A Bowl of Seolleongtang at the End of a Myeong-dong Alley

The main streets of Myeong-dong are usually the ones I remember: cosmetics shops, tourists and street food in a continuous line. Walk one block in and the neighborhood changes. There are fewer signs, the alleys are narrower and people seem to go about their lives a little more slowly.

Miseongok is inside that part of Myeong-dong. It is almost at the end of the dining alley. I stopped for a moment to wonder whether I had the right address. Not being able to see it from the main road made it feel all the more like part of an older neighborhood.

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What an Old Building Brings to the Meal

The front of the shop has the marks of actual use. The wall, sign and door have all acquired their texture by being there for years.

The room is simple, with little decoration. People come in, eat and leave, and the tables keep turning. There is a calm to that steady routine.

The room felt relaxed even in the middle of Myeong-dong. People eating alone, workers from nearby and people who looked like regulars came and went naturally. The restaurant exists to serve a meal. That explains the place better than any label about where to eat.

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Dinner After Work

I stopped with a colleague after work rather than coming from a show or making an evening of it. We wanted to eat nearby before heading home, so we both settled on seolleongtang, a milky beef-bone soup.

A regular bowl cost ₩13,000, and the large one was ₩15,000. The regular was enough for me. I could imagine choosing the large if I wanted more meat.

The soup came fairly quickly. There was no long interruption between ordering and eating, a pace that worked well at the end of a workday.

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Hanwoo Beef and a Long-Simmered Broth

The broth was cloudy and surprisingly light. It had the depth of long-simmered bone soup without leaving much fat on the palate. The first spoonful was gentle and the flavor became more familiar as I ate.

The beef was more tender than I expected. It came apart easily and went well with the broth. The restaurant says it uses hanwoo, Korean cattle, and the meat made a good case for it.

The soup starts out mild. Add salt and scallions to your own taste, then spoon in some rice if you want. It becomes a substantial meal in the bowl.

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A Quiet End to Dinner

Seolleongtang does not demand a dramatic ending. There was no need to finish with dessert. The meal came to a close on its own.

We went back into the bright street and immediately felt the change from the alley. The time in the restaurant seemed to have been set aside from the rest of the evening.

It worked for an uncomplicated dinner near the office. If I were in the neighborhood regularly, I would be more likely to stop again than to make a special trip.

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An Everyday Restaurant in a Tourist District

Myeong-dong keeps people shopping, eating and moving. It can be hard to find somewhere that feels settled within all that movement.

Miseongok sits a little to the side of it. Visitors come too, but the room’s purpose is simply to feed people. Its address is in a sightseeing district. Its role is that of a neighborhood dining room.

That is what I remember. It felt like an ordinary evening in Seoul. The lasting impression was the warmth of a bowl rather than the brightness of the signs.