While navigating our busy schedule in Korea last month, my wife Jun and I ate every well. One day, my mother took us to the touristy Insa-dong known for shops selling traditional Korean goods. While we both knew the area going up in Seoul, we didn’t know there was another neighborhood next door that became a trendy place for tourists to visit. Ikseon-dong was a revelation, with cute alleys full of Hanok-building shops and restaurants everywhere. After navigating the alleys for a bit in the morning, my mother took us for lunch to a modest looking restaurant called Ikseon Banju. It turned out that our visit to the restaurant was one of the best surprises we had encountered during our Korea trip.

The Korean word banju means alcohol that you drink while eating food. Korea’s culinary culture has inescapably evolved around pairing alcohol beverages with food, and Ikseon Banju represents an ambitious project to give a modern spin to that culture. Not surprisingly, the drink list at the restaurant is full of traditional Korean alcohol beverages from cheongju (literally meaning “clear wine” made with rice) to the more familiar ones like soju and makgeolli. While sharing a bottle of makgeolli to start, Jun and I browsed the menu and couldn’t initially decide what to select because everything looked so delicious. Jun wanted to start our meal with some beef tartare and boy was this one of the best dishes we would end up having in Seoul! With a light touch of charcoal fire, the texture of the beef tartare was just exceptional, especially with gim bugak (think fried seaweed) that further enhanced it.

Another dish that Jun was very intrigued with was gnocchi with perilla leaf cream. Throughout our culinary journey together, gnocchi had not been the first dish we would often go for because we were afraid that the creamy flavor of the night might be too overwhelming. Here, though, Ikseon Banju’s use of perilla leaf as a base for the cream was brilliant as it gave pleasantly clean and savory flavor that was not heavy at all; add some delicious pieces of bacon to go along with gnocchi and it became another winner at the table. The last dish we tried was also quite ingenious too, using bulgogi as the main ingredient on top of potatoes jeon pancake, accompanied by mimolette cheese on top and sour cream beneath it. Another awesome choice to share with your dining companions and complement with a delicious glass of makgeolli.

When we went in during lunchtime on a Wednesday, the restaurant was nearly empty. I have no idea what the dinnertime would look like, but would be very shocked if it isn’t packed with both locals and tourists looking to get a taste of fun and well-executed modern Korean dishes to go along with traditional drinks. The cozy and inviting space inside the Hanok house makes the restaurant a great place for casual dining and drinking. The only regret that we had at Ikseon Banju was that our group was only three and my mother was feeling under the weather so she didn’t have much appetite to enjoy the food with us, which means we ended up with only three dishes. If we had come with a larger group of foodie friends, we would’ve gladly tried almost everything on the menu. Ikseon Banju is a great example of the evolution of modern Korean cuisine in Seoul, a direction that doesn’t follow the same path as other fine-dining trailblazers like Eatanic Garden that I had reviewed earlier, but one that still focuses on paying homage to the rich culinary tradition of Korea in a way that appeals to contemporary taste and demand. I highly recommend anyone visiting or living in Seoul to check out this gem.

KenScale: 8.25/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.25/10)

Address: 31 Donhwamun-ro 11da-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

Website: None (Instagram account banjoo__iksun)

Reservation via Phone (+82 2-529-3979) or Instagram DM