Korean Themed Restaurants and Cafes – Part One

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Get ready to get salivating because these next series of posts are all about the unique food experiences on our Korean Trip.

Whilst the entire trip was filled with amazingly grand and ultra delightful banquets of delicious foods…

You jelly????

….there are just wayyyyy too many photos and experiences for us to show all of them in one blog post.  So I’m going to focus on those places that went that extra step further…to the level of themed restaurants and cafes!!

We would be lying if we said that everyday of our Korea trip we were all outgoing and did adventurous Korean things, completely immersing ourselves into the culture.  Bu alas, some days we reserved entirely for eating.  Yes eating.  Whilst inside Siree lies a little piggy that enjoys her food….inside Talyssa the mammoth of all little piggy’s lays dormant, only to be epic-ly released during meal times.  In fact I actually LOST weight in Korea because Siree couldn’t handle eating 3 meals a day + snacks.  Level up Siree, level up!

Onto the restaurants~

Whilst we saw many themed restaurants in Korea, there are just so many places that look amazing to eat at, that we really only visited one themed restaurant (cafes are another story…).

We were guided by some Korean friends to a restaurant named Flying Chicken – a military themed restaurant in Hongdae.  When Koreans do a theme, they go all out.  The chairs, to the tables, to the utensils/drinking glasses, to the entire interior design was military themed.  We even got served these crackers/biscuits, which our Korean friends kindly let us know that they were a typical snack they ate whilst doing their compulsory military service.

We went to Flying chicken at night – I don’t think it’s open during the day. It is located above the Bar “Vinyl” which is popular for its robot shop front and for serving alcoholic beverages in zip-lock bags!!
The interior decor! It really does have a military vibe!
Even the lighting has a military vibe!
Here you can see the beer served in the military container. Our Korean friends told us they drank from these shaped containers whilst doing military service. You can also see the ‘military biscuits’ we were served.
Spicy chicken!! Sooo yummy!
Can I just say, that I am so thankful we came here with Korean friends. Amongst our side dishes was some rice wrapped in seaweed and a boiled egg – If we had come here by ourselves Siree and I would have had no idea what to do with it or that we were suppose to mix it in with our chicken! haha

Food Specialty:

Spicy chicken dishes.

Directions:

Follow the blue line on the map.

Original map from Visit Korea

The map makes the restaurant look really far away, but its not actually that far.  From exit 9 of Hongik Station, continue walking straight on the road you are on (Yanghwa – ro) and turn left into Hongik – ro.  Follow the road all the way up until you get to the front gates of Hongik University.  Facing the front gates of Hongik University, turn right and walk down Wausan – ro.  Flying Chicken is located next to a 7-11 and above the popular bar “Vinyl.”

Address:

411-1, Seokyo-dong, Mapo-gu.

 Side Note – Korean Bars

This isn’t technically a themed restaurant, but I thought it was an interesting cultural aspect to include…especially since I thought these places were just another type of restaurant…turns out they are actually Korean style bars!  Unlike bars in Sydney, which are more of a social event amongst randoms, a Korean bar is completely friendship group orientated, with the seating being confined to separated booth spaces.  Why I decided to include this here, is because the bar we went to was decorated all cool – like!

So cool!
One thing I love about Korean drinking culture is that when you buy a drink, boy do you get value for money!! Not only is the drink significantly huge (check out the beer above!) but you can actually taste the alcohol inside, for example, mixed alcoholic beverages like Vodka lemonades!! Alcohol in Korea is affordable and non stingy, which seems to be the opposite of Sydney – over priced with zero alcohol! The picture on the right shows the anju we ordered. When drinking at Korean bars, it is customary to order some food snacks with your drinks. You must always do this!!

Location:

This particular bar was located near where we were staying in Gaebong.  Korean bars however are practically everywhere in Korea and easy to find.

This concludes the end of Part One.  Part two here!!!

Comments (2)

The metal cup in the military-themed cafe is a U.S.-issue “canteen cup”; it comes as a set with the canteen. What’s interesting to me is that this is the OLD style with the metal strap handle that hasn’t been used in the U.S. since the 1950’s. Sounds like the ROK Army still makes and issues the old style.

Haha thanks! It’s good to be able to put some kind of name/knowledge behind the “canteen cup.” Throughout the whole post I did not know what to call it – Military..err…cup..military…err..container..?! The friends who took us had been out of the military for some time now, so not sure if Korean army still use them, but part of me thinks our friends told us they used it for dramatic effect so we were all excited thinking ‘Woah! This restaurant is awesome! I get to drink out of an authentic military canteen!‘ haha who knows!

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