Gaeseong Traditional Dumpling House — Restaurant in Seoul

I brought foreign guests to this restaurant as their tour guide. We ordered assorted Korean pancakes, but they didn’t arrive for a long time. When I asked about it, the staff said the order hadn’t gone through and that it would take another 10 minutes. I agreed to wait, and we eventually received the food and started eating. Then, unexpectedly, another set of pancakes was brought to us as take-out. I said we hadn’t ordered any take-out, but the staff insisted, saying, “You ordered it. You said OK when I mentioned the extra 10 minutes,” and continued to argue.

There was no additional order, and their insistence was inappropriate. What made the situation worse was that this happened in front of my guests. Instead of handling it professionally, the staff raised their voice and repeatedly insisted I had placed a second order. To be clear, both the staff and I are Korean, so there was no language barrier or room for miscommunication. The issue wasn’t a misunderstanding—it was a failure in customer service and attitude.

At the time of payment, the staff also asked me which company I was from and requested my name. Even though it wasn’t during the argument, the timing still felt inappropriate and uncomfortable, especially considering the earlier interaction.

The food itself was average and did not justify the high price. Given the location in central Insadong and the restaurant’s Michelin listing, I expected much better. Unfortunately, the service and overall experience fell far short. I do not...

Service was average likely due to language barrier but also manner of waitress. We didn’t feel like too much meat so wanted to order the mushroom dumpling and kimchi dumplings mixed platter or even just purely one of them. Told we could only order a mixed platter with 2 meat, 2 mushrooms and 2 kimchi. Depsite menu stating that we can get 6 of a kind too. So we asked if we can do just 6 mushrooms (since we tried kimchi in so many places before) and she again said no, only 2 of each. We were on verge of standing up to leave when she came back to say ok for 6 kimchi. So we relented and stayed. Ordered 1 serving of 6 steamed kimchi mandus and a set of 3 meat (again refused to let us change to any other flavour) and seafood pancake.

Mandus were not as good as expected. The kimchi ones were decent, but not michelin worthy. (They were awarded several years) The pork one got us thinking if there was pork (which is good for us) but then tasted a bit too dry. Pancakes were decent.

Overall food was ok. Not michelin level (we saw long Q for lunch). Maybe the soup version will be better. (We didn’t have that cos we don’t take beef and soup...

AVOID! Don’t be fooled by the michelin recommendations! I was excited to try this place, but how disappointed I was. The waitresses were without exaggeration, the rudest we have met on our travels to Seoul (except one adorable lady with glasses). Immediately after sitting down, we were met by a rude waitress who pushed us to order straight away, and rolled her eyes at us when we asked for a bit more time. Then 30 seconds later, another waitress came and did exactly the same thing. Then the food came, and all the side dishes managed to be a combination of bland and overly sour. Not liking A SINGLE side dish is also a first for us. The dumplings weren’t impressive at all, and had no flavour. On top of this the condensation from the air conditioning was dripping down on our dishes. And moving was not an option.

Overall a horrible experience, that you get to experience for double the price of other places. Clearly the michelin recommendations must have gotten to their heads. And reading other reviews, this seems to be a pattern. It truly makes you wonder how they manage to keep...