.

The buses to Nansan had a stop nearby so we had an early dinner here before taking the bus to Seoul Tower.

The dinner format has changed since I was last here a few years ago. They no longer have a cook to order menu. Instead, dinner is a set Korean style meal of rice and several small dishes and a soup.

We were back for their buffet lunch on our last day before heading to the airport. The poster said buffet lunch would be served with rice, 5 dishes and a soup. But there were way more than 5 dishes. It was a wholesome & sumptuous lunch.

One of the staff was explaining that they run the restaurant to serve vegetarians rather than make money, and it would be a filling and balanced meal if you have rice and a bit of every dishes. If you take too much of any dish, it puts a strain on the restaurant. It sounded like a gentle hint not to eat too much of the dishes... So I was careful not to over-eat, though I did go back for a second round...

Food here is cheap and wholesome.

Jeoksubang
Seoul-si, Jung-gu, Jangchung-dong, 2-ga, 188-6, Fo Guang Monastery
Dongdae Entrance station
Mon to Sat only.
Lunch buffet - 11:30 - 2:30 pm KRW7000 per person
After 2:30pm, Korean Style set meal at KRW7000 per person.

The lunch buffet spread.

The set dinner for two.

Information about the set dinner at Jeoksubang

Lunch @ Tongin Market

I had an interesting lunch at Tongin Market. Read about this in the next blog entry.

Dookki @ Myeongdong

Dookki is a chain offering cheap tteokbokki hotpot buffet. It is not vegetarian. But it is quite vegetarian friendly.

There was a dookki outlet in Myeongdong right next to the Nanta theatre. We headed there for dinner after the Nanta show. (There are no vegetarian restaurants in Myeongdong area anyway.)

The staff asked us where we were from. We said we were from Singapore and she passed us a sheet of instructions in English that explains how the buffet works.

Basically we first select the sauces to be mixed into a pot of broth. Then we just get whatever ingredients we want and cook it in the spicy soup. After that, you have eaten most of it, you can fry rice in the same pot. If that's still not enough, you can cook another pot of instant noodles.

There are many different type of sauces. As my partner cannot take too much spice, we went for the least spicy sauces.

There is quite a variety of tteokbokki. I never quite like tteokbokki, as I find them too tough, but the sliced ones were ok. There was a variety of noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, mushroom, onions, some greens, and hard boiled eggs. There was also cooked fish cakes, some fried stuff like mandu and chicken as well as sweet potato.

We cooked two rounds before doing a fried rice with sweet corn, kimchi, and seaweed in the pot with the almost dried up spicy soup. I thought the fried rice was actually better than the steamboat/hotpot.

We only cooked non-meat stuff and egg in the pot. My friend ate his fish cake and mandus (dumplings) on the side as those were already cooked. But I found the soup base had a bit of fishy taste. I should have asked for plain water instead.

My first tteokbokki buffet. We just cook lots of veggies and noodles. Save some room for the fried rice!

What was incredible was that the whole buffet only cost 7,900 won per person! My partner could not believe it was that cheap.

Dookki opened an outlet in Singapore's Suntec City recently. The buffet costs S$18.80 per person in Singapore. We had it for half the price in Seoul!

If you are not a strict vegetarian or just go for meatless meal when travelling (方便素), this may be a good option, especially if you are travelling with non-vegetarian friends. And it is cheap too!

There are several outlets throughout Seoul. The one I went to is in Myeongdong. 

Dookki 

14 Myeongdong Rd, 6th floor of Noon Square Mall.

Other outlets I found on the internet:
Jongno Branch : 15 Jong-ro 12-gil 서울 종로구 종로12길 15
Hongdae branch : Hongik-ro 6, Gil 8, Joongbong Building, Mapo-gu, Seoul (Right) 04050 Lot

Ewha branch : Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Ewha Womans University Road 89 2nd floor (ooh) 03 766

It can be difficult getting vegetarian food in South Korea. But with a bit of planning, you can still enjoy your meal here! Hope this helps in your planning.