Daedo Sikdang — Restaurant in Seoul

We nearly didn’t make it here as, the night before, we had asked the local speaker at hotel reception to book and the restaurant came back to say it was full. At the same time, the restaurant retorted by saying come for lunch anyway, and that they were confident we could get a table.

So the next day we braved it and went early, at around 11:30am, and to our surprise, we got a table easily. In fact it wasn’t full at all. And boy, we’re so glad we did brave it because it was so, so worth it.

Now, you’d only come here for one thing - Korean Hanwoo beef. In a country that loves beef, this was the best local beef money could buy and we just had to try it. This restaurant does it so well - mainly because there’s only 5 items on the menu, with 3 of them being Hanwoo beef.

For the 4 out us we ordered 2 portions of the 170g Sirloin and 1 portion of the 120g ribeye slices. It was more than enough. As usual for any Korean batbeque there were the side dishes that came with the beef - the kimchi and vegetables. They also served a plate of seasoned spicy green onion (called Pajeori…?) which became a bed for you to lay the beef off the grill. You’d wrap these around each beef cube and pop it in your mouth.

The meal itself was simple, beef grilled to your own liking over a hot plate. We had the privilege of having a friendly waitress who dotted over us, teaching us how to grill and explaining the different dips and sauces. She was such a star. She was attentive and generous. One pro tip: after taking the meat you’ve prepared off the grill, let it rest a bit. Don’t pop it in your mouth immediately. Wait a bit. It tastes much better. Trust me.

Once we had finished all our beef, the waitress asked if we wanted their speciality - kkakdugi fried rice. I had read reviews saying this was nice so we agreed, even though we were all full already. It’s basically kimchi fried rice cooked to a light burn and crust off the same plate you had grilled your beef earlier. The waitress serving you would do all the work and boy, it was delicious. Even with a full tummy we still finished off 2 portions of the kkakdugi fried rice.

The food, the service, the atmosphere all added up to a wonderful experience. As much as it wasn’t cheap, it’s really good value for your money. You could see that because of the singular focus on the meat, they’re managed to prefect their craft. It’s no wonder they’re been around since 1964 and going strong.

P.S. I don’t think it’s that hard to find the place. We took the subway here, it’s a straight walk for about 350m from exit 2 of Sangwangsimni station and then a right turn. Oh, and dessert is at the ice cream parlour...

I've been here since 1988 when I was a little girl before it got this current fame, a way before it got this much famous. My dad first took our family there when I was a little girl around 1988. Since then, I've been visiting here pretty much often and even after I left Korea, everytime I visit Korea, this has been a must visit route while I am staying in Korea, mostly up to 4 times for 2 weeks. Since I currently live in New York for 12 years. I GO THERE ALMOST 15 TIMES A YEAR even though I live in the US. As soon as I arrive in Seoul, this has been my first restaurant that I always visit 'first' whenever I go to Korea. The meat is good as always. For the meat quality only, I'd love to give them 5 stars solely. But the price has been high rocketing. They keep raising the price. I don't know why. It was ₩38,500(appx. $34) per person last year and now ₩44,000(appx. $39). I think it's way too much. I don't believe it's that necessary. I feel like, they now get so much popular thanks to the social media, they are trying to take a full advantage of that raising the price again and again. Cuz no matter what, they know people would visit there anyways. Way too much. I went there with my parents, and had 3 and two fried rice and paid ₩134,000(appx. $115) for just simple dinner. I don't know why they should raise the price when they make tons of money...

The beef was undoubtedly fresh and nice. However, there was no instructions on how the beef was ordered, from the menu there was 100g and 170g of sirloin. The server insisted that I have to order 2 portions of the same type of beef (sirloin only) , I asked if 170g means 2 portion. He did not reply and we just ordered “2 portion” = 170g X 2. The 120g ribeye was frozen meat as kindly mentioned by the staff.

The ordering system is really rigid. I wanted to add fried rice and dwaenjang soup but they said I could only add it after we finished the meat. I totally understood why fried rice had to be placed later and assume that the soup was going to be served in a bowl like other restaurants.

After the meal, we wanted both the soup and fried rice and was told we could order only 1 as there is only 1 metal grill for the fried rice and soup. There was a lot of bad communications for all the food making the whole experience horrible. I would not patronise this place as there is many good Hanwoo restaurants in korea serving better cuts and is...