Seoul Gourmet 100 guide arrives ahead of Gourmet Week
A 60-expert panel picked 100 restaurants, cafes and bars across seven categories, with 25 newcomers, as the city courts food tourists before Gourmet Week opens on 23 October.
Seoul's city government has published the 2026 Seoul Gourmet 100 list, naming 100 restaurants, cafes and bars across seven categories as the capital builds its case as a food-tourism destination ahead of Seoul Gourmet Week.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government released the list on 6 October, the latest edition of a guide it has issued annually since 2020. A panel of 60 Korean food experts — food journalists, culinary travel writers, academic researchers, chefs and tourism specialists — nominated and ranked candidates in each category, with the final selection weighed against global appeal, culinary expertise and public buzz.
Seoul Gourmet 100 by the numbers
A panel of 60 experts, 100 addresses, seven categories: Seoul is turning its restaurant scene into a packaged pitch to visitors.
Korean cuisine takes the largest share of the list, with 27 listings, followed by 23 Western restaurants, 15 Asian kitchens, 10 grill houses, 9 cafes and dessert spots, 8 vegetarian restaurants and 8 bars and pubs. Twenty-five of the 100 entries are new this year.
Fine dining anchors the list. Mingles, the Gangnam restaurant that holds Korea's only three-Michelin-star rating, and La Yeon, the hanok-style restaurant in Jung District, both return. Wooraeok, known for its Pyongyang-style cold noodles in Eulji-ro, represents the older guard; Nudake in Dosan Park and Onion in Seongsu-dong carry the newer cafe culture into the list.
Among the 25 newcomers are the hansik restaurants Ribukbang, Myeon Seoul and Sancho, grill house Mongtan, and Asian-kitchen entries Gagen and Hakushi. The city has also launched a companion list this year, the Seoul Cafe & Dessert 50, judged on drinks, desserts, space and accessibility for foreign visitors.
Cho Seong-ho, director general of the city's Tourism and Sports Bureau, said the list is meant to let residents and visitors “experience the diversity and originality of Seoul's food scene.” The city plans to turn the selected restaurants, cafes, markets and neighbourhoods into tourism content.
Food as Seoul's tourism pitch
The timing is deliberate. Seoul Gourmet Week runs from 23 to 29 October, with its main venue moving this year to Dongdaemun Design Plaza after 2025's events were split across Nodeul Island and downtown locations. The week folds in a restaurant week, a gourmet market, food tours and workshops built around the newly published list.
For visitors planning around the list, AMUSE's own guide to what to eat in Seoul covers ten dishes the Gourmet 100 rewards, including the braised short ribs behind the galbi-jjim recipe Koreans cook for Chuseok.
Seoul has published some version of this guide every year since 2020, but this is the first edition paired with a standalone dessert list — a sign the city wants food tourists staying for coffee, not just barbecue.
