Jingogae — Restaurant in Seoul

I really wish I could give 0 stars because no one should have to go through the clear racism we experienced at this joke of a restaurant.

We sat down 2 hours before close and were provided menus and tea hesitantly. The old lady who gave us the menu floated around very closely to our table and asked us in Korean to order, all of this happening within 20 seconds of her providing us the menu. We were confused as we don’t speak Korean and she rolled her eyes and started pointed aggressively at the menu, yelling “hurry, hurry” and pointed at her wrist as if to show a watch - a whole 2 hours before close.

We left because we were so turned off by the horrible “service” and she didn’t even offer an apology and snatched the menu from our table and stormed off. This experience made us feel very unsafe and we thought it be in everyone’s best interest who considers to dine here...

I was taken to Jingogae by a Korean local, and it was a solid, hearty and authentic dinner. The restaurant specializes in eobok jaengban, which is a hot pot of boiled sliced meat, fresh vegetables, mandu, eggs and more. The taste is light and you dip it into a slightly vinegary sauce when eating.

Jingogae has been around since 1963. It’s closer to Chungmuro station but is easily walkable from Euljiro 3-ga station. It has a very authentic vibe with basically no tourists and little to no English, at least when I was there.

Good food and worth a try if you’re in the area and looking to eat at a place that...

Ok I will confess the cold cucumber dish is excellent, but I must concur with the previous review the blatant level of hostility to non Koreans ( even if speaking in Korean is WAY out of pocket. I certainly do not mind a bit of “HANH/ k temper” peppered into my transactions but what this place is pushing is straight up HOSTILITY to the point of being surreal. If there was a rating that could be characterized as • we hate whitey this place would be...