On the fifth day during my stay in Seoul, as bizzare as it might sound, my friends and I intended to try out Woo Lae Oak, where it was famous for its Jeon Tong Pyong Yang Naeng Myeon (傳統平壤式冷麵).

I must say, the location of the restaurant was the most difficult-to-locate place we've ever been. I already forgotten where exactly the restaurant was. We were lucky to be guided by a passer-by, who was immensely helpful to have shown us the way, in which we walked several twisted alleys before we finally reached the restaurant. If we didn't bump into that guy, I wouldn't think we could make it.
Upon our arrival, the restaurant looked very posh to us. Posh in the sense that it would be somewhere more suitable for businessmen to sit down for an expensive business meal, rather than a dinning place for us four students who were looking for some exotic, authentic food.
No big deal, we were just here to try out a bowl of Jeon Tong Pyong Yang Naeng Myeon (傳統平壤式冷麵) anyway.

Perhaps we did not look local, and much younger than anyone there, the waitresses did not pay much attention to us. We needed to serve ourselves with tea and kimchi, definitely not something I would expect from a business place like this.

When the Jeon Tong Pyong Yang Naeng Myeon (傳統平壤式冷麵) was served, the appearance topped the list. Very nicely presented. I wondered if the North Koreans, living in Pyong Yang, ate similar kind of cold noodles as us?
Soon, I had no doubt with my question. As much as the noodles were deliciously cooked, there was this extremly plain flavour along with the noodles. The ingredients were disappointing too, with only several cucumbers and cabbages alongside the noodles. If I did not have finished my bowl of noodles quickly, and stepped out of the restaurant still seeing a few South Korean mainstream cosmetic shops, I really would have thought myself being in North Korea instead.

Apart from the Pyong Yang's styled cold noodles, Woo Lae Oak served Korean styled BBQ beef too. With that being said, I had no intention to step in the restaurant anymore in the near future, given its extremly poor location and the once-is-enough kind of food.

As a Korean-pop fan, Kona Beans had always been in my "to-go list".
Owned by three Super Junior's members' mothers (Leetuk's, Sungmin's and Kyuhyun's), Kona Beans had been earning a lot of fame and popularity since its opening.
Before I visited Seoul, I read countless blog reviews regarding to how brilliant Kona Beans was, in terms of atmosphere, food and servicing. And! If you were lucky enough, one of the three SJ members might came around to the shop to help out as cashier. Too bad that none of them were here during my visit, oh well.

So, Kona Beans was located at Gangnam's Apgujeong station. The shop was not easy to locate, my Korean friend and I spent a while (without google map) circling the town until we finally came to this tiny alley where we spotted the word "KONA BEANS".
The sound of coffee brewing, the familiar sound of SJ's music and some giggles and chats made by a few tables of Korean teens were all things reminding me that I was in the right place.
With a high ceiling, Kona Beans designed to be somewhat a "Hawaiian themed" coffee shop. Right from using "Hawaiian Premium Coffee beans" (apparently) to having several pine trees located around the corners of the shop, Kona Beans definitely enhanced the summery feeling to the dinning experience.
Since this is opened by the mothers of SJ, it was not surprising for us to find the portraits of Leetuk, Sungmin and Kyuhyun around. Oh, and of course lots of fan-made gifts were shown on the shelves. A constantly looping SJ performance was shown in the television too!

Moving on to the food, I actually had little expectation as I thought the shop might put more emphasis on the "idol" instead of the quality of the food themselves.
But! Very surprisingly, I was proven wrong. The food was fantastic and perhaps the best quality of food I could ever ask from a coffee shop.
I ordered an Oreo Konaccinco (Summer special) and a Honey bread to share with my friend.
The Oreo Konaccinco was the best oreo drink I ever had and I could actually taste the bites of oreo in it. It was not too icey nor fancy, just the right type of drink. And, I didn't feel thirsty at all after drinking it.
As for the honey bread, the size was just right for sharing between two. Though the cream and honey spread on top of the bread made me worry whether it would be too sweet, but after a bites it proved that the sweetness was again, just right. Something addictive about the bread that I could not stop eating until I was done.

We visited Kona Beans on a Sunday which I thought there would be a lot of people around, but it turned out to be okay.
Perhaps the popularity of Kona Beans died down slightly after its opening last year within the locals, yet I could still see a lot of foreigners coming in to the coffee shop, and we all shared something in common: that we came for Super Junior (well and the food from now on)!

Having talked to a few local Ewha students back on our arrival day, they recommended a lunch place which was rather popular among the students. In fact, the restaurant was located just opposite to the entrance of Ewha University, and the name was BaB.
BaB was not easy to spot at first sight since there was only one banner showing out by the road. The restaurant was located underground instead, which I discovered this being a common practice for lots of restaurants in Seoul. A way to save space? Or a way to create space? Surely that would be way better than building up endless skyscrapers to trap all the heat in town.

BaB definitely welcomed me as though I had been living there for long, instead as of a guest. The setting was very homey and private which would be the best place for girls to settle down for some hours of chit-chat.
Looking at the menu, it was an affordable one for students. With not much choices to choose from, I picked the Dolsot bibimbap.
Not that this dolsot bibimbap was one of the best I had in Seoul, but it was alright for a lunch meal. Yet, there had been an excessive amount of water into cooking the rice, which made the rice in the bimbimbap over-moisturized. There were no "burnt bits" in the pot, and for some people, that would be considered as the essence of bimbimbap. The overall portion was a bit too small as well. Perhaps this was considered as the right amount of food for lunch for ladies.. in Seoul.
With the criticisms being said, I appreciated their wide range of side dishes, most of which I had not seen before in Seoul and they tasted authentically good!

I guess for a homey restaurant like BaB, it certainly was a nice choice for any students to drop by for a nice, relaxing lunch.

Smoothie King is definitely one of the most remarkable places in Seoul.
Being famous for its freshly made fruit juice, the wide range of fruits available for any sorts of mixing and combination was more than healthy and refreshing for one.
I specially recommend "Very banana in berry" - strong taste of banana blended in with fresh berries.
One word to conclude my experience - excellente!

Due to my limited knowledge in coffee, I had always thought that NESCAFE was merely a brand which could be find in the grocery shelves in any supermarkets. Not until my friends and I stepped into a randomly chosen coffee shop in Myeong-dong, that I realized NESCAFE had its own cafe branch, and to put it on a more surprising term, it was a flagship store. Oh my gosh.

NESCAFE was one of those top-listed names in the coffee list, but it was also one of those that I never came across to know how to appreciate their coffee beans. Situated in one of the narrow alleys in Myeong-dong, Cafe NESCAFE was surprisngly huge, with four floors in total. Seats were scatterly spread in order to provide maximum spaciousness and comfortness to customers seeking for a warm cup of coffee, and a good novel for the afternoon.
Despite its hugeness, I was particularly impressed with the quietness. Even though most of the seats were taken, you could hardly spot any noise that would disrupt your afternoon coffee. The silence turned the cafe into such a peaceful area that one of my friends were able to fall asleep within minutes, oh and of course, the comfy and large sofa we chose was the main reason too.

Moving on to the food, it was a pity that my throat did not feel well after I stayed up in the previous night for my academic project. It was very torturing to witness my friends spooning the gigantic strawberry ice in extreme satisfaction. I ordered an Onion bagel with cream cheese, along with a cup of White Chocolate Mocha. The onion bagel was nice especially topped with cream cheese, however it wasn't warm enough that soon it cooled down all too quickly. The White Chocolate Mocha was heaven. I could imagine myself, sitting in the cafe alone, sipping this cup for the whole afternoon. Yet, everything came with a cost - that my throat worsened after this cup of mocha (and it was white chocolate, even worse).

If you were looking for fancy desserts or coffee, Cafe NESCAFE might disappoint you. But if you were looking for somwhere spacious or quiet to spend your afternoon, then this is certainly the place.

Anyone who visited Seoul could probably recall "Dunkin Donuts", as it was located nearly everywhere within Seoul. At times I was very curious towards this name, but I never had the chance to try it out, until my friend suggested it on the third last day of our trip.

Everything in Dunkin Donuts seemed too artifical to me. From the design of the food, to the use of colours and ingredients, were very much playful to me. I did not have a good feeling about the food here and I only observed my friend purchasing a banana shaped donut. We broke it into half, and gave it a try at the same time. With nearly the same reaction, we both gave a puked-face.
The donut was extremly, extremly sweet. Too sweet that it nearly tasted fake. And it was petite, well, I guess that was a good thing as we managed to finsh it off in a bite. With that being said, I just missed Mister Donut even more...

If you have been to South Korea, I am certain that most people (especially the older generation) would ask whether you have had some ginseng chicken.
Of course, ginseng chicken is one of the most famous dishes in South Korea, for its healthiness and poshness. But I never liked ginseng chicken. Or put it in a nicer way, I never learnt to appreciate the dish.

However, letting people know that you've been to Seoul for two weeks but never had a bowl of ginseng chicken would be somewhat.. disappointing. Eventually, my friends and I decided to devote our precious dinnertime to try out some ginseng chicken, before we regretted.

Having read our travelling guide, we noticed that this restaurant had a long history of serving high-quality ginseng chicken in Myeong-dong. At one point we were worried that our meal would cost us a lot, luckily it wasn't.
There were not much to choose from in the menu, but since we were already pretty much clear of what we wanted to eat, it didn't take us long til we order.

There were four of us in total, so every two of us shared a pot of ginseng chicken. My friend and I ordered Wild Sesame Ginseng Chicken Soup and Rice. I have always sesame so I thought this dish would certainly be very healthy. When the pot arrived, it was no different to the ginseng chicken I had back when I was young in Seoul. As usual, the rice was stuffed into the chicken in advance before cooking in the soup base. Since ginseng chicken usually took a long time to cook, the chicken was thoroughly boiled and tasted very soft and delicate. As for the sesame soup paste, it was so so thick that I was not particularly keen on drinking it, somehow.
We ordered an extra baby chicken to share, and it tasted nice too, though it was pretty similar to the baby chicken we had back in Hong Kong.

After the dinner, I still disliked ginseng chicken. Probably because I found ginseng too bitter itself (though it was a very healthy ingredient), and the chicken was just like any other chicken in the market. I perhaps need to study more about ginseng chicken.

If you love to watch drama as much as I do, you must know some of the most famous names in the past 10 years. One of the names that must have rang a bell would be "Meteor Garden" (Taiwanese version), aka "Hana Yori Dango" (Japanese version), aka "Boys over flowers" (Korean version). The Taiwanese version aired when I was in junior high, and it was a big hit back then. Eventually, Japan and South Korea aired their own version. Frankly, I much prefer the latter two, the Japanese one especially.
For any dramas, the places that has been visited by the filming crew for shooting scenes usually become very popular after the drama is aired. And this includes Bonjuk.
In "Boys over flowers", the leading actress worked part-time in a porridge shop, besides studying in the university, to earn money for supporting her family. Throughout the drama, the porridge shop appeared quite often, but not that it was so special that a foreigner like me would recognize the speciality of such shop. Until! My Korean friend complimented the porridge she tried in the shop, that I had been so keen to have a try while I was in Hong Kong.

Thank to this faculty summer trip, I am finally in Seoul, and my Korean friend could finally bring me to Bonjuk, the place where "Boys over flowers" was shot.
It was a Saturday morning and I was slightly worried if the place would be crowded with early birds like us. Walking out from the underground station, we spotted the shop effortlessly as a huge banner of the drama "Boys over flowers" was hanged by the name of the store, making it all so easy for anyone to notice. It was at that point that I finally felt my heart beated so quickly, I was so excited. Like really.
Inside Bonjuk, it was smaller than I imagined it to be, but very cosy and quiet. With only around 20 tables, there were cushion chairs around to keep the customers happy and comfortable, while glancing every bits of the detail in the shop. When we were seated, we couldn't wait but to examine the shop carefully, as there were pictures, signatures and words around the wall in relevant to the drama shooting. All I could say is, Bonjuk has decorated the shop really well, that anyone who watched the drama would love this place. I wished I was here during the shooting!

After all the silent-screamings and excitements, we had our eyes fixed on the menu, ready for some yummy breakfast. As funny as this might sound, but I am actually very granny-like. Those who know me well would know that I love to eat food that an old-aged woman would usually eat (well, kind of). Porridge is certainly one of the things that I love eating, anytime of the day. Therefore, the menu gave me an extremly difficult time for picking the one and only porridge. At the end, I picked the Beef seaweed porridge and my Korean friend picked the Crab meat cheese porridge.
While we were chatting about the good old times when we watched "Boys over flowers" together, the porridge arrived! Oh my gosh. The presentation topped the list immediately. Not only did they provide porridge, there were also side dishes provided, along with a cup of sweet tea as dessert. This was the most perfect porridge serving I could imagine to have.
The Beef seaweed porridge was unexpectedly delicious. The beef did not taste overly strong in the porridge, as seaweed and sesame were as strong as the beef was that everything balanced so perfectly! As for my friend's Crab meat cheese porridge, it was a refreshing combination with melted cheese and crab meat together in a porridge. Both bowls of porridge were particularly impressive because they were served immediately after cooked, the warmth and refreshness were delivered to our tummies directly.

One thing about the porridge was, it was very very big. I could still remember that, upon I finished my bowl of porridge, I burped, for a few times. Perhaps it was a better idea to share between two, or come with an empty stomach!
Bonjuk serves Korean style porridge which is something that we could hardly find in Hong Kong. I'm missing Bonjuk already!

During the summer time, Seoul rains everyday. And I mean it. It rained much more than Hong Kong did that bringing an umbrella when you wre out was a must. But, instead of bringing an umbrella around, most of the Koreans tended to go for a shelter instead. And coffee shop was a popular place for shelter.
That afternoon, as my friend and I happily shopped around in Sincheon area, there it was, rainning cats and dogs. We ran into the nearest coffee shop - Coffee gam. Having no idea what this shop was, we were led by our 6th sense.

Coffee gam was quite small but very suitable for an afternoon chat, or a place for work individually in a rainy afternoon. Unlike other coffee shops, Coffee gam had a sense of western feeling. From decorations to the fashion style of the owner, it was quite American alike.
Perhaps due to the changable weather in Seoul along with my sleepless nights in working for my academic project for the past few days, my throat was not well. Thanks to my dear friend, she ordered a pomelo tea for me which was apparently famous in South Korea for its healing effect for throat. My friend was right: sweet and warm were perhaps the only words to describe the magical effects of that cup of pamelo tea.

While we were chatting, and watching the raindrops, my pamelo tea cooled down rapidly. It was a pity because I only had a few sips. Oh well, I guessed it was time for us to leave - more shopping!

[This is the final restaurant review for my stay at Seoul - thanks for reading til the last! See you in my next travelling journal!]