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The first place that the food lover and actor visited was “Tobag-I,” a restaurant specializing in Seoul food located behind the National Library of Korea. The restaurant takes pride in its dishes, offering a wide range of foods, from provincial food of the eight provinces of Korea to North Korean dishes, and has served meals to Seoulites for thirty years. At the restaurant, the two men ordered spicy tofu stew and kimchi mackerel pike hot pot, a personal favorite of Jung Kyung-ho. The aged kimchi that goes into the kimchi mackerel pike hot pot is personally made by the restaurant’s owner in a Seoul style. The hot pot contains a generous portion of canned mackerel pike, rice cakes, tofu, and more. The Seoul-style spicy tofu stew is cooked with a broth that is simple and clean. Like the white and clean image of Seoul food, the radish preserved with salt, pickled cucumbers, and other side dishes also offer clean tastes. The owner also runs the Tobag-I annex building next door, which specializes in shabu-shabu with Korean beef and pork.

Mom Korean Bistro is an exotic Korean restaurant located in the quiet alleyway of Seorae Village. The interior decoration, atmosphere, and name seem to indicate fusion food, but the restaurant serves pure Korean food with the heart of a mother who prepares dishes for guests as well as honest, simple Korean dishes. Huh Young-man and Jung Kyung-ho feasted on the perilla seed sujebi (hand-pulled dough soup), rice with soybean sprouts, and a lunch special with a mini grilled bulgogi. The tofu and kimchi steak with lightly grilled tofu, crispy meat, and stir-fried kimchi with a side of perilla leaves is also a popular menu item. The menu changes seasonally as only ingredients that are in season are used year-round. Chemical seasonings are not used at the restaurant, keeping the flavors of the food simple and mild enough for foreign customers to enjoy. Reservations may be more favorable for a pleasant meal as the restaurant has very few tables.

Jang Su Restaurant specializes in freshwater fish with the friendliness of the countryside that differs slightly from the modern and exotic atmosphere of Seorae Village. The main menu item of this restaurant run by a couple who has been cooking for more than thirty years is the freshwater spicy minnow stew. This is the very dish that won over the heart of Huh Young-man. Large amounts of minnows and freshwater shrimp are cooked to richness with a special marinade with a secret recipe, various vegetables, and perilla seeds. Any alcohol-lover would long for a glass of soju with this dish. The freshwater catfish soup and loach soup are also popular among customers. The crispy deep-fried loach made with fresh loaches is the restaurant’s delicacy. It takes about thirty minutes for the freshwater spicy minnow stew and other stew dishes to be served, and customers can minimize their waiting time by making reservations in advance.

Across the street of Law Town in Seocho-dong is a restaurant that specializes in Pyeongyang-style North Korean food. The owner’s family, who ran a buckwheat noodle restaurant in Pyeongyang starting in 1977, came to Seoul and opened this restaurant. Thanks to this, the restaurant’s main dish, the goryeo naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles), contains know-how passed down for forty years and through three generations of the family who cooks and manages the restaurant themselves. The broth is earnestly made with five ingredients—beef, pork, chicken, beef bone soup, and pork soup—and the taste is simple but clean. Another popular dish at the restaurant is the soup with rice, or beef stew over rice, with a broth that is made with chicken for a savory and sweet flavor. The dish is uniquely garnished with a small piece of mung bean pancake. The name, “Sulnoon,” refers to the auspicious first snow that falls on Lunar New Year’s Day.